The issue is that when building and installing new kernels (eg, when a new security patch is released), it is not totally obvious to the (automated) build script what the file /bsd really is, is it the uniprocessor kernel, or a link to the multiprocessor kernel? If the latter, than blindly copying the new uniprocessor kenel to /bsd is probably not what you want to do.
With my proposal, new kernels can be safely copied to /, since they have unique and distinct names. NB, I am NOT proposing different default behavior for installs. The uniprocessor kernel would be the one installed by default, the difference is that it would be named distinctly, and that /bsd would be some sort of link to the uniprocessor kernel. People can choose to install or not install the bsd.mp kernel, just as they do today, those who do can chose (or not) to change the link from /bsd to /bsd.mp . The only cost I currently see for my proposal is the cost of a link in /. At present, I see very little cost to my proposal, and reasonable benefit to some class of users. Perhaps someone on this list will come up with a really good reason why this a bad idea, but I haven't heard that reason yet. Best regards, Don On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 10:48 AM, Jay Hart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > While I have no stake in this issue, I think as a user /bsd and /bsd.mp are > fine. As a new user, I have to determine what the diff is between /bsd and > /bsd.mp now, and if it was changed to /bsd.up and /bsd.mp, I'd still have to > determine which was which. > > Am I missing something? > > Jay > > > > > OpenBSD kernel support on some architectures (I'm familiar with i386 > > and amd64) includes both a uniprocessor and multiprocessor version of > > the kernel. > > > > Currently the uniprocessor kernel is named bsd and the multiprocessor > > kernel is named bsd.mp > > > > It seems to me that /bsd is currently overloaded to mean "the default > > kernel to run" and "the uniprocessor version of the kernel". > > > > I propose that by default, the uniprocessor version of the kernel be > > named bsd.up, and that the install process > > arrange to have /bsd link to /bsd.up by default. Users who wanted to > > run the mp kernel could arrange to change this link in their install > > process (eg their install.site script) > > > > I'm know a hard link would work fine, but a symbolic link (if that > > would work, I don't know) would be more convenient for some of us, > > when we build new versions of GENERIC and GENERIC.MP, the install > > process for each of these would just replace /bsd.up and /bsd.mp > > respectively, and a symbolic link from /bsd to our chosen version of > > the kernel would remain. > > > > Thank you in advance for considering this proposal. > > > > Best regards, > > > > Don
