"Next Generation" kernel configuration?

From: Conrad J. Sabatier (conrads_at_cox.net)
Date: 07/21/04

  • Next message: Brooks Davis: "Re: "Next Generation" kernel configuration?" 
    Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 19:39:31 -0500 (CDT)
To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org

    Just musing on an idea here:

    I've been thinking for a while now about trying to write a tool to make
    kernel configuration easier, sort of a "make config" (as in ports) for
    the kernel, similar to what's available on some of the Linux distros.

    Ideally, such a tool would be capable of automatically adapting itself
    to handle and present as choices, in an orderly and logical fashion,
    whatever devices, options, etc. were currently available, as defined by
    the files in /sys/conf et al.

    The major hurdle to overcome, it appears to me, is that the scheme
    currently employed to describe the available devices, options, etc.
    does not lend itself very easily at all to any kind of automatic
    parsing or other manipulations. Determining dependencies between
    components programmatically, for one thing, seems well near impossible.
    The NOTES files, in their current form, make even finding the comment
    associated with a particular option or device extremely difficult, if
    not impossible.

    Has this ever come up for discussion before? Now that we have rcNG,
    with its explicit declarations of dependencies, has any thought been
    given to doing something similar with kernel configuration files?
    Something still human-readable, yet more orderly and systematic, easier
    for a machine to interpret, present and verify?

    A dependable tool offering a menu-driven means of configuring the
    kernel, ensuring proper config file syntax, dependency handling,
    prevention of incompatible options, etc. -- as well as online
    documentation, advice, suggestions and warnings, plus perhaps a nice
    set of default selections -- would be a very nice addition to the
    system. But to bring it about, obviously a major reworking of the
    current system of kernel configuration files would be required.

    Thoughts? 

    -- 
Conrad J. Sabatier <conrads@cox.net> -- "In Unix veritas"
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  • Next message: Brooks Davis: "Re: "Next Generation" kernel configuration?"

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