On Mon, 5 Jan 2026 14:33:35 -0500
Joel Fernandes [off-list ref] wrote:

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I'm thinking that my proposed config option is the best solution now. For
those that do not care about debugging the kernel, you enable the
"HIDE_TRACE_PRINTK" config so that your builds will be "quicker". But for
everyone else, it will not slow down their workflow when they need to debug
code.  

100% agree. We do have people running custom configs for faster builds, so this
hide thing could be enabled there assuming those don't care about debug.

In other words, "If it aint broke, don't fix it".  

But if I understand correctly, it would save 2% build time. That means 12
secondes on a 10 minutes build. Is it really worth it ?
  

99% of my kernel builds are usually 90 seconds. I throw a lot of cores at it and
with ccache. I care more about trace_printk not being available than saving 2%.
But YMMV. I am sure there are people who care a lot about build time, but for me
it has not (yet) been a problem.

I can see Linus enabling this. I don't think he uses trace_printk() to
debug the kernel, so improving his build times may be useful.

-- Steve