[Buildroot] [PATCH 1/1] util-linux: allow programs to be disabled by default

[Danomi Manchego]

Thomas,

On Tue, Jun 30, 2015 at 4:59 PM, Thomas Petazzoni
<thomas.petazzoni at free-electrons.com> wrote:
> Dear Danomi Manchego,
>
> On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 23:36:08 -0400, Danomi Manchego wrote:
>
>> +ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_UTIL_LINUX_DISABLE_BY_DEFAULT),y)
>> +UTIL_LINUX_CONF_OPTS += --disable-all-programs
>> +endif
>
> I understand the idea, but it's a bit weird to have an option to enable
> to say that you want to disable everything.
>
> Also, we are already passing --disable-all-programs when
> BR2_PACKAGE_UTIL_LINUX_BINARIES is not enabled. Maybe we should instead
> pass --disable-all-programs unconditionally. However this would change
> the visible behavior for users, since programs that used to be built
> would no longer be built. But it seems the most correct solution
> nonetheless.
>
> Any opinions from other Buildroot developers?

I use util-linux only as a last resort for when busybox does not have
what I need - so I'm totally on-board with that idea, as my interest
is for minimal impact on the target.  The only reason that I didn't do
that is for precisely what you said - that it would change the current
behavior.  Also, I supposed that we would still need an option to
*not* set --disable-all-programs anyway, to support enabling all the
programs that are currently enabled by default (and don't have
existing buildroot switches), to be able to get back to the previous
behavior.  (For those who need it.)

An alternative might be to add --enable/--disable switches for all the
apps that are enabled by default.  But that's a lot of new switches,
and a maintenance hassle on package upgrades, so I was afraid that
this option might not be well received by the community.  (I'm willing
to give that a go if that seems like a good idea.)

Danomi -