Re: [linuxsh-dev] Newbie questions

[Jeremy S. <js...@mv...>]

ko...@we... wrote:

> Hello list,
>
> please give me some hints for starting with Linux on SH:
> - Development of 2.4 series seems to have stalled with 2.4.13.
>   Are there any recent 2.4 kernels available? How is the
>   development syncronized with the 'standard' kernel?

That's because you're looking at the "old" tree... in the SourceForge CVS there's
a "kernel" module containing the full kernel, which has indeed been untouched for
months -- but there's also a "linux" module containing a "drop-in" tree, which is
where current development is proceeding.

To use the drop-in tree you run the "scripts/treelink.sh" script, pointing it to
a tree you've pulled from kernel.org; the script will replace files in your
kernel tree with symlinks to the drop-in tree.

Note that there are multiple development lines (CVS branches) here; MAIN goes
with kernel version 2.5, while "linux-2_4-branch" goes with version 2.4.  At the
top level there's a file named "AGAINST-<version>" where <version> indicates the
exact kernel version to link to.  Right now we're at 2.4.18 on the 2.4 branch,
and 2.5.24 on the trunk.

When we move up, the tree is first tagged with "linux-<version>" (the <version>
number with dots replaced by underscores, e.g. "linux-2_4_14"); then the changes
for the new version are committed -- including a replacement of
AGAINST-<oldversion> with AGAINST-<newversion>.
So if you want the tree for a specific standard kernel version, you can get it
that way.

(This is all described somewhere by M.R. Brown, either in documents on the
SourceForge site or in old emails in the list archives.  Might be worth looking
for those.  I don't have pointers handy.)