Commit 0486bc90 authored by Randy Dunlap's avatar Randy Dunlap Committed by Sam Ravnborg

kconfig: add hints/tips/tricks to Documentation/kbuild/kconfig-language.txt

Add a section on kconfig hints: how to do <something> in Kconfig files.

Fix a few typos/spellos.
Signed-off-by: default avatarRandy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com>
Signed-off-by: default avatarSam Ravnborg <sam@ravnborg.org>
parent b052ce4c
......@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ visible if its parent entry is also visible.
Menu entries
------------
Most entries define a config option, all other entries help to organize
Most entries define a config option; all other entries help to organize
them. A single configuration option is defined like this:
config MODVERSIONS
......@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ applicable everywhere (see syntax).
- type definition: "bool"/"tristate"/"string"/"hex"/"int"
Every config option must have a type. There are only two basic types:
tristate and string, the other types are based on these two. The type
tristate and string; the other types are based on these two. The type
definition optionally accepts an input prompt, so these two examples
are equivalent:
......@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ applicable everywhere (see syntax).
equal to 'y' without visiting the dependencies. So abusing
select you are able to select a symbol FOO even if FOO depends
on BAR that is not set. In general use select only for
non-visible symbols (no promts anywhere) and for symbols with
non-visible symbols (no prompts anywhere) and for symbols with
no dependencies. That will limit the usefulness but on the
other hand avoid the illegal configurations all over. kconfig
should one day warn about such things.
......@@ -162,9 +162,9 @@ An expression can have a value of 'n', 'm' or 'y' (or 0, 1, 2
respectively for calculations). A menu entry becomes visible when it's
expression evaluates to 'm' or 'y'.
There are two types of symbols: constant and nonconstant symbols.
Nonconstant symbols are the most common ones and are defined with the
'config' statement. Nonconstant symbols consist entirely of alphanumeric
There are two types of symbols: constant and non-constant symbols.
Non-constant symbols are the most common ones and are defined with the
'config' statement. Non-constant symbols consist entirely of alphanumeric
characters or underscores.
Constant symbols are only part of expressions. Constant symbols are
always surrounded by single or double quotes. Within the quote, any
......@@ -301,3 +301,45 @@ mainmenu:
This sets the config program's title bar if the config program chooses
to use it.
Kconfig hints
-------------
This is a collection of Kconfig tips, most of which aren't obvious at
first glance and most of which have become idioms in several Kconfig
files.
Build as module only
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To restrict a component build to module-only, qualify its config symbol
with "depends on m". E.g.:
config FOO
depends on BAR && m
limits FOO to module (=m) or disabled (=n).
Build limited by a third config symbol which may be =y or =m
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A common idiom that we see (and sometimes have problems with) is this:
When option C in B (module or subsystem) uses interfaces from A (module
or subsystem), and both A and B are tristate (could be =y or =m if they
were independent of each other, but they aren't), then we need to limit
C such that it cannot be built statically if A is built as a loadable
module. (C already depends on B, so there is no dependency issue to
take care of here.)
If A is linked statically into the kernel image, C can be built
statically or as loadable module(s). However, if A is built as loadable
module(s), then C must be restricted to loadable module(s) also. This
can be expressed in kconfig language as:
config C
depends on A = y || A = B
or for real examples, use this command in a kernel tree:
$ find . -name Kconfig\* | xargs grep -ns "depends on.*=.*||.*=" | grep -v orig
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