Re: Patches for REALLY TINY 386 kernels

From: Adrian Bunk
Date: Wed Jul 18 2007 - 14:34:46 EST


On Wed, Jul 18, 2007 at 08:55:50AM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Andi Kleen wrote:
> >
> >> Already with these patches I can compile a zImage kernel that is 450kb
> >> large (890kb decompressed)
> >
> > The important part is not how big the vmlinux is, but how much
> > memory is actually used after boot.
> >
> > I expect concentrating some of the dynamic data structures would
> > be more fruitful in fact.
> >
>
> Well, how big the vmlinux file is matters if it doesn't fit in memory
> with enough time to get to the phase where it is dumping the init
> sections. *If that is not the issue*, then axing stuff like CPUID is a
> major lose in terms of code maintainability for zero gain.

If this is an issue, then changing i386 back to discarding __exit code
and data at linktime instead of runtime might make a bigger difference.

> -hpa

cu
Adrian

--

"Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
"Only a promise," Lao Er said.
Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed

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