1Introduction 2------------ 3 4The configuration database is a collection of configuration options 5organized 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 20Every entry has its own dependencies. These dependencies are used 21to determine the visibility of an entry. Any child entry is only 22visible if its parent entry is also visible. 23 24Menu entries 25------------ 26 27Most entries define a config option; all other entries help to organize 28them. A single configuration option is defined like this: 29 30config MODVERSIONS 31 bool "Set version information on all module symbols" 32 depends on MODULES 33 help 34 Usually, modules have to be recompiled whenever you switch to a new 35 kernel. ... 36 37Every line starts with a key word and can be followed by multiple 38arguments. "config" starts a new config entry. The following lines 39define attributes for this config option. Attributes can be the type of 40the config option, input prompt, dependencies, help text and default 41values. A config option can be defined multiple times with the same 42name, but every definition can have only a single input prompt and the 43type must not conflict. 44 45Menu attributes 46--------------- 47 48A menu entry can have a number of attributes. Not all of them are 49applicable everywhere (see syntax). 50 51- type definition: "bool"/"tristate"/"string"/"hex"/"int" 52 Every config option must have a type. There are only two basic types: 53 tristate and string; the other types are based 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" <expr> ["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- type definition + default value: 81 "def_bool"/"def_tristate" <expr> ["if" <expr>] 82 This is a shorthand notation for a type definition plus a value. 83 Optionally dependencies for this default value can be added with "if". 84 85- dependencies: "depends on" <expr> 86 This defines a dependency for this menu entry. If multiple 87 dependencies are defined, they are connected with '&&'. Dependencies 88 are applied to all other options within this menu entry (which also 89 accept an "if" expression), so these two examples are equivalent: 90 91 bool "foo" if BAR 92 default y if BAR 93 and 94 depends on BAR 95 bool "foo" 96 default y 97 98- reverse dependencies: "select" <symbol> ["if" <expr>] 99 While normal dependencies reduce the upper limit of a symbol (see 100 below), reverse dependencies can be used to force a lower limit of 101 another symbol. The value of the current menu symbol is used as the 102 minimal value <symbol> can be set to. If <symbol> is selected multiple 103 times, the limit is set to the largest selection. 104 Reverse dependencies can only be used with boolean or tristate 105 symbols. 106 Note: 107 select should be used with care. select will force 108 a symbol to a value without visiting the dependencies. 109 By abusing select you are able to select a symbol FOO even 110 if FOO depends on BAR that is not set. 111 In general use select only for non-visible symbols 112 (no prompts anywhere) and for symbols with no dependencies. 113 That will limit the usefulness but on the other hand avoid 114 the illegal configurations all over. 115 116- limiting menu display: "visible if" <expr> 117 This attribute is only applicable to menu blocks, if the condition is 118 false, the menu block is not displayed to the user (the symbols 119 contained there can still be selected by other symbols, though). It is 120 similar to a conditional "prompt" attribute for individual menu 121 entries. Default value of "visible" is true. 122 123- numerical ranges: "range" <symbol> <symbol> ["if" <expr>] 124 This allows to limit the range of possible input values for int 125 and hex symbols. The user can only input a value which is larger than 126 or equal to the first symbol and smaller than or equal to the second 127 symbol. 128 129- help text: "help" or "---help---" 130 This defines a help text. The end of the help text is determined by 131 the indentation level, this means it ends at the first line which has 132 a smaller indentation than the first line of the help text. 133 "---help---" and "help" do not differ in behaviour, "---help---" is 134 used to help visually separate configuration logic from help within 135 the file as an aid to developers. 136 137- misc options: "option" <symbol>[=<value>] 138 Various less common options can be defined via this option syntax, 139 which can modify the behaviour of the menu entry and its config 140 symbol. These options are currently possible: 141 142 - "defconfig_list" 143 This declares a list of default entries which can be used when 144 looking for the default configuration (which is used when the main 145 .config doesn't exists yet.) 146 147 - "modules" 148 This declares the symbol to be used as the MODULES symbol, which 149 enables the third modular state for all config symbols. 150 At most one symbol may have the "modules" option set. 151 152 - "env"=<value> 153 This imports the environment variable into Kconfig. It behaves like 154 a default, except that the value comes from the environment, this 155 also means that the behaviour when mixing it with normal defaults is 156 undefined at this point. The symbol is currently not exported back 157 to the build environment (if this is desired, it can be done via 158 another symbol). 159 160 - "allnoconfig_y" 161 This declares the symbol as one that should have the value y when 162 using "allnoconfig". Used for symbols that hide other symbols. 163 164Menu dependencies 165----------------- 166 167Dependencies define the visibility of a menu entry and can also reduce 168the input range of tristate symbols. The tristate logic used in the 169expressions uses one more state than normal boolean logic to express the 170module state. Dependency expressions have the following syntax: 171 172<expr> ::= <symbol> (1) 173 <symbol> '=' <symbol> (2) 174 <symbol> '!=' <symbol> (3) 175 '(' <expr> ')' (4) 176 '!' <expr> (5) 177 <expr> '&&' <expr> (6) 178 <expr> '||' <expr> (7) 179 180Expressions are listed in decreasing order of precedence. 181 182(1) Convert the symbol into an expression. Boolean and tristate symbols 183 are simply converted into the respective expression values. All 184 other symbol types result in 'n'. 185(2) If the values of both symbols are equal, it returns 'y', 186 otherwise 'n'. 187(3) If the values of both symbols are equal, it returns 'n', 188 otherwise 'y'. 189(4) Returns the value of the expression. Used to override precedence. 190(5) Returns the result of (2-/expr/). 191(6) Returns the result of min(/expr/, /expr/). 192(7) Returns the result of max(/expr/, /expr/). 193 194An expression can have a value of 'n', 'm' or 'y' (or 0, 1, 2 195respectively for calculations). A menu entry becomes visible when its 196expression evaluates to 'm' or 'y'. 197 198There are two types of symbols: constant and non-constant symbols. 199Non-constant symbols are the most common ones and are defined with the 200'config' statement. Non-constant symbols consist entirely of alphanumeric 201characters or underscores. 202Constant symbols are only part of expressions. Constant symbols are 203always surrounded by single or double quotes. Within the quote, any 204other character is allowed and the quotes can be escaped using '\'. 205 206Menu structure 207-------------- 208 209The position of a menu entry in the tree is determined in two ways. First 210it can be specified explicitly: 211 212menu "Network device support" 213 depends on NET 214 215config NETDEVICES 216 ... 217 218endmenu 219 220All entries within the "menu" ... "endmenu" block become a submenu of 221"Network device support". All subentries inherit the dependencies from 222the menu entry, e.g. this means the dependency "NET" is added to the 223dependency list of the config option NETDEVICES. 224 225The other way to generate the menu structure is done by analyzing the 226dependencies. If a menu entry somehow depends on the previous entry, it 227can be made a submenu of it. First, the previous (parent) symbol must 228be part of the dependency list and then one of these two conditions 229must be true: 230- the child entry must become invisible, if the parent is set to 'n' 231- the child entry must only be visible, if the parent is visible 232 233config MODULES 234 bool "Enable loadable module support" 235 236config MODVERSIONS 237 bool "Set version information on all module symbols" 238 depends on MODULES 239 240comment "module support disabled" 241 depends on !MODULES 242 243MODVERSIONS directly depends on MODULES, this means it's only visible if 244MODULES is different from 'n'. The comment on the other hand is only 245visible when MODULES is set to 'n'. 246 247 248Kconfig syntax 249-------------- 250 251The configuration file describes a series of menu entries, where every 252line starts with a keyword (except help texts). The following keywords 253end a menu entry: 254- config 255- menuconfig 256- choice/endchoice 257- comment 258- menu/endmenu 259- if/endif 260- source 261The first five also start the definition of a menu entry. 262 263config: 264 265 "config" <symbol> 266 <config options> 267 268This defines a config symbol <symbol> and accepts any of above 269attributes as options. 270 271menuconfig: 272 "menuconfig" <symbol> 273 <config options> 274 275This is similar to the simple config entry above, but it also gives a 276hint to front ends, that all suboptions should be displayed as a 277separate list of options. To make sure all the suboptions will really 278show up under the menuconfig entry and not outside of it, every item 279from the <config options> list must depend on the menuconfig symbol. 280In practice, this is achieved by using one of the next two constructs: 281 282(1): 283menuconfig M 284if M 285 config C1 286 config C2 287endif 288 289(2): 290menuconfig M 291config C1 292 depends on M 293config C2 294 depends on M 295 296In the following examples (3) and (4), C1 and C2 still have the M 297dependency, but will not appear under menuconfig M anymore, because 298of C0, which doesn't depend on M: 299 300(3): 301menuconfig M 302 config C0 303if M 304 config C1 305 config C2 306endif 307 308(4): 309menuconfig M 310config C0 311config C1 312 depends on M 313config C2 314 depends on M 315 316choices: 317 318 "choice" [symbol] 319 <choice options> 320 <choice block> 321 "endchoice" 322 323This defines a choice group and accepts any of the above attributes as 324options. A choice can only be of type bool or tristate. If no type is 325specified for a choice, it's type will be determined by the type of 326the first choice element in the group or remain unknown if none of the 327choice elements have a type specified, as well. 328 329While a boolean choice only allows a single config entry to be 330selected, a tristate choice also allows any number of config entries 331to be set to 'm'. This can be used if multiple drivers for a single 332hardware exists and only a single driver can be compiled/loaded into 333the kernel, but all drivers can be compiled as modules. 334 335A choice accepts another option "optional", which allows to set the 336choice to 'n' and no entry needs to be selected. 337If no [symbol] is associated with a choice, then you can not have multiple 338definitions of that choice. If a [symbol] is associated to the choice, 339then you may define the same choice (ie. with the same entries) in another 340place. 341 342comment: 343 344 "comment" <prompt> 345 <comment options> 346 347This defines a comment which is displayed to the user during the 348configuration process and is also echoed to the output files. The only 349possible options are dependencies. 350 351menu: 352 353 "menu" <prompt> 354 <menu options> 355 <menu block> 356 "endmenu" 357 358This defines a menu block, see "Menu structure" above for more 359information. The only possible options are dependencies and "visible" 360attributes. 361 362if: 363 364 "if" <expr> 365 <if block> 366 "endif" 367 368This defines an if block. The dependency expression <expr> is appended 369to all enclosed menu entries. 370 371source: 372 373 "source" <prompt> 374 375This reads the specified configuration file. This file is always parsed. 376 377mainmenu: 378 379 "mainmenu" <prompt> 380 381This sets the config program's title bar if the config program chooses 382to use it. It should be placed at the top of the configuration, before any 383other statement. 384 385 386Kconfig hints 387------------- 388This is a collection of Kconfig tips, most of which aren't obvious at 389first glance and most of which have become idioms in several Kconfig 390files. 391 392Adding common features and make the usage configurable 393~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 394It is a common idiom to implement a feature/functionality that are 395relevant for some architectures but not all. 396The recommended way to do so is to use a config variable named HAVE_* 397that is defined in a common Kconfig file and selected by the relevant 398architectures. 399An example is the generic IOMAP functionality. 400 401We would in lib/Kconfig see: 402 403# Generic IOMAP is used to ... 404config HAVE_GENERIC_IOMAP 405 406config GENERIC_IOMAP 407 depends on HAVE_GENERIC_IOMAP && FOO 408 409And in lib/Makefile we would see: 410obj-$(CONFIG_GENERIC_IOMAP) += iomap.o 411 412For each architecture using the generic IOMAP functionality we would see: 413 414config X86 415 select ... 