kbuild: document recursive dependency limitation / resolution

Recursive dependency issues with kconfig are unavoidable due to
some limitations with kconfig, since these issues are recurring
provide a hint to the user how they can resolve these dependency
issues and also document why such limitation exists.

While at it also document a bit of future prospects of ways to
enhance Kconfig, including providing formal semantics and evaluation
of use of a SAT solver. If you're interested in this work or prospects
of it check out the kconfig-sat project wiki [0] and mailing list [1].

[0] http://kernelnewbies.org/KernelProjects/kconfig-sat
[1] https://groups.google.com/d/forum/kconfig-sat

Cc: Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org>
Cc: James Bottomley <jbottomley@odin.com>
Cc: Josh Triplett <josh@joshtriplett.org>
Cc: Paul Bolle <pebolle@tiscali.nl>
Cc: Herbert Xu <herbert@gondor.apana.org.au>
Cc: Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de>
Cc: "Yann E. MORIN" <yann.morin.1998@free.fr>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: Mate Soos <soos.mate@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@suse.com>
Signed-off-by: Michal Marek <mmarek@suse.com>

1 files changed, 33 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/kbuild/Kconfig.select-break b/Documentation/kbuild/Kconfig.select-break
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..365ceb3424b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/kbuild/Kconfig.select-break
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+# Select broken dependency issue
+# ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+#
+# Test with:
+#
+# make KBUILD_KCONFIG=Documentation/kbuild/Kconfig.select-break menuconfig
+#
+# kconfig will not complain and enable this layout for configuration. This is
+# currently a feature of kconfig, given select was designed to be heavy handed.
+# Kconfig currently does not check the list of symbols listed on a symbol's
+# "select" list, this is done on purpose to help load a set of known required
+# symbols. Because of this use of select should be used with caution. An
+# example of this issue is below.
+#
+# The option B and C are clearly contradicting with respect to A.
+# However, when A is set, C can be set as well because Kconfig does not
+# visit the dependencies of the select target (in this case B).  And since
+# Kconfig does not visit the dependencies, it breaks the dependencies of B
+# (!A).
+
+mainmenu "Simple example to demo kconfig select broken dependency issue"
+
+config A
+	bool "CONFIG A"
+
+config B
+	bool "CONFIG B"
+	depends on !A
+
+config C
+	bool "CONFIG C"
+	depends on A
+	select B