On Sun, Jan 21, 2001 at 11:12:44PM -0800, John Baldwin wrote:
> Rarely if ever do you need the new tools. The only cases are for a
> binutils upgrade that is not backwards compatible (such as the 2.9
> -> 2.10 upgrade), or if you need a newer version of config, which
> can be handled by installing config and then building your kernel.
> The config(8) changes won't happen in stable, and I don't foresee
> anymore drastic buildkernel changes in the future.
I agree that developers don't need to use buildkernel because we are
mostly capable of doing the manual workarounds on the rare occasions
when things need to be done differently. But if you cast your mind
back to the many dozens of support messages on -stable and other lists
after the binutils upgrade, you will note that users are incapable of
following special-case directions even when their mailbox is full of
messages repeating them, and they need to have a magic wand which does
it for them. That's what buildkernel is supposed to be..whether or not
it's broken or can be fixed is a separate question.
I never use buildkernel either because I know enough to fix things
when they break, but that's not true for Joe Random, and we shouldn't
advocate against it to the general user base unless we have a better
magic solution.
Kris
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