> This form of "pilot error" occurs frequently enough that there really
> should be some sort of "config syntax version number" in the kernel
> source tree.. this can be checked by the config program.. if the
> version number is too high (or too low, in the event that config and
> the tree are changed incompatibly), config should barf with an error
> saying "get a version of config which matches this set of kernel sources"..

One might argue that for most users this isn't a major problem, in that
those who use only Official Releases are likely to install a config from
each new release at the same time they accidently overwrite their customized
version of GENERIC :-).

However, one might also argue that the amount of time core types spend typing
"you need to rebuild config" three or four times (each) per release cycle
is approximately equal to the amount of time needed to implement a simple
go/nogo version tag...