>Number:         6981
>Category:       kern
>Synopsis:       kernel config syntax undocumented
>Confidential:   yes
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       high
>Responsible:    kern-bug-people (Kernel Bug People)
>State:          open
>Class:          doc-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Wed Feb 10 12:05:01 1999
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Perry E. Metzger
>Organization:
Perry Metzger		perry@piermont.com
--
"Ask not what your country can force other people to do for you."
>Release:        NetBSD-1.3I
>Environment:
	
System: NetBSD jekyll.piermont.com 1.3I NetBSD 1.3I (JEKYLL) #0: Mon Jan 25 12:01:45 EST 1999 perry@jekyll.piermont.com:/usr/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/JEKYLL i386


>Description:
	There is no documentation for the syntax of config(8) kernel
configuration files. config(8) describes nothing, and the old "how to
configure your kernel" document is hopelessly out of date and doesn't
cover new config.

As a result, naive users have serious trouble trying to figure out how 
to build themselves new kernels, except by trial and error. Usually
they figure this out pretty quickly, but it isn't the right way to go, 
and makes us much less friendly than other systems.

Note that this is *different* from the problem of the fact that how
config(8) and autoconfiguration work are not documented. The users
don't need to know about *how* this works, only what the syntax means.
>How-To-Repeat:
	"man config(8)"
>Fix:
	Someone has to write real documentation on this, possibly
adding it to config(8).
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: