Write all the help text for the util-linux utilities. Allow

people to locate the mtab file somewhere other that /etc to accomodate read only root filesystems. -Erik
author: Eric Andersen <andersen@codepoet.org> 2003-02-27 03:14:04 +0000
committer: Eric Andersen <andersen@codepoet.org> 2003-02-27 03:14:04 +0000
commit: a0ac4523b1ebceff60ced8c7d079caf0ffc0db8b (patch)
tree: 5fb61747545ebe080102f4cd2aeb9a0d5439edd8 /util-linux
parent: ee6da5527c982b40aef002616bf7d401ee2d434a (diff)
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1 files changed, 152 insertions, 34 deletions
diff --git a/util-linux/Config.in b/util-linux/Config.in
index 2494e6e1c..be56020f4 100644
--- a/util-linux/Config.in
+++ b/util-linux/Config.in
@@ -10,100 +10,144 @@ config CONFIG_DMESG
        bool "dmesg"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          dmesg is used to examine or control the kernel ring buffer.  When the
+          Linux kernel prints messages to the system log, they are stored in
+          the kernel ring buffer.  You can use dmesg to print the kernel's ring
+          buffer, clear the kernel ring buffer, change the size of the kernel
+          ring buffer, and change the priority level at which kernel messages
+          are also logged to the system console.  Enable this option if you
+          wish to enable the 'dmesg' utility.
 config CONFIG_FBSET
        bool "fbset"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          fbset is used to show or change the settings of a Linux frame buffer
+          device.  The frame buffer device provides a simple and unique
+          interface to access a graphic display.  Enable this option if you wish
+          to enable the 'fbset' utility.
 config CONFIG_FEATURE_FBSET_FANCY
        bool "  Turn on extra fbset options"
        default n
        depends on CONFIG_FBSET
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          This option enables extended fbset options, allowing one to set the
+          framebuffer size, color depth, etc.  interface to access a graphic
+          display.  Enable this option if you wish to enable extended fbset
+          options.
 config CONFIG_FEATURE_FBSET_READMODE
        bool "  Turn on fbset readmode support"
        default n
        depends on CONFIG_FBSET
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          This option allows fbset to read the video mode database stored by
+          default as /etc/fb.modes, which can be used to set frame buffer
+          device to pre-defined video modes.
 config CONFIG_FDFLUSH
        bool "fdflush"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          Fdflush is only needed when changing media on slightly-broken
+          removable media drives.  It is used to make Linux believe that a
+          hardware disk-change switch has been actuated, which causes Linux to
+          forget anything it has cached from the previous media.  If you have
+          such a slightly-broken drive, you will need to run fdflush every time
+          you change a disk.  Most people have working hardware and can safely
+          say leave this disabled.
 config CONFIG_FDISK
        bool "fdisk"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          The fdisk utility is used to divide hard disks into one or more
+          logical disks, which are generally called partitions.  This utility
+          can be used to list and edit the set of partitions or BSD style 
+          'disk slices' that are defined on a hard drive.
 config CONFIG_FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE
        bool "  Write support" 
        default y
        depends on CONFIG_FDISK
        help
-          Allow changes to be written to disk, without this you
+          Enabling this option allows you to create or change a partition table
-          will only be able to view the partition table. 
+          and write those changes out to disk.  If you leave this option
+          disabled, you will only be able to view the partition table.
 config CONFIG_FEATURE_AIX_LABEL
        bool "  Support AIX disklabels"
        default n
        depends on CONFIG_FDISK && CONFIG_FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE  
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          Enabling this option allows you to create or change AIX disklabels.
+          Most people can safely leave this option disabled.
 config CONFIG_FEATURE_SGI_LABEL
        bool "  Support SGI disklabels"
        default n
        depends on CONFIG_FDISK && CONFIG_FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          Enabling this option allows you to create or change SGI disklabels.
+          Most people can safely leave this option disabled.
 config CONFIG_FEATURE_SUN_LABEL
        bool "  Support SUN disklabels"
        default n
        depends on CONFIG_FDISK && CONFIG_FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE        
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          Enabling this option allows you to create or change SUN disklabels.
