diff options
| author | Kartik Agaram <akkartik@gmail.com> | 2018-05-31 22:15:55 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Denys Vlasenko <vda.linux@googlemail.com> | 2018-06-06 15:16:48 +0200 |
| commit | 43b17b1cd0dd3eac740e4770be77db2c9010ad04 (patch) | |
| tree | c69ba063f4842e7ac35abbe10b47e88cc86c1335 /docs | |
| parent | 0972c7f7a570c38edb68e1c60a45614b7a7c7d55 (diff) | |
| download | busybox-w32-43b17b1cd0dd3eac740e4770be77db2c9010ad04.tar.gz busybox-w32-43b17b1cd0dd3eac740e4770be77db2c9010ad04.tar.bz2 busybox-w32-43b17b1cd0dd3eac740e4770be77db2c9010ad04.zip | |
restore documentation on the build config language
Kconfig-language.txt was deleted in commit 4fa499a17b52b back in 2006.
Move to docs/ as suggested by Xabier Oneca:
http://lists.busybox.net/pipermail/busybox/2014-May/080914.html
Also update references to it everywhere.
Signed-off-by: Kartik Agaram <akkartik@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Denys Vlasenko <vda.linux@googlemail.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'docs')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/Kconfig-language.txt | 255 |
1 files changed, 255 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/docs/Kconfig-language.txt b/docs/Kconfig-language.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0ba8932ba --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/Kconfig-language.txt | |||
| @@ -0,0 +1,255 @@ | |||
| 1 | Introduction | ||
| 2 | ------------ | ||
| 3 | |||
| 4 | The configuration database is collection of configuration options | ||
| 5 | organized in a tree structure: | ||
| 6 | |||
| 7 | +- Code maturity level options | ||
| 8 | | +- Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers | ||
| 9 | +- General setup | ||
| 10 | | +- Networking support | ||
| 11 | | +- System V IPC | ||
| 12 | | +- BSD Process Accounting | ||
| 13 | | +- Sysctl support | ||
| 14 | +- Loadable module support | ||
| 15 | | +- Enable loadable module support | ||
| 16 | | +- Set version information on all module symbols | ||
| 17 | | +- Kernel module loader | ||
| 18 | +- ... | ||
| 19 | |||
| 20 | Every entry has its own dependencies. These dependencies are used | ||
| 21 | to determine the visible of an entry. Any child entry is only | ||
| 22 | visible if its parent entry is also visible. | ||
| 23 | |||
| 24 | Menu entries | ||
| 25 | ------------ | ||
| 26 | |||
| 27 | Most entries define a config option, all other entries help to organize | ||
| 28 | them. A single configuration option is defined like this: | ||
| 29 | |||
| 30 | config MODVERSIONS | ||
| 31 | bool "Set version information on all module symbols" | ||
| 32 | depends MODULES | ||
| 33 | help | ||
| 34 | Usually, modules have to be recompiled whenever you switch to a new | ||
| 35 | kernel. ... | ||
| 36 | |||
| 37 | Every line starts with a key word and can be followed by multiple | ||
| 38 | arguments. "config" starts a new config entry. The following lines | ||
| 39 | define attributes for this config option. Attributes can be the type of | ||
| 40 | the config option, input prompt, dependencies, help text and default | ||
| 41 | values. A config option can be defined multiple times with the same | ||
| 42 | name, but every definition can have only a single input prompt and the | ||
| 43 | type must not conflict. | ||
| 44 | |||
| 45 | Menu attributes | ||
| 46 | --------------- | ||
| 47 | |||
| 48 | A menu entry can have a number of attributes. Not all of them are | ||
| 49 | applicable everywhere (see syntax). | ||
| 50 | |||
| 51 | - type definition: "bool"/"tristate"/"string"/"hex"/"integer" | ||
| 52 | Every config option must have a type. There are only two basic types: | ||
| 53 | tristate and string, the other types base on these two. The type | ||
| 54 | definition optionally accepts an input prompt, so these two examples | ||
| 55 | are equivalent: | ||
| 56 | |||
| 57 | bool "Networking support" | ||
| 58 | and | ||
| 59 | bool | ||
| 60 | prompt "Networking support" | ||
| 61 | |||
| 62 | - input prompt: "prompt" <prompt> ["if" <expr>] | ||
| 63 | Every menu entry can have at most one prompt, which is used to display | ||
| 64 | to the user. Optionally dependencies only for this prompt can be added | ||
