Harry Putnam wrote:
> I guess I sort of thought there was some trick way to just compile a
> module and not do all the linking and grinding of `make' against the
> whole tree.
>   
Unless you've done 'make clean' previously, 'make' will only compile 
required files based on changes you've made to your config.  My laptop 
runs a monolithic kernel with very few modules (PCMCIA and USB 
hotplugged stuff), but as long as I'm not changing versions, adding or 
removing features usually only involves compiling a few source files and 
linking the bzImage.

If you just want to build new modules and haven't made any changes to 
the actual kernel, 'make' can be left out since the bzImage doesn't need 
rebuilding - 'make modules modules_install' will be sufficient to build 
and install your newly selected modules.

If you've run 'make clean', which removes all previously compiled 
objects, a monolithic kernel will have to be rebuilt from scratch - but 
once again, running only 'make modules modules_install' will rebuild all 
your modules but leave the kernel itself alone.

HTH.
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