Re: [RFC][PATCH] Make entries in the "Device drivers" menu individually selectable

["Robert P. J. Day" <rpjday@mindspring.com>]

On Sat, 16 Dec 2006, Stefan Richter wrote:

> Robert P. J. Day wrote on 2006-12-14:
> >   i've posted on this before so here's a slightly-updated patch that
> > uses the kbuild "menuconfig" feature to make numerous entries under
> > the Device drivers menu selectable on the spot.
>
> Works for me, but I don't see a lot of benefit from it. Actually I see
> two disadvantages of the patch:

... snip ...

>  - There are two out-of-tree FireWire drivers for special purposes
> (one bus sniffer, one remote debugging aid) which might perhaps be
> candidates for integration into mainline. These drivers do not use
> the ieee1394 base driver. (They just don't need to.) With your
> patch, disabling the subsystem menu would not only disable the
> subsystem core driver (which is correct) but would also hide the
> choice for such extra drivers which do not need the core driver. Or
> vice versa, enabling the submenu would enable the core driver, even
> though not all subsystem choices need the core driver.

... snip ...

i've noticed this sort of thing before -- submenus containing entries
that don't actually depend on the top-level config variable.  but
which drivers are you talking about here?  i'm looking at the
ieee1394/Kconfig file and every entry in that submenu appears to
depend explicitly on IEEE1394.

note that that patch i submitted earlier didn't try to modify every
single sub-entry under Device Drivers -- only those for which it
seemed that the transformation wouldn't cause *any* change in
functionality.  so if there was something about ieee1394 that didn't
fit the bill, it's because i must have overlooked something.

in any event, as i mentioned earlier, i'm just trying to find a way to
make the menu entries more obvious and more easily selectable, without
having to enter each submenu to see what it represents.  it's quite
possible that a whole new kbuild directive would be useful here.  who
knows?

rday