This is kernel-wedge, an industrial strength kernel splitting tool.
It is used to generate kernel module udebs for the debian installer.

To use kernel-wedge, you need a source package, which will become the
"source" for the generated udebs. Your source package will be very simple,
looking something like this:

  debian/copyright
  debian/changelog
  debian/rules
  debian/control.stub

  kernel-versions
  modules/<arch>/*
  exclude-packages
  package-list

The second group of files may be placed in a subdirectory, in which
case the environment variable $KW_CONFIG_DIR must be set to the
subdirectory name.

Let's get the easy files out of the way. The changelog is a changelog, like
any other, as is the copyright. The debian/rules can be something as simple
as this:

  #!/usr/bin/make -f
  include /usr/share/kernel-wedge/generic-rules

Or you can use the kernel-wedge command directly in your own rules file.
Run it for some semblance of usage help.

debian/control.stub is the top of a control file. Something like this:

  Source: linux-kernel-di-i386
  Section: debian-installer
  Priority: optional
  Maintainer: Debian Install System Team <debian-boot@lists.debian.org>
  Build-Depends: kernel-wedge

The rest of the control file will be generated for you.

The kernel-versions file lists the kernel versions to produce packages for.
There are 6 whitespace separated fields per line, and it looks something
like this:

# arch   version  flavour       installedname        suffix    build-depends
i386     2.4.25-1 386           2.4.25-1-386         -         kernel-image-2.4.25-1-386, kernel-pcmcia-modules-2.4.25-1-386
i386     2.4.24   speakup       2.4.24-speakup       -         kernel-image-2.4.24-speakup

In this case we are building two different flavours of i386 kernels.
We could just as easily be building kernels for different architectures.

The version is the kernel version, or can be "-", in which case a 
version must be specified when running the gen-control and install-files
commands.

The installedname column gives the directory/filename that the kernel and
modules are installed using in the kernel .deb. If it is "-", it's
generated from the version and flavor.

The suffix column is either y, - or -$suffix; if it is y then the kernel
image inside the udeb will include the version and flavour in its name, if
it is -$suffix then it will include this. (So will the System.map). 

The build-depends are the package that is split up by kernel-wedge.
If it's "-", kernel-wedge is being used inside the kernel's source
package.

Finally, you need a modules/<arch> directory, or directories. These are
used to list the modules that go in a kernel. For example, for i386, we
want to have some nic drivers, so we create a modules/i386/nic-modules
listing them:

# My short list of nic modules.
8139too
e100
natsemi
ne2k-pci
tulip
winbond-840
3c59x

Suppose we want a different set of modules in the speakup flavored kernel.
Then create a modules/<arch>-<flavor>/nic-modules instead, it will be used
by preference. One udeb will be created for each modules list file,
containing the listed modules. The names of the files should match the
names of the various modules listed in the package-list file in the
default-configuration directory.

The default-configuration directory is specified by the environment
variable $KW_DEFCONFIG_DIR.

You will also want a special modules list file for the kernel-image udeb.
If you need to include no modules with your kernel, it can be an empty file.
but you should have a modules/<arch>/kernel.

kernel-wedge will copy the listed modules into each package. If a listed 
module does not exist, it will fail by default. Sometimes you might want to
make a module be included but it's not fatal for it not to be available.
To indicate this, follow the module with a space and a "?".

Module list files can also include other module lists by reference. This
works similar to cpp includes, and can be used to include module lists
distributed as part of kernel-wedge, or others. For example:

# kernel-wedge's standard set of cdrom modules
#include <cdrom-core-modules>
# my own list
#include "../../includes/cdrom-modules"

The <name> syntax includes a file from the modules subdirectory of the
default-configuration directory.

A final capability of the module list files is the ability to include a
module list and then override parts of it. Follow a module name with " -" to
remove it from the list if it was previously listed, as by an include:

# kernel-wedge's standard set of cdrom modules
#include <cdrom-core-modules>
# but not this one
sr_mod -

The udebs are named with the version of the kernel in their package name,
since that can be useful during kernel transitions. The string -di is
appended to prevent any posible collisions in names with real debs.

A few other, optional files:

The package-list file can be used to override and/or suppliment values from
kernel-wedge's own /usr/share/kernel-wedge/package-list file. New packages
can be defined in this file using the same format, or partial entries can
be used to override a field or fields of a previously defined package. For
example:

# This file is used to build up the control file. The kernel version and
# "-di" are appended to the package names. Section can be left out. So can
# architecture, which is derived from the files in the modules directory.
# It overwrites specifications from /usr/share/kernel-wedge/package-list.
Package: fat-modules
Priority: standard

Package: nic-modules
Depends: kernel-image, nic-shared-modules, core-modules, firewire-core-modules

Package: other-modules
Depends: kernel-image
Description: some other modules I like to have in the installer

Note that dependencies that are not built are omitted from the control file
generated by the union of the package-list files. If you don't want that to
happen for a particular dependency, follow it by a "!"

Depends: some-third-party-module!

The exclude-packages file is an optional file that lists any udebs (by
full package name) that would normally be built, but that you want to
skip.

Building:

Once you have your source package set up, run:
	kernel-wedge gen-control > debian/control
You only need to do this once. Then build it like any other package. Be
amazed at the sheer quantities of udebs that are spit out with no effort.
Note that you will have to have the kernels listed as build dependencies
installed normally; but see "kernel-wedge help build-all" for an
alternative.

Misc other info:

The "kernel-wedge copy-modules" command does the actual copying of modules
to the temp dirs that are used to build the package. It is complicated by
the need to make sure that all of a module's dependencies are included in
its package, or in a package on which it depends. If necessary, extra
modules will be added to a package to make sure the dependencies are
satisfied.

The dependency information from modules.dep is compared with the output of
the "kernel-wedge gen-deps" command, which extracts dependency information
from package-lists, and formats it in a form used by tsort. If any
additional modules are needed to meet dependencies of modules in the udebs,
they will automatically be added. Since that might result in modules being
copied to multiple udebs, the "kernel-wedge find-dups" command is used to
scan for duplicates of modules. When you have duplicates, you need to find
(or make) a package that both packages depend on, and move the duplicate
modules to it. Alternatively, as a quick hack you can just touch a file
named ignore-dups in the root of your package and duplicate modules will
stop being a fatal error.

SOURCEDIR can be set to a directory containing a tree of kernel modules and
kernel image, and it will be used instead of the usual tree. That directory
will need to have a modules.dep file already generated for this to work
though -- but the modules.dep can even be copied from another system and
it'll work. This can be useful if you cannot install the required
kernel-image package, or are cross-compiling.