| 65 | with "if". | ||
| 66 | |||
| 67 | - default value: "default" <symbol> ["if" <expr>] | ||
| 68 | A config option can have any number of default values. If multiple | ||
| 69 | default values are visible, only the first defined one is active. | ||
| 70 | Default values are not limited to the menu entry, where they are | ||
| 71 | defined, this means the default can be defined somewhere else or be | ||
| 72 | overridden by an earlier definition. | ||
| 73 | The default value is only assigned to the config symbol if no other | ||
| 74 | value was set by the user (via the input prompt above). If an input | ||
| 75 | prompt is visible the default value is presented to the user and can | ||
| 76 | be overridden by him. | ||
| 77 | Optionally dependencies only for this default value can be added with | ||
| 78 | "if". | ||
| 79 | |||
| 80 | - dependencies: "depends on"/"requires" <expr> | ||
| 81 | This defines a dependency for this menu entry. If multiple | ||
| 82 | dependencies are defined they are connected with '&&'. Dependencies | ||
| 83 | are applied to all other options within this menu entry (which also | ||
| 84 | accept "if" expression), so these two examples are equivalent: | ||
| 85 | |||
| 86 | bool "foo" if BAR | ||
| 87 | default y if BAR | ||
| 88 | and | ||
| 89 | depends on BAR | ||
| 90 | bool "foo" | ||
| 91 | default y | ||
| 92 | |||
| 93 | - help text: "help" | ||
| 94 | This defines a help text. The end of the help text is determined by | ||
| 95 | the level indentation, this means it ends at the first line which has | ||
| 96 | a smaller indentation than the first line of the help text. | ||
| 97 | |||
| 98 | |||
| 99 | Menu dependencies | ||
| 100 | ----------------- | ||
| 101 | |||
| 102 | Dependencies define the visibility of a menu entry and can also reduce | ||
| 103 | the input range of tristate symbols. The tristate logic used in the | ||
| 104 | expressions uses one more state than normal boolean logic to express the | ||
| 105 | module state. Dependency expressions have the following syntax: | ||
| 106 | |||
| 107 | <expr> ::= <symbol> (1) | ||
| 108 | <symbol> '=' <symbol> (2) | ||
| 109 | <symbol> '!=' <symbol> (3) | ||
| 110 | '(' <expr> ')' (4) | ||
| 111 | '!' <expr> (5) | ||
| 112 | <expr> '||' <expr> (6) | ||
| 113 | <expr> '&&' <expr> (7) | ||
| 114 | |||
| 115 | Expressions are listed in decreasing order of precedence. | ||
| 116 | |||
| 117 | (1) Convert the symbol into an expression. Boolean and tristate symbols | ||
| 118 | are simply converted into the respective expression values. All | ||
| 119 | other symbol types result in 'n'. | ||
| 120 | (2) If the values of both symbols are equal, it returns 'y', | ||
| 121 | otherwise 'n'. | ||
| 122 | (3) If the values of both symbols are equal, it returns 'n', | ||
| 123 | otherwise 'y'. | ||
| 124 | (4) Returns the value of the expression. Used to override precedence. | ||
| 125 | (5) Returns the result of (2-/expr/). | ||
| 126 | (6) Returns the result of min(/expr/, /expr/). | ||
| 127 | (7) Returns the result of max(/expr/, /expr/). | ||
| 128 | |||
| 129 | An expression can have a value of 'n', 'm' or 'y' (or 0, 1, 2 | ||
| 130 | respectively for calculations). A menu entry becomes visible when it's | ||
| 131 | expression evaluates to 'm' or 'y'. | ||
| 132 | |||
| 133 | There are two type of symbols: constant and nonconstant symbols. | ||
| 134 | Nonconstant symbols are the most common ones and are defined with the | ||
| 135 | 'config' statement. Nonconstant symbols consist entirely of alphanumeric | ||
| 136 | characters or underscores. | ||
| 137 | Constant symbols are only part of expressions. Constant symbols are | ||
| 138 | always surrounded by single or double quotes. Within the quote any | ||
| 139 | other character is allowed and the quotes can be escaped using '\'. | ||
| 140 | |||
| 141 | Menu structure | ||
| 142 | -------------- | ||
| 143 | |||
| 144 | The position of a menu entry in the tree is determined in two ways. First | ||
| 145 | it can be specified explicitely: | ||
| 146 | |||
| 147 | menu "Network device support" | ||
| 148 | depends NET | ||
| 149 | |||
| 150 | config NETDEVICES | ||
