Loren M. Lang wrote:
A few questions on the FreeBSD kernel:

1.  If I specify a driver in the config file with a device command, does
that always mean that it's compiled in staticly and not as a module?

It will then be compiled in statically, but this doesn't affect the module (see below).


2.  How does make decide what to compile as a module?  Is it everything
not compiled into the kernel that it can compile as a module?  And how
would I tell what can only be compiled staticly and won't be compiled if
it's not included with a device entry?

Per default all devices get compiled and installed as modules, regardless of whether you compile some of the devices statically into the kernel or not.


You can use

makeoptions MODULES_OVERRIDE="..."

to limit the modules to be compiled and installed to the list you provide with this option. See the comments in the 'LINT' file.

3.  The handbook seems to suggest to use the config, make, make install
procedure for installing the kernel if you have no other reason for not
using it, what is the reason for this?  (The paragraph immediately
following procedure 2)

This sequence takes care that all the modules get installed together with the matching kernel, that a backup of both the kernel and the modules is available (suffix '.old') in case the new kernel doesn't work properly, and it also deals with the system immutable flag ('schg') that protects '/kernel' from being deleted or clobbered by accident. You would have to do all these things by hand if you didn't use the recommended sequence.


   Uwe
--
Uwe Doering         |  EscapeBox - Managed On-Demand UNIX Servers
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  |  http://www.escapebox.net
_______________________________________________
[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"

Reply via email to