Kernel symbol file alternate location

[Oliver Fromme]

Daniel O'Connor wrote:
 > On 06/08/2010, at 16:59, Oliver Fromme wrote:
 > > > Yeah, I don't think it's hard to move them, however I'm worried what
 > > > it will break :)
 > > > 
 > > > The only thing I can see that would have to change would be kgdb so
 > > > it tells gdb where to find the symbols.
 > > 
 > > That's why I suggested to place symlinks in the kernel
 > > directory.  No change to kgdb necessary.
 > 
 > Ahh of course.
 > 
 > Although that does make it harder because you have to modify all the
 > links when the old kernel is moved out of the way.

Right.  Maybe make a symlink to a directory, so only that
symlink has to be changed:

/boot/kernel/symbols -> /var/db/symbols/kernel
/boot/kernel/kernel.symbols -> symbols/kernel.symbols
/boot/kernel/acpi.symbols -> symbols/acpi.symbols
.. and so on.

When the kernel is rotated to kernel.old, only one symlink
has to be changed:

/boot/kernel.old/symbols -> /var/db/symbols/kernel.old

Of course, /var/db is just an example off the top of my head.
The symbols directory should be configurable via make.conf, too.

 > > It might even be possible to not install the symbol files
 > > at all, but keep them under /usr/obj, so the installkernel
 > > target would have to do nothing more than create symlinks.
 > > This could be controlled by a make.conf variable, like
 > > SYMLINK_SYMBOLS=YES ("NO" would be the existing behaviour
 > > of installing the actual symbol files in /boot/kernel).
 > 
 > Hmm, I think they would need to go elsewhere otherwise they wouldn't
 > be available to people who do binary installs, hence the usefulness
 > of bug reports would go down.

Right, I was thinking of developers only, who usually have a
populated /usr/obj directory ...  But there's a world full of
non-developers, too.  :-)

Best regards
   Oliver

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