From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.5 required=3.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,SPF_PASS,USER_AGENT_MUTT autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from mail.kernel.org (mail.kernel.org [198.145.29.99]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CD259C43381 for ; Wed, 6 Mar 2019 09:35:30 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [209.132.180.67]) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9FF4B20675 for ; Wed, 6 Mar 2019 09:35:30 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1729764AbfCFJf2 (ORCPT ); Wed, 6 Mar 2019 04:35:28 -0500 Received: from foss.arm.com ([217.140.101.70]:57724 "EHLO foss.arm.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1729078AbfCFJf2 (ORCPT ); Wed, 6 Mar 2019 04:35:28 -0500 Received: from usa-sjc-imap-foss1.foss.arm.com (unknown [10.72.51.249]) by usa-sjc-mx-foss1.foss.arm.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id E9966A78; Wed, 6 Mar 2019 01:35:27 -0800 (PST) Received: from lakrids.cambridge.arm.com (usa-sjc-imap-foss1.foss.arm.com [10.72.51.249]) by usa-sjc-imap-foss1.foss.arm.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 927913F71D; Wed, 6 Mar 2019 01:35:26 -0800 (PST) Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2019 09:35:21 +0000 From: Mark Rutland To: Russell King - ARM Linux admin Cc: linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Lucas Stach , Peng Hao , Andy Shevchenko , Greg Kroah-Hartman Subject: Re: Smarter Kconfig help Message-ID: <20190306093521.GA50994@lakrids.cambridge.arm.com> References: <20190305173111.t3n6ycktht7kxuhq@shell.armlinux.org.uk> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20190305173111.t3n6ycktht7kxuhq@shell.armlinux.org.uk> User-Agent: Mutt/1.11.1+11 (2f07cb52) (2018-12-01) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Tue, Mar 05, 2019 at 05:31:12PM +0000, Russell King - ARM Linux admin wrote: > Guys, Hi Russell, > We need to be smarter when writing Kconfig help. I'm just going > through updating my build trees with the results of 5.0 development, > and a number of the help texts are next to useless. For example, > > PVPANIC - is this something that should be enabled for a host or > guest kernel? Answer: you have to read the driver code to find out. When I looked at the help text: This driver provides support for the pvpanic device. pvpanic is a paravirtualized device provided by QEMU; it lets a virtual machine (guest) communicate panic events to the host. ... it seemed clear to me that this was for a guest, given the text says QEMU provides the device. I guess you read that as meaning QEMU asks the host kernel to provide the device to the guest? Do you have a suggestion for how to word that unambiguously? > IMX_IRQSTEER - which i.MX SoCs does this apply to? The help text > just says: > > "Support for the i.MX IRQSTEER interrupt multiplexer/remapper." > > which doesn't say which SoCs this should be enabled for - it turns > out that grepping for the driver's DT compatible string, none of > the 32-bit ARM cores have support for this, yet we still default > it to enabled there. It seems the help text should at the very > least tell the user that this is not applicable to i.MX SoCs with > 32-bit ARM cores. > > I'm sure there's many other instances of this... I suspect that > it's caused by review concentrating mostly on the technical aspects > of the code and the Kconfig help text just gets forgotten about. Just to be clear, in general what you want is for Kconfig help to be clearer about *when* an option is relevant, right? I'll try to bear that in mind when reviewing in future. Thanks, Mark.