Subject: Re: compiling kernel: does 'make depend' have its dependencies right?
To: None <tsarna@endicor.com>
From: Niklas Hallqvist <niklas@appli.se>
List: amiga
Date: 01/30/1996 16:41:05
>>>>> "Ty" == Ty Sarna <tsarna@endicor.com> writes:

Ty> /dev/reload is more trouble than it's worth, IMHO. Think about
Ty> what you gain (a slightly faster reboot), vs. the likely chance it
Ty> won't work work (and then it takes longer to reboot). For that
Ty> matter, even if /dev/reload seems to work when you boot, ho do you
Ty> know that later it won't lead to a crash or cause other problems?
Ty> If you do crash or have problems, you'll never know if it was a
Ty> real bug, or a problem caused by /dev/reload that could have been
Ty> avoided. That's why I always ignored the device and just booted
Ty> properly.

Well, that depends on your setup.  For a long time (two years or so)
/dev/reload was the only way for me to warmboot.  And for some time I
had a disk with spin-up problems so coldboots used to mean spending
some hours (!) rebooting until it spun up.  And the fact that all my
boots end up in AmigaDOS (OK, OK, I could try to find some
boot-manager for 1.3)  makes remote reboots impossible without
/dev/reload.

I cannot say I change locore.s very frequently, although I hack a
*lot* in the kernel.  Of course when I do, I know /dev/reload might
screw me...  It's really just a question of knowing when you have
changed locore.s...

Although the scenario you present is possible, I have never heard of a
/dev/reload surviving to cause problems later.  That would be a rather 
fantastic misfortune.  Normally the differing locore layout causes
hard-crashes very, very fast.

Well, what I try to say is that milage may vary... to me /dev/reload
is essential.  Being a kernel hacker with lots of reboots at times you
really value 30 second rebooting instead of 3-minute rebooting.  If
you don't have a slow boot process, like I do, of course, ignore
/dev/reload, it's your choice... 

Niklas

Niklas Hallqvist       Phone: +46-(0)31-40 75 00  Home: +46-(0)31-41 93 95
Applitron Datasystem   Fax:   +46-(0)31-83 39 50  Home: +46-(0)31-41 93 96
Molndalsvagen 95       Email: niklas@appli.se     GSM:  +46-(0)70-714 10 35
S-412 63  GOTEBORG     WWW:   Here
Sweden		       IRC:   niklas (#NetBSD)    ICB:  niklas (netbsd)