Hi Geert,
On 3/11/19 4:03 AM, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote: [ snip ]
OK.
Now about the actual solution: what is your opinion on embedding e.g. a squashfs image in the kernel instead, which would be a more generic solution, not adding more ABI to /proc?
I'm not familiar enough with the intricacies of squashfs to have an educated opinion, but I hear that it's got its quirks (need for user-space tools, etc.) and possibly security issues. Also, I wonder whether it's a generalized solution that still kicks the ABI can down the road -- ultimately the kernel would still have a path/format/foo for making kheaders available in that squashfs image and that convention would become ABI. The only "benefit" being that said ABI wouldn't appear under /proc, and, tbh, I'm not sure that that's actually a benefit or is even idiomatic since kconfig.gz is already under /proc. To an extent, the precedent set by kconfig favors kheaders to also be available in the same location using a similar mechanism ... i.e. bonus points for consistency.
But that's my hand-wavy gut-reaction response to your question. I'm sure others on this thread have far more informed opinions about the specifics than I could have. My priority was to clarify the basis for the need being addressed.
Cheers,