On Wed, Feb 20, 2008 at 01:06:09AM +1100, Nick Andrew wrote:
> Here is a series of 9 patches to init/Kconfig intended to improve the
> usefulness and consistency of the help descriptions. The patches are
> against linux-2.6.24.2.
> [...]
> Patch 1
> EXPERIMENTAL
> LOCALVERSION
> LOCALVERSION_AUTO
> SWAP
> SYSVIPC
> POSIX_MQUEUE
> BSD_PROCESS_ACCT
> BSD_PROCESS_ACCT_V3
Changelog:
Improve usefulness and consistency of kernel configuration help messages.
Signed-off-by: Nick Andrew <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
--- a/init/Kconfig 2008-02-20 00:45:07.000000000 +1100
+++ b/init/Kconfig 2008-02-20 00:52:07.000000000 +1100
@@ -12,33 +12,45 @@ menu "General setup"
config EXPERIMENTAL
bool "Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers"
---help---
- Some of the various things that Linux supports (such as network
- drivers, file systems, network protocols, etc.) can be in a state
- of development where the functionality, stability, or the level of
- testing is not yet high enough for general use. This is usually
- known as the "alpha-test" phase among developers. If a feature is
- currently in alpha-test, then the developers usually discourage
- uninformed widespread use of this feature by the general public to
- avoid "Why doesn't this work?" type mail messages. However, active
- testing and use of these systems is welcomed. Just be aware that it
- may not meet the normal level of reliability or it may fail to work
- in some special cases. Detailed bug reports from people familiar
- with the kernel internals are usually welcomed by the developers
- (before submitting bug reports, please read the documents
- <file:README>, <file:MAINTAINERS>, <file:REPORTING-BUGS>,
- <file:Documentation/BUG-HUNTING>, and
- <file:Documentation/oops-tracing.txt> in the kernel source).
+ This option enables you to choose kernel configuration
+ options labeled as EXPERIMENTAL.
+
+ Some of the various things that Linux supports (such as
+ network drivers, file systems, network protocols, etc.) can
+ be in a state of development where the functionality,
+ stability, or the level of testing is not yet high enough
+ for general use. This is usually known as the "alpha-test"
+ phase among developers.
+
+ If a feature is currently in alpha-test, then the
+ developers usually discourage uninformed widespread use of
+ this feature by the general public to avoid "Why doesn't
+ this work?" type email messages. However, active testing
+ and use of these systems is welcomed. Just be aware that
+ it may not meet the normal level of reliability or it
+ may fail to work in some special cases.
+
+ Detailed bug reports from people familiar with
+ the kernel internals are usually welcomed by the
+ developers. Before submitting bug reports, please
+ read the documents <file:README>, <file:MAINTAINERS>,
+ <file:REPORTING-BUGS>, <file:Documentation/BUG-HUNTING>,
+ and <file:Documentation/oops-tracing.txt> in the kernel
+ source.
This option will also make obsoleted drivers available. These are
drivers that have been replaced by something else, and/or are
scheduled to be removed in a future kernel release.
- Unless you intend to help test and develop a feature or driver that
- falls into this category, or you have a situation that requires
- using these features, you should probably say N here, which will
- cause the configurator to present you with fewer choices. If
- you say Y here, you will be offered the choice of using features or
- drivers that are currently considered to be in the alpha-test phase.
+ Unless you intend to help test and develop a feature or driver
+ that falls into this category, or you have a situation that
+ requires using these features, you should probably say N here,
+ which will cause the configurator to present you with fewer
+ choices. If you say Y here, you will be offered the choice of
+ using features or drivers that are currently considered to be
+ in the alpha-test phase.
+
+ If unsure, say N.
config BROKEN
bool
@@ -66,11 +78,18 @@ config LOCALVERSION
string "Local version - append to kernel release"
help
Append an extra string to the end of your kernel version.
- This will show up when you type uname, for example.
- The string you set here will be appended after the contents of
- any files with a filename matching localversion* in your
- object and source tree, in that order. Your total string can
- be a maximum of 64 characters.
+ This will show up when you type "uname -r", for example.
+
+ If you have any files with names matching "localversion*"
+ in your object or source trees, then the contents of these
+ files will be appended to your kernel version name.
+
+ The strings are appended from the object tree files and
+ then the source tree files, then any string specified
+ by CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO below, and finally the value
+ specified here.
+
+ The maximum length of a kernel version name is 64 characters.
config LOCALVERSION_AUTO
bool "Automatically append version information to the version string"
@@ -85,38 +104,47 @@ config LOCALVERSION_AUTO
appended after any matching localversion* files, and after the value
set in CONFIG_LOCALVERSION.
- (The actual string used here is the first eight characters produced
+ The actual string used here is the first eight characters produced
by running the command:
$ git rev-parse --verify HEAD
- which is done within the script "scripts/setlocalversion".)
+ which is done within the script "scripts/setlocalversion".
config SWAP
bool "Support for paging of anonymous memory (swap)"
depends on MMU && BLOCK
default y
help
- This option allows you to choose whether you want to have support
- for so called swap devices or swap files in your kernel that are
- used to provide more virtual memory than the actual RAM present
- in your computer. If unsure say Y.
