New dkms.conf directive for ignoring module build failures?

[anbe42]

Originally reported here: https://bugs.debian.org/1038156

For some "optional" modules (i.e. something not preventing booting because the rootfs cannot be mounted or the network cannot be brought up), people would like dkms to ignore build/install failures and not propagate them as errors (and therefore not "break" package installation etc.).

This could be done by adding a new directive to dkms.conf, but I'm unsure how to name that.

For actual usage, I'd prefer this flag to be set by the local admin in /etc/dkms/$module.conf and not shipped with the dkms module in dkms.conf. (Could this usage even be enforced when dkms reads the conffiles?) Deciding whether a (missing) module is (not) critical should be left to the local admin.

With my QA hat on, I'd like to "forbid" usage of such an ignore flag (or globally override it to "off"), as e.g. CI should always signal build failures.

I'll probably not spend time on implementing this.

[evelikov]

Tl:Dr: Love your proposal, doubt I'll have any time to hack on it.

The only naming idea that comes to mind is BUILD_MAY_FAIL. Better options would be appreciated.

On the handling: using /etc/dkms/$module.conf /etc/dkms/$module-$version.conf ... instead of the dkms.conf shipped with the module is great idea. Note that we currently don't distinguish between the two config (sets), so that'll need polishing.

As you mentioned, we'd also want a global toggle via /etc/dkms/framework.conf to disable these say BUILD_IS_FATAL.