From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753675AbWLRJyu (ORCPT ); Mon, 18 Dec 2006 04:54:50 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1753668AbWLRJyu (ORCPT ); Mon, 18 Dec 2006 04:54:50 -0500 Received: from nic.NetDirect.CA ([216.16.235.2]:33224 "EHLO rubicon.netdirect.ca" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753667AbWLRJyu (ORCPT ); Mon, 18 Dec 2006 04:54:50 -0500 X-Originating-Ip: 24.148.236.183 Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2006 04:50:18 -0500 (EST) From: "Robert P. J. Day" X-X-Sender: rpjday@localhost.localdomain To: Stefan Richter cc: Linux kernel mailing list Subject: Re: [RFC][PATCH] Make entries in the "Device drivers" menu individually selectable In-Reply-To: <4583D008.40806@s5r6.in-berlin.de> Message-ID: References: <4583D008.40806@s5r6.in-berlin.de> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Net-Direct-Inc-MailScanner-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information X-Net-Direct-Inc-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-Net-Direct-Inc-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam, SpamAssassin (not cached, score=-14.754, required 5, ALL_TRUSTED -1.80, BAYES_00 -15.00, RCVD_IN_SORBS_DUL 2.05) X-Net-Direct-Inc-MailScanner-From: rpjday@mindspring.com Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org 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