The "imply" keyword is a weak version of "select" where the target
config symbol can still be turned off, avoiding those pitfalls that come
with the "select" keyword.
This is useful e.g. with multiple drivers that want to indicate their
ability to hook into a secondary subsystem while allowing the user to
configure that subsystem out without also having to unset these drivers.
Currently, the same effect can almost be achieved with:
config DRIVER_A
tristate
config DRIVER_B
tristate
config DRIVER_C
tristate
config DRIVER_D
tristate
[...]
config SUBSYSTEM_X
tristate
default DRIVER_A || DRIVER_B || DRIVER_C || DRIVER_D || [...]
This is unwieldy to maintain especially with a large number of drivers.
Furthermore, there is no easy way to restrict the choice for SUBSYSTEM_X
to y or n, excluding m, when some drivers are built-in. The "select"
keyword allows for excluding m, but it excludes n as well. Hence
this "imply" keyword. The above becomes:
config DRIVER_A
tristate
imply SUBSYSTEM_X
config DRIVER_B
tristate
imply SUBSYSTEM_X
[...]
config SUBSYSTEM_X
tristate
This is much cleaner, and way more flexible than "select". SUBSYSTEM_X
can still be configured out, and it can be set as a module when none of
the drivers are configured in or all of them are modular.
Signed-off-by: Nicolas Pitre <nico@linaro.org>
Acked-by: Richard Cochran <richardcochran@gmail.com>
Acked-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Acked-by: John Stultz <john.stultz@linaro.org>
Reviewed-by: Josh Triplett <josh@joshtriplett.org>
Cc: Paul Bolle <pebolle@tiscali.nl>
Cc: linux-kbuild@vger.kernel.org
Cc: netdev@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Michal Marek <mmarek@suse.com>
Cc: Edward Cree <ecree@solarflare.com>
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1478841010-28605-2-git-send-email-nicolas.pitre@linaro.org
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
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