On Wed, Jul 19, 2023 at 09:24:54PM +0800, Zhangjin Wu wrote:
The O=/path/to/kernel-<ARCH> option allows to build kernel for different architectures in different output directories, in this scene, it doesn't need the mrproper operation for defconfig anymore.
If really require to clean up the source code tree, let users run the standalone mrproper target on demand.
But that's precisely what's going to make it more and more annoying to run simple tests. The mrproper was there precisely because one config at a time was being used, so without it we'll restart to see plenty of failures as it used to be before mrproper was added. I understand what you're trying to do with the O=, but then if you're already passing "O=", why not also pass "defconfig" ?
I mean, let's make sure this makefile is only used to manipulate the tests. It must not become a huge wrapper for the kernel makefile otherwise it will become extremely complicated to use to run just a simple test. And with this one and the last few ones, I'm starting to sense that I'll have to read a README to figure how to reliably run a test.
In my opinion, there are mainly two use cases : - user, manually: commands should be short, forgiving to user mistakes, and easy to remember. I.e. they're compatible with upper-arrow, then enter.
- scripts: these are the ones already running in loops with tons of variables, setting object directories with O=$arch/... and taking care of their own cleanups. These ones will already be user-specific and can very well accomodate one or two extra lines for a make mrproper or make defconfig if needed.
The second ones deserve thinking and control anyway. The first ones should mostly not fail for a user mistake and in the worst case waste a bit of their time by rebuilding something that could have been avoided. But I do want to prioritize the user here. And that's also why I want the makefile to be easy to read with as few macros as possible, because once it works for you, it's easy to figure what is being done, and how to exploit it from your scripts. The opposite is not true. Nobody reads a makefile full of macros to try to figure how to run their first test or why a test that worked once now fails.
Thanks, Willy