Question about kernel config

General system Kernel, boot, graphics & hardware
1

In the Linux Kernel config file, there are lines like these

> > CONFIG_EXT3_FS=y
> > -CONFIG_REISERFS_FS=m
> > CONFIG_XFS_FS=m

I understand what y and n do, what does m signify??
Also, in the middle line above, what is the significance of the - in front of CONFIG?

I can’t find any documentation on this, can someone point me in the right direction/

Pudge

2

m means it gets built as a module.

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3

Thank you my friend.
I have never done any programing as a profession, just a self taught hobby. I haven’t done any C or C++ programing for two decades. I can see I need a lot of brushing up.

Pudge

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4

about reiserfs , this has been declared obsolete

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5

Thanks, fully aware of ReiserFS’s status, which is why I am trying to remove it from the Pinebook Pro kernel. Along with anything else I can eliminate. The linux-eos-arm-6.6.7-1-aarch64.pkg.tar.zst is 57 MB and github has a 50 MB file size limit. It lets me upload the package and so far they haven’t complained. But I would like to remedy this.

After I eliminate what I am comfortable with, I will have to then look at more compression from .zst

Pudge

EDIT:
I haven’t fully researched it yet, but I understand as zst compresses with smaller files, the more memory the end user will need to un-compress it. And ARM devices usually don’t have much RAM. So compression might be a catch 22 situation.

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6

I think 57 MB is fine. The actual limit is 100 MB. We can get away with 57 MB.
Playing with what modules is a bit tricky. I have looked into it last year. Most modules don’t take up much space and the ones which do are essential.

1 Like