I've recently updated to ptxdist-2019.01.0 and have noted some changes with my project that builds a kernel image with initramfs:

1) In rules/kernel.make, there is the following code:

#
# Don't keep the expanded path to INITRAMS_SOURCE in $(KERNEL_CONFIG),
# because it contains local workdir path which is not relevant to
# other developers.
#
ifdef KERNEL_INITRAMFS_SOURCE_y
@sed -i -e 's,^CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE.*$$,CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE=\"# Automatically set by PTXDist\",g' \
"$(<)"
endif

However, this is no longer having the intended behavior. The $(KERNEL_CONFIG) is being modified after doing a `ptxdist images`:

$ ptxdist print KERNEL_CONFIG
/home/local/GRIDPOINT/jringle/git/linux-initramfs/ptxconf/ec1k/kernelconfig-3.12
$ ptxdist print KERNEL_INITRAMFS_SOURCE_y
/home/local/GRIDPOINT/jringle/git/linux-initramfs/platform-ec1k/state/empty.cpio
$ git diff
diff --git a/ptxconf/ec1k/kernelconfig-3.12 b/ptxconf/ec1k/kernelconfig-3.12
index 247c3bb..c77037f 100644
--- a/ptxconf/ec1k/kernelconfig-3.12
+++ b/ptxconf/ec1k/kernelconfig-3.12
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ CONFIG_NET_NS=y
# CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED is not set
# CONFIG_RELAY is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD=y
-CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE="# Automatically set by PTXDist"
+CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE="/home/local/GRIDPOINT/jringle/git/linux-initramfs/platform-ec1k/state/empty.cpio"
CONFIG_INITRAMFS_ROOT_UID=0
CONFIG_INITRAMFS_ROOT_GID=0
# CONFIG_RD_GZIP is not set

2) As a result of the above, the build behavior is different between a build with a tty, and a build without a tty (build by a CI build environment), because the kernel config file has changed and ptxd_make_kconfig_sync() in scripts/lib/ptxd_make_world_kconfig.sh is called:

ptxd_make_kconfig_sync() {
local mode
if [ "${ptx_config_mode}" = run ]; then
if tty -s; then
ptx_config_mode=update
else
ptx_config_mode=check
fi
fi
if [ -n "${ref_file_dotconfig}" ]; then
file_dotconfig="${ref_file_dotconfig}" ptxd_normalize_config &&
relative_ref_file_dotconfig="${relative_file_dotconfig}"
fi &&
ptxd_normalize_config &&
ptxd_kconfig_sync_config "${ptx_config_mode}" "${pkg_build_dir}/.config" \
"${relative_file_dotconfig}" "${file_dotconfig}" "${relative_ref_file_dotconfig}"
}

A build failure without a tty can be simulated with: `ssh localhost "cd $(pwd); ptxdist images"`:

----------------------
target: kernel.prepare
----------------------

Using config file: 'linux-initramfs/ptxconf/ec1k/kernelconfig-3.12'

make[1]: Entering directory `/home/local/GRIDPOINT/jringle/git/linux'
scripts/kconfig/conf --oldconfig Kconfig
#
# configuration written to .config
#
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/local/GRIDPOINT/jringle/git/linux'

ptxdist: error: Outdated config for 'linux-initramfs'
ptxdist: error: 'oldconfig' changes the file. Run 'oldconfig kernel' to update.

make: *** [/home/local/GRIDPOINT/jringle/git/linux-initramfs/platform-ec1k/state/kernel.prepare] Error 1

I worked around this by modifying the ptxdist used by our build server so that ptxd_make_kconfig_sync() always used ptx_config_mode=update even if there is no tty. But I know that this is not the right solution. But I also don't know what the proper solution should be.

Regards,

-Jon