+ This option allows you to choose whether you want to have
+ support for swap devices or swap files in your kernel.
+
+ Swap is used to provide more virtual memory than the
+ actual RAM present in your computer. This can improve
+ performance by moving less frequently used blocks of
+ memory onto disk, which frees it up for improved disk
+ caching or active processes.
+
+ If unsure, say Y.
config SYSVIPC
bool "System V IPC"
---help---
- Inter Process Communication is a suite of library functions and
+ Inter-Process Communication is a suite of library functions and
system calls which let processes (running programs) synchronize and
exchange information. It is generally considered to be a good thing,
- and some programs won't run unless you say Y here. In particular, if
- you want to run the DOS emulator dosemu under Linux (read the
- DOSEMU-HOWTO, available from <http://www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto>),
- you'll need to say Y here.
+ and some programs won't run without it.
+
+ In particular, if you want to run the DOS emulator dosemu
+ under Linux, you'll need to say Y here. You can find out
+ more about dosemu at <http://dosemu.sourceforge.net/>
You can find documentation about IPC with "info ipc" and also in
section 6.4 of the Linux Programmer's Guide, available from
<http://www.tldp.org/guides.html>.
+ If unsure, say Y.
+
config SYSVIPC_SYSCTL
bool
depends on SYSVIPC
@@ -127,42 +155,69 @@ config POSIX_MQUEUE
bool "POSIX Message Queues"
depends on NET && EXPERIMENTAL
---help---
- POSIX variant of message queues is a part of IPC. In POSIX message
- queues every message has a priority which decides about succession
- of receiving it by a process. If you want to compile and run
- programs written e.g. for Solaris with use of its POSIX message
- queues (functions mq_*) say Y here.
-
- POSIX message queues are visible as a filesystem called 'mqueue'
- and can be mounted somewhere if you want to do filesystem
- operations on message queues.
+ POSIX Message Queues is a type of Inter-Process Communication
+ (IPC). It provides similar functionality to System V message
+ queues, with a different Application Programming Interface (API).
+
+ In POSIX Message Queues, every message has a priority which
+ determines the order in which each message is delivered to a
+ receiving process. See mq_overview(7) for details of the
+ API (functions mq_*).
+
+ When POSIX Message Queues are enabled, a directory appears
+ called /proc/sys/fs/mqueue which can be used to tune kernel
+ parameters. See mq_overview(7) for details.
+
+ POSIX Message Queues can also be mounted as a filesystem
+ called 'mqueue', for example: "mount -t mqueue none /mqueue".
If unsure, say Y.
config BSD_PROCESS_ACCT
bool "BSD Process Accounting"
help
- If you say Y here, a user level program will be able to instruct the
- kernel (via a special system call) to write process accounting
- information to a file: whenever a process exits, information about
- that process will be appended to the file by the kernel. The
- information includes things such as creation time, owning user,
- command name, memory usage, controlling terminal etc. (the complete
- list is in the struct acct in <file:include/linux/acct.h>). It is
- up to the user level program to do useful things with this
- information. This is generally a good idea, so say Y.
+ BSD Process Accounting enables the kernel to write process
+ accounting information to a file to track system resources
+ utilisation and some user actions.
+
+ Whenever a process exits, information about that process
+ will be appended to the file. This includes things such as
+ creation time, owning user, command name, memory usage,
+ controlling terminal, etc.
+
+ See sa(1), accton(8) and acct(2) for more details, also
+ <file:include/linux/acct.h> (struct acct) for the complete
+ list of stored data.
+
+ You probably only need this if you have multiple users and
+ you want to monitor or account for their system usage, and
+ fine-tune system performance through analysis of the logfile.
+
+ If unsure, say N.
config BSD_PROCESS_ACCT_V3
bool "BSD Process Accounting version 3 file format"
depends on BSD_PROCESS_ACCT
default n
help
- If you say Y here, the process accounting information is written
- in a new file format that also logs the process IDs of each
- process and it's parent. Note that this file format is incompatible
- with previous v0/v1/v2 file formats, so you will need updated tools
- for processing it. A preliminary version of these tools is available
- at <http://www.physik3.uni-rostock.de/tim/kernel/utils/acct/>.
+ BSD Process Accounting enables the kernel to write process
+ accounting information to a file to track system resources
+ utilisation and some user actions.
+
+ Version 3 is a new file format that also logs the process
+ ID and process parent ID.
+
+ Note that this file format is incompatible with previous
+ v0/v1/v2 file formats, so you will need updated tools
+ for processing it. One such tool is "bootchart", and
+ the GNU "acct" package should be able to read the v3
+ file format too.
+
+ You probably only need this if you have multiple users and
+ you want to monitor or account for their system usage, and
+ fine-tune system performance through analysis of the logfile.
+
+ If unsure, say N.
config TASKSTATS
bool "Export task/process statistics through netlink (EXPERIMENTAL)"
--
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