ref: 6b84c3a6548f1c577948763b0a09a7b6e2460e04
dir: /man/10/conf/
.TH CONF 10.6
.SH NAME
conf \- native and hosted kernel configuration file
.SH DESCRIPTION
Native and hosted Inferno kernels are built for a given target
.I platform
in the host environment in directory
.BI /os/ platform
or
.BI /emu/ platform .
Existing
platforms include
.B pc
and
.B ipaq
for native kernels and
.BR Plan9 ,
.BR Linux ,
.B Nt
(for all versions of Windows),
and
.BR Solaris ,
amongst others.
Each
.I platform
can have different kernels with different configurations.
A given configuration is built in the platform's directory using the
.IR mk (10.1)
command:
.IP
.EX
mk 'CONF=\fIconf\fP'
.EE
.PP
where
.I conf
is a text file that specifies drivers, protocols and other parameters for that
particular kernel:
a parts list.
The result of a successful
.I mk
is
an executable or bootable file with a name determined by the
.IR platform 's
.BR mkfile ,
typically
.BI i conf
for all native platforms,
.BI $O. conf
for Plan 9, Unix and clones,
and
.BI i conf .exe
for Windows.
.PP
A kernel configuration file has several sections of the form
.IP
.EX
.I "label"
.IR " item" " [ " "subitem ..." " ]"
\& ...
.EE
.PP
Each section begins with a
.I label
at the start of a line, which names a configuration
category, followed by
a list of each
.I item
to select from that category,
one line per item, with white space (ie, blank or tab) at the start of the line.
An
.I item
line can optionally list one or more
.I subitems
that must be included in the kernel to support it.
A line that starts with a
.L #
is a comment.
Empty lines are ignored.
.PP
.I Labels
are chosen from the following set, listed in the order
in which they conventionally appear in a configuration file:
.TF etherxx
.TP
.B dev
Device drivers
.TP
.B ip
IP protocols (native kernels only) taken from
.B ../ip
.TP
.B link
Hardware-specific parts of device drivers.
.TP
.B misc
Architecture-specific files; specific VGA and SCSI interfaces
.TP
.B lib
Libraries to link with the kernel
.TP
.B mod
Builtin Dis modules
.TP
.B port
Portable components (other than drivers) from
.B ../port
.TP
.B code
C code and declarations to include as-is in the generated configuration file
.TP
.B init
Dis init program
.TP
.B root
List of files and directories to put in the
.IR root (3)
file system
.PD
.PP
When an
.I item
is listed
under a given
.I label
it causes a corresponding component to be included in the kernel.
The details depend on the
.IR label ,
as discussed below.
Each
.I subitem
represents a kernel subcomponent required by the corresponding
.IR item .
Both items and subitems can be either portable (platform-independent)
or platform-specific.
The source file for a given item or subitem
is sought in the platform-directory
(for platform-specific code), and
in directories
.BR ../port
and
.BR ../ip ,
under control of the platform's
.BR mkfile
and
.B ../port/portmkfile
(which is included by
.BR mkfile ).
Resulting object files are left in the
.I platform
directory.
.PP
Outside the
.B dev
section,
each item and subitem
.I x
causes the kernel image to include the code compiled from
.IB x .c ,
(or
.IB x .s
or
.IB x .S
for assembly-language support),
or
.IB portdir / x .c ,
where
.I portdir
is one of the portable directories mentioned above.
In the
.B dev
section, an item
.I x
corresponds instead to the driver source file
.BI dev x .c
in the current (platform-specific)
directory or a portable driver
.IB portdir /dev x .c .
Subitems are handled as in any other section.
Typically they are auxiliary files that are needed by the associated driver.
.PP
For instance, in a native kernel
the portable driver for the
.B draw
device uses platform-specific code from
.BR screen.c .
That can be represented as follows:
.IP
.EX
dev
draw screen
.EE
.PP
Each item
.I x
in the
.B ip
section
corresponds to a protocol implementation compiled from
.BI ../ip/ x .c .
Any subitems
are dealt with in the same way as in the
.B dev
section.
.PP
The
.B link
section provides a way for hardware-specific
parts of drivers to link at runtime to the hardware-invariant part of a device
drivers.
For each item
.IR x ,
the kernel will call the function
.IB x link
during its initialisation.
Typically that function makes itself known to the device driver by
calling a function provided by that driver,
passing the address of a interface-specific data structure or linkage table.
For example,
.B ethersmc
is an interface-specific component:
.IP
.EX
link
\fR...\fP
ethersmc
.EE
.PP
and its source file
.B ethersmc.c
provides a function
.B ethersmclink
that
calls
.B addethercard
in the interface-invariant part of the driver,
.BR devether.c :
.IP
.EX
void
ethersmclink(void)
{
addethercard("smc91cXX", reset);
}
.EE
.PP
Similarly, during kernel initialisation, for each item
.I x
in the
.B mod
section, the kernel calls the function
.IB x init ,
to initialise the corresponding built-in Limbo module.
.PP
The
.B init
section selects the first Dis program run by the system.
For native kernels, a given item
.I x
refers to
.BI ../init/ x .dis ,
which is automatically built from
.BI ../init/ x .b .
For hosted kernels,
.B emuinit
is normally used, referring to
.BR /dis/emuinit.dis .
.PP
The
.B lib
section lists the libraries to include when linking the kernel,
in an order that satisfies any dependencies amongst them.
Each item
.I x
corresponds to
.BI /$SYSTARG/$OBJTYPE/lib x .a ,
a target-specific library
produced by compiling the C source code in
.BI /lib item,
where
.B SYSTARG
and
.B OBJTYPE
are set in
.B mkfile
to the target system and object types.
.PP
An item in the
.B root
section
has one of the forms:
.IP
.EX
.I name
.I "name source"
.EE
.PP
where
.I name
and
.I source
are both absolute path names rooted at the Inferno source tree.
The kernel's initial root file system (see
.IR root (3))
will contain a file or directory with the given
.IR name .
.I Name
must exist in the Inferno root, or an existing
.I source
file must be named.
In either case,
if the existing name refers to a file, the file in the root file system will have that file's current contents.
If it is a directory, the root file file system will have a directory with that name,
but the directory will contain only those names listed in
the configuration file as belonging to that directory.
.I Source
is often
.L /
to force a target
.I name
to be a directory.
.SH FILES
.B /emu/port/mkdevc
.br
.B /emu/port/mkdevlist
.br
.B /emu/port/mkroot
.br
.B /os/port/mkdevc
.br
.B /os/port/mkdevlist
.br
.B /os/port/mkroot
.SH SEE ALSO
.IR mk (10.1)