Pardon me if I am a bit un-informed or something

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Jan 10, 2006 at 12:05:21AM -0500, Paul King wrote:
> As many of you know I have been using linux since kernel version 1, and
> have recently attempted a compile for a particular set of modules, after
> not having done this for a long time. I noticed this when I did a "make
> help":
> 
>         Configuration targets:
>           config          - Update current config utilising a line-
>                             oriented program
>           menuconfig      - Update current config utilising a menu based
>                             program
>           xconfig         - Update current config utilising a QT based
>                             front-end
>           gconfig         - Update current config utilising a GTK based
>                             front-end
>           oldconfig       - Update current config utilising a
>                             provided .config as base
>           randconfig      - New config with random answer to all options
>           defconfig       - New config with default answer to all
>                             options
>           allmodconfig    - New config selecting modules when possible
>           allyesconfig    - New config where all options are accepted
>                             with yes
>           allnoconfig     - New minimal config
> 
> I mean *really*, what masochist would choose "randconfig" as the config
> target? Can someone enlighten me on what purpose this option serves?
> Same goes for "allyesconfig". I can see a use for the rest of these.

randconfig is great for testing builds.  Make a random config, see if it
even builds.  Catches syntax errors and other build problems in less
used areas of the kernel, and catches some config dependancy issues that
cause build failures.

The all* options are probably also mostly for testing.

Len Sorensen
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml