Subject: Re: removal of "don't forget to make make depend" messages
To: Andrew Brown <>
From: Andrew Gillham <>
List: tech-net
Date: 01/29/2003 13:25:05
On Wed, Jan 29, 2003 at 01:29:50PM -0500, Andrew Brown wrote:
> >> 1) This isn't network specific, so why tech-net?
> >> 2) The message is still very much needed. Why do you think this has
> >>    changed?
> >
> >The message implies that 'make depend' is *REQUIRED* for a successful
> >kernel build.  Is this true?  It seems broken if it is.
> okay, maybe it's not *REQUIRED*, but it's *VERY STRONGLY ENCOURAGED*.
> you can get lots of nice breakage when you rebuild the kernel (ie, the
> kernel build directory is not empty) if you don't, but rebuilding a
> kernel (as opposed to building it from scratch) typically wins you a
> lot in terms of things that don't need to be rebuilt.  the depend
> phase defines what needs rebuilding quite precisely, which is the
> reason for the message.

Perhaps the warning is more appropriate when the build directory exists,
or as a warning from 'make' when you rebuild a kernel without a .depend.

Basically the warning is more appropriate for the build process than the
config step.  Config might as well remind me to run 'make' as well, or even
that I need to 'cd ../compile/BLAH' first. :-)

I think the original question was the warning seems superfluous for config,
much like the old 'we recommend that you use su' when you ran su -l.

Perhaps the wording should be changed to reflect that the issues surround
rebuilding the kernel, not the initial build.