A lot of the extra features in the kernel are there to allow for easier
debugging when doing kernel development.  They typically add extra load to
deal with and slow down the system, overall.  (It's minimal, but it's still
a performance hit).

In the two you listed, Kprobes is just such a feature.  It helps with
debugging, so if you're a user who isn't doing kernel development, you
don't need it and probably wouldn't know what it was.  cgroups... I don't
know that there's any benefit to having cgroups unless you know how to use
them.  On their own, I believe their only use is if you have applications
that hook into them to limit resource usage.  So, I imagine if you don't
know what cgroups are, you really don't need them.  (And, again, they
include a tiny performance hit)

So, to answer your question, the features that have that listed seem like
they're more for power users or kernel developers, so to make sure you get
the most performance out of your custom rolled kernel, you shouldn't
include them unless you need them.

That's my take at least.

-Andrew


On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 10:14 AM, <rhubarbpieguy at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Several kernel options are marked to install as default, yet the help
> instructs "If unsure, say N." or the equivalent.  This isn't a big deal and
> I'm certainly not losing sleep over it, but it seems contradictory.  Does
> it make sense?  If so, what's the logic?
>
> Two examples from linux-3.8.1 General setup:
>
> General setup/Control Group support ---> - Say N is unsure.
> General setup/Kprobes - If in doubt, say "N".
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