+          Most people can safely leave this option disabled.
 config CONFIG_FEATURE_OSF_LABEL
        bool "  Support BSD disklabels"
        default n
        depends on CONFIG_FDISK && CONFIG_FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          Enabling this option allows you to create or change BSD disklabels
+          and define and edit BSD disk slices.
 config CONFIG_FEATURE_FDISK_ADVANCED
        bool "  Support expert mode"
        default n
        depends on CONFIG_FDISK && CONFIG_FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          Enabling this option allows you to do terribly unsafe things like
+          define arbitrary drive geometry, move the beginning of data in a
+          partition, and similarly evil things.  Unless you have a very good
+          reason you would be wise to leave this disabled.
 config CONFIG_FREERAMDISK
        bool "freeramdisk"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          Linux allows you to create ramdisks.  This utility allows you to
+          delete them and completely free all memory that was used for the
+          ramdisk.  For example, if you boot Linux into a ramdisk and later
+          pivot_root, you may want to free the memory that is allocated to the
+          ramdisk.  If you have no use for freeing memory from a ramdisk, leave
+          this disabled.
 config CONFIG_FSCK_MINIX
        bool "fsck_minix"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          The minix filesystem is a nice, small, compact, read-write filesystem
+          with little overhead.  It is not a journaling filesystem however and
+          can encounted corruption if it is not properly unmounted or if the
+          power goes off in the middle of a write.  This utility allows you to
+          check for and attempt to repair any corruption that occurs to a minix
+          filesystem.
 config CONFIG_MKFS_MINIX
        bool "mkfs_minix"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          The minix filesystem is a nice, small, compact, read-write filesystem
+          with little overhead.  If you wish to be able to create minix filesystems
+          this utility will do the job for you.
 comment "Minix filesystem support"
    depends on CONFIG_FSCK_MINIX || CONFIG_MKFS_MINIX
@@ -113,57 +157,87 @@ config CONFIG_FEATURE_MINIX2
        default y
        depends on CONFIG_FSCK_MINIX || CONFIG_MKFS_MINIX
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          If you wish to be able to create version 2 minix filesystems, enable this.
+          If you enabled 'mkfs_minix' then you almost certainly want to be using the
+          version 2 filesystem support.
 config CONFIG_GETOPT
        bool "getopt"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          The getopt utility is used to break up (parse) options in command
+          lines to make it easy to write complex shell scripts that also check
+          for legal (and illegal) options.  If you want to write horribly
+          complex shell scripts, or use some horribly complex shell script
+          written by others, this utility may be for you.  Most people will
+          wisely leave this disabled.
 config CONFIG_HEXDUMP
        bool "hexdump"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          The hexdump utility is used to display binary data in a readable
+          way that is comparable to the output from most hex editors.
 config CONFIG_HWCLOCK
        bool "hwclock"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          The hwclock utility is used to read and set the hardware clock
+          on a system.  This is primarily used to set the correct time in
+          the hardware close, so the hardware will keep the correct time 
+          when Linux is _not_ running.
 config CONFIG_FEATURE_HWCLOCK_LONGOPTIONS
        bool "  Support long options (--hctosys,...)"
        default n
        depends on CONFIG_HWCLOCK
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          By default, the hwclock utility only uses short options.  If you
+          are overly fond of the long options, such as --hctosys, --utc, etc)
+          then enable this option.
 config CONFIG_LOSETUP
        bool "losetup"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          losetup is used to associate or detach a loop device with a regular
+          file or block device, and to query the status of a loop device.  This
+          version does not currently support enabling data encryption.
 config CONFIG_MKSWAP
        bool "mkswap"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          The mkswap utility is used to configure a file or disk partition as
+          Linux swap space.  This allows Linux to use the entire file or
+          partition as if it were additional RAM, which can greatly increase
+          the capability of low-memory machines.  This additional memory is
+          much slower than real RAM, but can be very helpful at preventing your
+          applications being killed by the Linux out of memory (OOM) killer.  Once
+          you have created swap space using 'mkswap' you need to enable the swap
+          space using the 'swapon' utility.
 config CONFIG_MORE
        bool "more"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          More is a simple utility which allows you to read text one screen
+          sized page at a time.  If you want to read text that is larger than
+          the screen, and you are using anything faster than a 300 baud modem,
+          you will probably find this utility very helpful.  If you don't have
+          any need to reading text files, you can leave this disabled.
 config CONFIG_FEATURE_USE_TERMIOS
        bool "  Use termios to manipulate the screen"
        default y
        depends on CONFIG_MORE
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          This option allows utilities such as 'more' and 'top' to determine
+          the size of the screen.  If you leave this disabled, your utilities
+          that display things on the screen with be especially primitive and
+          will be unable to determine the current screen size, and will be
+          unable to move the cursor.
