[Buildroot] how BR download the linux kernel now

[raymond zhao]

>> The linux kernel is a special "package". Lots of embedded projects

>> (if not all of them) will start from a certain version of the kernel

>> and hack the kernel from there, such as add device drivers etc. Then,

>> put the source code into a local git server to do version control.

>> Some people argued to use original tarball plus the patch, but it

>> makes the development procedure very painful. In the old approach, it

>> is very easy to hack the linux.mk to checkout the kernel source code

>> directly into the output directory. But, in the new one. Looks it
>
>> becomes more complex. The kernel is very big. Check out with the git,
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>> archive it to a tarball, and then extract it to the output directory
>
>> for building will waste lots of time. Is there a official solution
>
>> (or suggestion) for my situation?
>
>Yes, I am currently working on extending the package infrastructure so
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>that any package (not only the Linux kernel, but any package) can be
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>sourced from an existing directory, instead of being downloaded through
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>git/svn/http.
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>I have already published preliminary versions of this work (see "[RFC]
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>Override source directories", posted May, 18th 2011), and I intend to
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>continue. The basic mechanism is working, I still have issues
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>implementing "make source" and "make external-deps" with this mechanism.
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>It'd be really nice if you could have a look at what I did to see if it
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>would solve your use case as well.

That's great. I will definitely check it. If we solved this problem. I
believe BR will be #1 choice for most embedded linux projects.

thanks,
raymond