On Wed, Jan 19, 2005 at 02:19:23PM -0600, Timur Tabi wrote: > Greg KH wrote: > > >Look in the latest -bk tree, it's there. > > Ok, I found it, and it's worthless. It's basically also available via > http://www.linuxhq.com/kernel/v2.6/10-bk12/Documentation/sparse.txt. > This file talks about one specific issue, and then talks about how to > get/install sparse and use it. It doesn't talk about __CHECKER__ at > all, or what sparse does, or anything like that. You should not need to know what __CHECKER__ is, or what it does, unless you really know how sparse works. To just use sparse, you don't need that. > >Read Linus's various postings about it, and how to use it, in the lkml > >archives. > > Unfortunately, you're being too vague with these instructions. It's not > possible to find Linus' posts on anything in the lkml archive unless you > give me either a date range, or preferably, a subject title or > something. The lkml archives are enormous, and I cannot find the posts > you're talking about. I found it in about 1 minute of searching. Try harder, there's not that many posts from him with the term "sparse" in the subject. There's more with "sparse" in the body, but those are easy to wade through too. And, if you don't want to use sparse, no one's forcing you too. But if you do, you will find bugs in your code, so the learning curve is good to get over. Wait, what learning curve? Do this: install sparse build the kernel with 'C=1' see the warnings spit out in your code and fix them. bah, I don't know how much easier it could get, with the exception of bundling sparse in the kernel tree itself... > >What, you expect documentation for a useful kernel tool? :) > > No, since I've been working on the Linux kernel long enough to know that > kernel developers don't respect learners enough to provide them with > good documentation on anything. I know you're trying to be > light-hearted about this, but I don't think the sorry state of Linux > kernel documentation is a joke any more. Then pony up and start writing documentation to fix this. Just whining about the lack of documentation for free tools, for a free project will get you no where except added to people's kill-files. greg k-h -- Kernelnewbies: Help each other learn about the Linux kernel. Archive: http://mail.nl.linux.org/kernelnewbies/ FAQ: http://kernelnewbies.org/faq/
