Re: 2.5.37+ i386 arch split broke external module builds

[Alessandro Amici]

On Wednesday 02 October 2002 13:28, David Woodhouse wrote:
> [e-mail] said:
> >  in order to access the kernel interfaces, modules that live outside
> > the kernel sources were used to only need: CFLAG += -I$(TOPDIR)/
> > include
>
> That was broken anyway -- you always got the CFLAGS wrong if you just did
> that. The only way that I only of to get the CFLAGS to match the kernel
> build reliably is to do something like:
>
>  make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build SUBDIRS=`pwd` modules

that one is the hacker way, the most powerfull and most correct for sure :)

however the average user of an external device driver (in the specific case 
i'm interested in distributing the rivatv driver found at 
http://rivatv.sf.net) is not going to have the source tree where the stock 
kernel he is running was built.

average users may have either a kernel-headers package that matches their 
running kernel and/or a souce package without the configuration stuff. in 
both cases 'the hacker way' doesn't work :)

OTOH, for small device drivers you don't need the full blown kernel CFLAGS, 
you know what you need anyway.

this is a user-, distribution-friendlyness issue :), we actually hit it in 
real life.

cheers,
alessandro