Re: [PATCH] Remove silentoldconfig from "make help"; fix kconfig/conf's help

From: Masahiro Yamada
Date: Wed Jan 17 2018 - 23:32:29 EST


Hi Marc,

Sorry for my late reply.

2018-01-13 7:49 GMT+09:00 Marc Herbert <Marc.Herbert@xxxxxxxxx>:
> Masahiro,
>
> On 09/01/2018 23:17, Masahiro Yamada wrote:
>
>> > "(oldconfig used to be more verbose)"
>
>> The historical background is git.
>> If people are interested in archeology,
>> they would be able to do it by "git log", "git blame", etc.
>> We are generally interested in the current behavior.
>
> I'd like to keep that sentence because it's there to explain the legacy and
> confusing "--silentoldconfig" name which unfortunately still sticks out in
> the *current* conf.c interface.
>
> + printf(" --silentoldconfig Similar to oldconfig but generates configuration in\n"
> + " include/{generated/,config/} (oldconfig used to be more verbose)\n");
>
> The purpose of this sentence is to warn people that: "silentoldconfig is
> just archeology, so you can safely ignore it" and save them time.
>
> The alternative I considered was to entirely remove "silentconfig" not just
> from the Makefile's help but from the conf.c help too.
>
> Thoughts?


Another possibility might be to rename 'silentoldconfig'.
instead of explaining the background in the help message.

Your git-log 'internal interface' implies
renaming has no impact.

Commit fb16d8912db5268f29706010ecafff74b971c58d
renamed oldnoconfig to olddefconfig
to match the name to its behavior.

Then, I want to drop the 'oldnoconfig' alias:
https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/10172375/


If we worry about the compatibility just in case,
we can keep 'silentoldconfig' as an alias as well.



It is difficult to suggest a clear name,
but 'syncconfig' is the one I came up with.

Please suggest if you have a better idea.


What do you think?

--
Best Regards
Masahiro Yamada