Re: displaying kbuild dependancies ...

["Randy.Dunlap" <rddunlap@osdl.org>]

On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 23:30:34 +0200 Herbert Poetzl wrote:

| On Sat, Sep 11, 2004 at 11:39:31PM +0200, Sam Ravnborg wrote:
| > On Sat, Sep 11, 2004 at 10:25:48PM +0200, Herbert Poetzl wrote:
| > > 
| > > Hi Sam!
| > > 
| > > first, thanks for the kbuild stuff and all the 
| > > time spent on that ... I really love it
| > > 
| > > 
| > > from time to time I encounter some issue which
| > > usually keeps me busy for a while, and I think
| > > there probably is a simpler solution to that ...
| > > 
| > > the procedure:
| > > 
| > > I'm configuring a 2.6.X-rcY-bkZ kernel for testing
| > > with QEMU, which in my setup basically requires
| > > some QEMU specific settings, I usually turn on/off
| > > by just editing the .config file by hand, and then
| > > invoking 'make oldconfig' ...
| > > 
| > > to keep the possibility for error low, I usually
| > > just remove the entries in question, and oldconfig
| > > will ask me the relevant question, leading to a
| > > nice config adapted to my purposes ...
| > > 
| > > the issue:
| > > 
| > > sometimes a dependancy doesn't allow me to remove
| > > a config option, I absolutely have to remove for
| > > my setup, like the VGA_CONSOLE, and then the hunt
| > > for the option 'requiring' that one unconditinally
| > > beginns ...
| > > 
| > > usually I start with grep and end with trial and
| > > error, until I find the malicious dependancy ...
| > 
| > The only option today is to turn on the debug option
| > in 'make xconfig'.
| 
| hmm, so no luck for the typical console user  :(
| 
| > I have been looking inot something better for menuconfig
| > but frankly kconfig is not where I feel most comfortable.
| 
| it would be sufficient to be able to turn on some
| debug output, which says 'foo selected from bla'
| or 'foo disabled, requires bla and whatnot' ...

There are some menuconfig patches in -mm (from Yuval Turgeman)
that add a search option (using '/') to menuconfig.
E.g., enter / + USB_STORAGE and you can see everywhere
that USB_STORAGE is used.... and that it SELECTs SCSI.
To see only the USB_STORAGE kconfig entry, use a regex:
^USB_STORAGE$

IIRC, Yuval is considering how to enhance this feature.

--
~Randy