On Aug 23, 2009, at 9:50 AM, Izumi Tsutsui wrote:
release/shark/binary/kernel contains ELF and a.out versions of GENERIC, but only an ELF version of the INSTALL kernel.It seems put in shark/installation/instkernel, but the following patch should handle it more properly:
I don't see why having the kernel in shark/installation/instkernel/ is not proper. Other ports have used instkernel for a long time, and so has shark. I didn't check how long the kernel has been in instkernel, but it has been documented in the INSTALL notes for over 7 years. So with the change that is@ made, shark/installation/ is empty and the INSTALL notes are now wrong.
To me, the real bug is that shark/binary/kernel/netbsd-INSTALL* exists in the first place. In the case of shark, where the firmware can boot a kernel directly, installation/ seems the right location for an INSTALL kernel. The INSTALL kernel _is_ the installation media, and if I were naively looking for installation media, I'd look in the installation directory. If I were following documentation, I'd also look there ;)
I'm mildly opposed to the change that was committed, since the problem described in this PR ("there's no a.out INSTALL kernel") didn't actually exist. I do agree that having an ELF version of INSTALL is confusing, but as noted elsewhere in this PR, it doesn't seem there's any need for an ELF version of the INSTALL kernel anyway.
I think the best thing to do would be to revert the changes and then not place the ELF version of netbsd-INSTALL in shark/binary/kernel/.
It's also quite clear that there's a lot of variation in how various ports are organized. That said, I think that instkernel is a good location for installation kernels on ports where the kernel can be loaded directly, and if anything is to be done about smoothing out the inconsistencies between ports, it should be in the direction of instkernel, not away from it.
Anyway, I guess I'll shut up if someone updates the INSTALL notes, but I will note that if instkernel is to be banished (and, as I've said, I don't think it should be), then alpha, evbarm, and mac68k should be changed as well. Don't forget the other misfits like acorn26, acorn32, evbmips, hpcarm, hpcmips, hpcsh, and ofppc. There may be some others that I missed, I only took a quick glance.