| 151 | ... | ||
| 152 | |||
| 153 | endmenu | ||
| 154 | |||
| 155 | All entries within the "menu" ... "endmenu" block become a submenu of | ||
| 156 | "Network device support". All subentries inherit the dependencies from | ||
| 157 | the menu entry, e.g. this means the dependency "NET" is added to the | ||
| 158 | dependency list of the config option NETDEVICES. | ||
| 159 | |||
| 160 | The other way to generate the menu structure is done by analyzing the | ||
| 161 | dependencies. If a menu entry somehow depends on the previous entry, it | ||
| 162 | can be made a submenu of it. First the the previous (parent) symbol must | ||
| 163 | be part of the dependency list and then one of these two condititions | ||
| 164 | must be true: | ||
| 165 | - the child entry must become invisible, if the parent is set to 'n' | ||
| 166 | - the child entry must only be visible, if the parent is visible | ||
| 167 | |||
| 168 | config MODULES | ||
| 169 | bool "Enable loadable module support" | ||
| 170 | |||
| 171 | config MODVERSIONS | ||
| 172 | bool "Set version information on all module symbols" | ||
| 173 | depends MODULES | ||
| 174 | |||
| 175 | comment "module support disabled" | ||
| 176 | depends !MODULES | ||
| 177 | |||
| 178 | MODVERSIONS directly depends on MODULES, this means it's only visible if | ||
| 179 | MODULES is different from 'n'. The comment on the other hand is always | ||
| 180 | visible when MODULES it's visible (the (empty) dependency of MODULES is | ||
| 181 | also part of the comment dependencies). | ||
| 182 | |||
| 183 | |||
| 184 | Kconfig syntax | ||
| 185 | -------------- | ||
| 186 | |||
| 187 | The configuration file describes a series of menu entries, where every | ||
| 188 | line starts with a keyword (except help texts). The following keywords | ||
| 189 | end a menu entry: | ||
| 190 | - config | ||
| 191 | - choice/endchoice | ||
| 192 | - comment | ||
| 193 | - menu/endmenu | ||
| 194 | - if/endif | ||
| 195 | - source | ||
| 196 | The first four also start the definition of a menu entry. | ||
| 197 | |||
| 198 | config: | ||
| 199 | |||
| 200 | "config" <symbol> | ||
| 201 | <config options> | ||
| 202 | |||
| 203 | This defines a config symbol <symbol> and accepts any of above | ||
| 204 | attributes as options. | ||
| 205 | |||
| 206 | choices: | ||
| 207 | |||
| 208 | "choice" | ||
| 209 | <choice options> | ||
| 210 | <choice block> | ||
| 211 | "endchoice" | ||
| 212 | |||
| 213 | This defines a choice group and accepts any of above attributes as | ||
| 214 | options. A choice can only be of type bool or tristate, while a boolean | ||
| 215 | choice only allows a single config entry to be selected, a tristate | ||
| 216 | choice also allows any number of config entries to be set to 'm'. This | ||
| 217 | can be used if multiple drivers for a single hardware exists and only a | ||
| 218 | single driver can be compiled/loaded into the kernel, but all drivers | ||
| 219 | can be compiled as modules. | ||
| 220 | A choice accepts another option "optional", which allows to set the | ||
| 221 | choice to 'n' and no entry needs to be selected. | ||
| 222 | |||
| 223 | comment: | ||
| 224 | |||
| 225 | "comment" <prompt> | ||
| 226 | <comment options> | ||
| 227 | |||
| 228 | This defines a comment which is displayed to the user during the | ||
| 229 | configuration process and is also echoed to the output files. The only | ||
| 230 | possible options are dependencies. | ||
| 231 | |||
| 232 | menu: | ||
| 233 | |||
| 234 | "menu" <prompt> | ||
| 235 | <menu options> | ||
| 236 | <menu block> | ||
| 237 | "endmenu" | ||
| 238 | |||
| 239 | This defines a menu block, see "Menu structure" above for more | ||
| 240 | information. The only possible options are dependencies. | ||
| 241 | |||
| 242 | if: | ||
| 243 | |||
| 244 | "if" <expr> | ||
| 245 | <if block> | ||
| 246 | "endif" | ||
| 247 | |||
| 248 | This defines an if block. The dependency expression <expr> is appended | ||
| 249 | to all enclosed menu entries. | ||
| 250 | |||
| 251 | source: | ||
| 252 | |||
| 253 | "source" <prompt> | ||
| 254 | |||
| 255 | This reads the specified configuration file. This file is always parsed. | ||