416 select HAVE_GENERIC_IOMAP 417 select ... 418 419Note: we use the existing config option and avoid creating a new 420config variable to select HAVE_GENERIC_IOMAP. 421 422Note: the use of the internal config variable HAVE_GENERIC_IOMAP, it is 423introduced to overcome the limitation of select which will force a 424config option to 'y' no matter the dependencies. 425The dependencies are moved to the symbol GENERIC_IOMAP and we avoid the 426situation where select forces a symbol equals to 'y'. 427 428Build as module only 429~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 430To restrict a component build to module-only, qualify its config symbol 431with "depends on m". E.g.: 432 433config FOO 434 depends on BAR && m 435 436limits FOO to module (=m) or disabled (=n). 437 438Kconfig recursive dependency limitations 439~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 440 441If you've hit the Kconfig error: "recursive dependency detected" you've run 442into a recursive dependency issue with Kconfig, a recursive dependency can be 443summarized as a circular dependency. The kconfig tools need to ensure that 444Kconfig files comply with specified configuration requirements. In order to do 445that kconfig must determine the values that are possible for all Kconfig 446symbols, this is currently not possible if there is a circular relation 447between two or more Kconfig symbols. For more details refer to the "Simple 448Kconfig recursive issue" subsection below. Kconfig does not do recursive 449dependency resolution; this has a few implications for Kconfig file writers. 450We'll first explain why this issues exists and then provide an example 451technical limitation which this brings upon Kconfig developers. Eager 452developers wishing to try to address this limitation should read the next 453subsections. 454 455Simple Kconfig recursive issue 456~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 457 458Read: Documentation/kbuild/Kconfig.recursion-issue-01 459 460Test with: 461 462make KBUILD_KCONFIG=Documentation/kbuild/Kconfig.recursion-issue-01 allnoconfig 463 464Cumulative Kconfig recursive issue 465~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 466 467Read: Documentation/kbuild/Kconfig.recursion-issue-02 468 469Test with: 470 471make KBUILD_KCONFIG=Documentation/kbuild/Kconfig.recursion-issue-02 allnoconfig 472 473Practical solutions to kconfig recursive issue 474~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 475 476Developers who run into the recursive Kconfig issue have three options 477at their disposal. We document them below and also provide a list of 478historical issues resolved through these different solutions. 479 480 a) Remove any superfluous "select FOO" or "depends on FOO" 481 b) Match dependency semantics: 482 b1) Swap all "select FOO" to "depends on FOO" or, 483 b2) Swap all "depends on FOO" to "select FOO" 484 485The resolution to a) can be tested with the sample Kconfig file 486Documentation/kbuild/Kconfig.recursion-issue-01 through the removal 487of the "select CORE" from CORE_BELL_A_ADVANCED as that is implicit already 488since CORE_BELL_A depends on CORE. At times it may not be possible to remove 489some dependency criteria, for such cases you can work with solution b). 490 491The two different resolutions for b) can be tested in the sample Kconfig file 492Documentation/kbuild/Kconfig.recursion-issue-02. 493 494Below is a list of examples of prior fixes for these types of recursive issues; 495all errors appear to involve one or more select's and one or more "depends on". 496 497commit fix 498====== === 49906b718c01208 select A -> depends on A 500c22eacfe82f9 depends on A -> depends on B 5016a91e854442c select A -> depends on A 502118c565a8f2e select A -> select B 503f004e5594705 select A -> depends on A 504c7861f37b4c6 depends on A -> (null) 50580c69915e5fb select A -> (null) (1) 506c2218e26c0d0 select A -> depends on A (1) 507d6ae99d04e1c select A -> depends on A 50895ca19cf8cbf select A -> depends on A 5098f057d7bca54 depends on A -> (null) 5108f057d7bca54 depends on A -> select A 511a0701f04846e select A -> depends on A 5120c8b92f7f259 depends on A -> (null) 513e4e9e0540928 select A -> depends on A (2) 5147453ea886e87 depends on A > (null) (1) 5157b1fff7e4fdf select A -> depends on A 51686c747d2a4f0 select A -> depends on A 517d9f9ab51e55e select A -> depends on A 5180c51a4d8abd6 depends on A -> select A (3) 519e98062ed6dc4 select A -> depends on A (3) 52091e5d284a7f1 select A -> (null) 521 522(1) Partial (or no) quote of error. 