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    SubjectImprove init/Kconfig help descriptions [PATCH 1/9]
    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 <nick@nick-andrew.net>

    --- 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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