On 24-Feb-06, at 1:34 PM, Julio M. Merino Vidal wrote:

> On 24/02/2006, at 15:55, der Mouse wrote:
>
>>> I still find this very useful, but I dislike that there are _four_
>>> kernel options to set it up:
>>
>>> # Beep when it is safe to power down the system (requires sysbeep)
>>> #options        BEEP_ONHALT
>>> # Some tunable details of the above feature (default values used  
>>> below)
>>> #options        BEEP_ONHALT_COUNT=3     # Times to beep
>>> #options        BEEP_ONHALT_PITCH=1500  # Default frequency (in Hz)
>>> #options        BEEP_ONHALT_PERIOD=250  # Default duration (in  
>>> msecs)
>>
>> Why is it a problem for it to have the tunable values?  (Assuming, of
>> course, that you can leave the "options" lines for them commented and
>> the defaults will get used.)
>>
>> I just don't see the problem you're trying to fix here.
>
> The problem is that the kernel has too many options.  Many of them
> are useful and required, but I don't think being able to configure
> such minor things is a good idea, specially being build-time-only
> options...  Things should 'just work' and be kept simple.

Here's my take on this:

   1. Make it configurable. Someone might want to change it.
   2. Don't document it in GENERIC.
   3. Document it in a man page (options(4) maybe?)
   4. Have reasonable defaults.

Customizability isn't a bad thing, but polluting GENERIC with it can be.

Cheers,
Jared