523(2) That seems to be the gist of that fix. 524(3) Same error. 525 526Future kconfig work 527~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 528 529Work on kconfig is welcomed on both areas of clarifying semantics and on 530evaluating the use of a full SAT solver for it. A full SAT solver can be 531desirable to enable more complex dependency mappings and / or queries, 532for instance on possible use case for a SAT solver could be that of handling 533the current known recursive dependency issues. It is not known if this would 534address such issues but such evaluation is desirable. If support for a full SAT 535solver proves too complex or that it cannot address recursive dependency issues 536Kconfig should have at least clear and well defined semantics which also 537addresses and documents limitations or requirements such as the ones dealing 538with recursive dependencies. 539 540Further work on both of these areas is welcomed on Kconfig. We elaborate 541on both of these in the next two subsections. 542 543Semantics of Kconfig 544~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 545 546The use of Kconfig is broad, Linux is now only one of Kconfig's users: 547one study has completed a broad analysis of Kconfig use in 12 projects [0]. 548Despite its widespread use, and although this document does a reasonable job 549in documenting basic Kconfig syntax a more precise definition of Kconfig 550semantics is welcomed. One project deduced Kconfig semantics through 551the use of the xconfig configurator [1]. Work should be done to confirm if 552the deduced semantics matches our intended Kconfig design goals. 553 554Having well defined semantics can be useful for tools for practical 555evaluation of depenencies, for instance one such use known case was work to 556express in boolean abstraction of the inferred semantics of Kconfig to 557translate Kconfig logic into boolean formulas and run a SAT solver on this to 558find dead code / features (always inactive), 114 dead features were found in 559Linux using this methodology [1] (Section 8: Threats to validity). 560 561Confirming this could prove useful as Kconfig stands as one of the the leading 562industrial variability modeling languages [1] [2]. Its study would help 563evaluate practical uses of such languages, their use was only theoretical 564and real world requirements were not well understood. As it stands though 565only reverse engineering techniques have been used to deduce semantics from 566variability modeling languages such as Kconfig [3]. 567 568[0] http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~shshe/kconfig_semantics.pdf 569[1] http://gsd.uwaterloo.ca/sites/default/files/vm-2013-berger.pdf 570[2] http://gsd.uwaterloo.ca/sites/default/files/ase241-berger_0.pdf 571[3] http://gsd.uwaterloo.ca/sites/default/files/icse2011.pdf 572 573Full SAT solver for Kconfig 574~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 575 576Although SAT solvers [0] haven't yet been used by Kconfig directly, as noted in 577the previous subsection, work has been done however to express in boolean 578abstraction the inferred semantics of Kconfig to translate Kconfig logic into 579boolean formulas and run a SAT solver on it [1]. Another known related project 580is CADOS [2] (former VAMOS [3]) and the tools, mainly undertaker [4], which has 581been introduced first with [5]. The basic concept of undertaker is to exract 582variability models from Kconfig, and put them together with a propositional 583formula extracted from CPP #ifdefs and build-rules into a SAT solver in order 584to find dead code, dead files, and dead symbols. If using a SAT solver is 585desirable on Kconfig one approach would be to evaluate repurposing such efforts 586somehow on Kconfig. There is enough interest from mentors of existing projects 587to not only help advise how to integrate this work upstream but also help 588maintain it long term. Interested developers should visit: 589 590http://kernelnewbies.org/KernelProjects/kconfig-sat 591 592[0] http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~sabhar/chapters/SATSolvers-KR-Handbook.pdf 593[1] http://gsd.uwaterloo.ca/sites/default/files/vm-2013-berger.pdf 594[2] https://cados.cs.fau.de 595[3] https://vamos.cs.fau.de 596[4] https://undertaker.cs.fau.de 597[5] https://www4.cs.fau.de/Publications/2011/tartler_11_eurosys.pdf 598