 comment "Common options for ls and more"
        depends on CONFIG_LS || CONFIG_MORE
@@ -173,31 +247,51 @@ config CONFIG_FEATURE_AUTOWIDTH
        default y
        depends on CONFIG_LS || CONFIG_MORE
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          This option allows utilities such as 'ls' and 'more' to determine the
+          width of the screen, which can allow them to display additional text
+          or avoid wrapping text onto the next line.  If you leave this
+          disabled, your utilities will be especially primitive and will be
+          unable to determine the current screen width.
 config CONFIG_PIVOT_ROOT
        bool "pivot_root"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          The pivot_root utility swaps the mount points for the root filesystem
+          with some other mounted filesystem.  This allows you to do all sorts
+          of wild and crazy things with your Linux system and is far more
+          powerful than 'chroot'.
 config CONFIG_RDATE
        bool "rdate"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          The rdate utility allows you to syncronize the date and time of your 
+          system clock with the date and time of a remote networked system using
+          the RFC868 protocol, which is built into the inetd daemon on most
+          systems.
 config CONFIG_SWAPONOFF
        bool "swaponoff"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          This option enables both the 'swapon' and the 'swapoff' utilities.
+          Once you have created some swap space using 'mkswap', you also need
+          to enable your swap space with the 'swapon' utility.  The 'swapoff'
+          utility is used, typically at system shutdown, to disable any swap
+          space.  If you are not using any swap space, you can leave this
+          option disabled.
 config CONFIG_MOUNT
        bool "mount"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          All files and filesystems in Unix are arranged into one big directory
+          tree.  The 'mount' utility is used to graft a filesystem onto a
+          particular part of the tree.  A filesystem can either live on a block
+          device, or it can be accessible over the network, as is the case with
+          NFS filesystems.  Most people using BusyBox will also want to enable
+          the 'mount' utility.
 config CONFIG_NFSMOUNT
        bool "  Support mounting nfs file systems"
@@ -210,14 +304,18 @@ config CONFIG_UMOUNT
        bool "umount"
        default n
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          When you want to remove a mounted filesystem from its current mount point,
+          for example when you are shutting down the system, the 'umount' utility is
+          the tool to use.  If you enabled the 'mount' utility, you almost certainly
+          also want to enable 'umount'.
 config CONFIG_FEATURE_MOUNT_FORCE
        bool "  Support forced filesystem unmounting"
        default n
        depends on CONFIG_UMOUNT
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          This allows you to _force_ a filesystem to be umounted.  This is generally
+          only useful when you want to get rid of an unreachable NFS system.
 comment "Common options for mount/umount"
        depends on CONFIG_MOUNT || CONFIG_UMOUNT
@@ -227,14 +325,34 @@ config CONFIG_FEATURE_MOUNT_LOOP
        default n
        depends on CONFIG_MOUNT || CONFIG_UMOUNT
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          Enabling this feature allows mount to use the '-o' loop options,
+          which lets you loop mount files.  Mount will automagically setup and
+          free the necessary loop devices so you do not need to mess with the
+          'losetup' utility unless you really want to.  This is really only useful
+          if you plan to loop mount files.
 config CONFIG_FEATURE_MTAB_SUPPORT
        bool "  Support for a real /etc/mtab (instead of /proc/mounts)"
        default n
        depends on CONFIG_MOUNT || CONFIG_UMOUNT
        help
-          Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+          If your root filesystem is writable and you wish to have the 'mount'
+          utility create an mtab file listing the filesystems which have been
+          mounted then you should enable this option.  Most people that use
+          BusyBox have a read-only root filesystem, so they will leave this
+          option disabled and BusyBox will use the /proc/mounts file.
+config CONFIG_FEATURE_MTAB_FILENAME
+        string "  mtab file location"
+        default "/etc/mtab"
+        depends on CONFIG_FEATURE_MTAB_SUPPORT
+        help
+          Some people have a read only root filesystem, but they also wish to
+          have the 'mount' utility create an mtab file listing the filesystems
+          which have been mounted.  This option allows you to specify an alternative
+          location for the mtab file, such as /var/mtab, or /tmp/mtab.  The default
+          value is /etc/mtab, which is where this file is located on most desktop
+          Linux systems.
 endmenu
author	Eric Andersen <andersen@codepoet.org>	2003-02-27 03:14:04 +0000
committer	Eric Andersen <andersen@codepoet.org>	2003-02-27 03:14:04 +0000
commit	a0ac4523b1ebceff60ced8c7d079caf0ffc0db8b (patch)
tree	5fb61747545ebe080102f4cd2aeb9a0d5439edd8 /util-linux
parent	ee6da5527c982b40aef002616bf7d401ee2d434a (diff)
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