Bug 11446

Summary:	Automate "to compile as module" strings
Product:	Other	Reporter:	Matt LaPlante (linux)
Component:	Configuration	Assignee:	other_configuration (other_configuration)
Status:	RESOLVED OBSOLETE
Severity:	enhancement	CC:	alan, walch.martin
Priority:	P1
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Kernel Version:	2.6.27	Subsystem:
Regression:	No	Bisected commit-id:

Description Matt LaPlante 2008-08-28 09:24:42 UTC

I've spent quite a bit of time scanning through Kconfig files correcting various textual errors.  One thing that I've noticed is variations of "To compile X as a module, choose M here.  The module will be called Y" occur extremely frequently.  A quick grep of the current mainline actually reveals ~1192 instances of it.  It seems very redundant to me to have everyone who adds a module or feature copy and paste this text, when it could seemingly be dynamically generated with ease.

Is there any reason we can't simply standardize on one string, and display it for any component that has the module option available?

Comment 1 Anonymous Emailer 2008-08-28 12:39:18 UTC

Reply-To: akpm@linux-foundation.org

On Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:24:42 -0700 (PDT)
bugme-daemon@bugzilla.kernel.org wrote:

> 
> http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11446
> 
>            Summary: Automate "to compile as module" strings
>            Product: Other
>            Version: 2.5
>      KernelVersion: 2.6.27
>           Platform: All
>         OS/Version: Linux
>               Tree: Mainline
>             Status: NEW
>           Severity: enhancement
>           Priority: P1
>          Component: Configuration
>         AssignedTo: zippel@linux-m68k.org
>         ReportedBy: kernel1@cyberdogtech.com
> 
> 
> I've spent quite a bit of time scanning through Kconfig files correcting
> various textual errors.  One thing that I've noticed is variations of "To
> compile X as a module, choose M here.  The module will be called Y" occur
> extremely frequently.  A quick grep of the current mainline actually reveals
> ~1192 instances of it.  It seems very redundant to me to have everyone who
> adds
> a module or feature copy and paste this text, when it could seemingly be
> dynamically generated with ease.
> 
> Is there any reason we can't simply standardize on one string, and display it
> for any component that has the module option available?

Good point :)

The Kconfig system doesn't presently know the name of the module,
but that could be added.  eg:


  config BMAC
	tristate "BMAC (G3 ethernet) support"
	depends on PPC_PMAC && PPC32
+	modulename bmac
	select CRC32
	help
	  Say Y for support of BMAC Ethernet interfaces. These are used on G3
	  computers.

-	  To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the module
-	  will be called bmac.


Any sane organisation would look at the benefit of this, weigh that
against the massive amount of code churn and would then run away howling.

Comment 2 Alexey Dobriyan 2008-09-05 21:17:19 UTC

> modulename bmac

I was thinking about the same. Probably it's time given that someone actually
asked about it.