Kernel symbol file alternate location

[Daniel O'Connor]

On 06/08/2010, at 17:45, Oliver Fromme wrote:

> 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.

Yes that makes sense.

I guess the next thing is to make patches :)

>> 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.  :-)

Yeah and they find lots of bugs :(

--
Daniel O'Connor software and network engineer
for Genesis Software - http://www.gsoft.com.au
"The nice thing about standards is that there
are so many of them to choose from."
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