Commit ee86418d39f28dd10d27c9d7906d8c26c1293e69

Authored by Nick Andrew
Committed by Jens Axboe
1 parent 6195057f58

Kconfig: clean up block/Kconfig help descriptions

Modify the help descriptions of block/Kconfig for clarity, accuracy and
consistency.

Refactor the BLOCK description a bit.  The wording "This permits ...  to be
removed" isn't quite right; the block layer is removed when the option is
disabled, whereas most descriptions talk about what happens when the option is
enabled.  Reformat the list of what is affected by disabling the block layer.

Add more examples of large block devices to LBD and strive for technical
accuracy; block devices of size _exactly_ 2TB require CONFIG_LBD, not only
"bigger than 2TB".  Also try to say (perhaps not very clearly) that the config
option is only needed when you want to have individual block devices of size
>= 2TB, for example if you had 3 x 1TB disks in your computer you'd have a
total storage size of 3TB but you wouldn't need the option unless you want to
aggregate those disks into a RAID or LVM.

Improve terminology and grammar on BLK_DEV_IO_TRACE.

I also added the boilerplate "If unsure, say N" to most options.

Precisely say "2TB and larger" for LSF.

Indent the help text for BLK_DEV_BSG by 2 spaces in accordance with the
standard.

Signed-off-by: Nick Andrew <nick@nick-andrew.net>
Cc: "Randy.Dunlap" <rdunlap@xenotime.net>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com>

Showing 1 changed file with 42 additions and 23 deletions Side-by-side Diff

... ... @@ -5,15 +5,19 @@
5 5 bool "Enable the block layer" if EMBEDDED
6 6 default y
7 7 help
8   - This permits the block layer to be removed from the kernel if it's not
9   - needed (on some embedded devices for example). If this option is
10   - disabled, then blockdev files will become unusable and some
11   - filesystems (such as ext3) will become unavailable.
  8 + Provide block layer support for the kernel.
12 9  
13   - This option will also disable SCSI character devices and USB storage
14   - since they make use of various block layer definitions and
15   - facilities.
  10 + Disable this option to remove the block layer support from the
  11 + kernel. This may be useful for embedded devices.
16 12  
  13 + If this option is disabled:
  14 +
  15 + - block device files will become unusable
  16 + - some filesystems (such as ext3) will become unavailable.
  17 +
  18 + Also, SCSI character devices and USB storage will be disabled since
  19 + they make use of various block layer definitions and facilities.
  20 +
17 21 Say Y here unless you know you really don't want to mount disks and
18 22 suchlike.
19 23  
20 24  
21 25  
22 26  
23 27  
24 28  
... ... @@ -23,29 +27,42 @@
23 27 bool "Support for Large Block Devices"
24 28 depends on !64BIT
25 29 help
26   - Say Y here if you want to attach large (bigger than 2TB) discs to
27   - your machine, or if you want to have a raid or loopback device
28   - bigger than 2TB. Otherwise say N.
  30 + Enable block devices of size 2TB and larger.
29 31  
  32 + This option is required to support the full capacity of large
  33 + (2TB+) block devices, including RAID, disk, Network Block Device,
  34 + Logical Volume Manager (LVM) and loopback.
  35 +
  36 + For example, RAID devices are frequently bigger than the capacity
  37 + of the largest individual hard drive.
  38 +
  39 + This option is not required if you have individual disk drives
  40 + which total 2TB+ and you are not aggregating the capacity into
  41 + a large block device (e.g. using RAID or LVM).
  42 +
  43 + If unsure, say N.
  44 +
30 45 config BLK_DEV_IO_TRACE
31 46 bool "Support for tracing block io actions"
32 47 depends on SYSFS
33 48 select RELAY
34 49 select DEBUG_FS
35 50 help
36   - Say Y here, if you want to be able to trace the block layer actions
  51 + Say Y here if you want to be able to trace the block layer actions
37 52 on a given queue. Tracing allows you to see any traffic happening
38   - on a block device queue. For more information (and the user space
39   - support tools needed), fetch the blktrace app from:
  53 + on a block device queue. For more information (and the userspace
  54 + support tools needed), fetch the blktrace tools from:
40 55  
41 56 git://git.kernel.dk/blktrace.git
42 57  
  58 + If unsure, say N.
  59 +
43 60 config LSF
44 61 bool "Support for Large Single Files"
45 62 depends on !64BIT
46 63 help
47   - Say Y here if you want to be able to handle very large files (bigger
48   - than 2TB), otherwise say N.
  64 + Say Y here if you want to be able to handle very large files (2TB
  65 + and larger), otherwise say N.
49 66  
50 67 If unsure, say Y.
51 68  
52 69  
... ... @@ -53,14 +70,16 @@
53 70 bool "Block layer SG support v4 (EXPERIMENTAL)"
54 71 depends on EXPERIMENTAL
55 72 ---help---
56   - Saying Y here will enable generic SG (SCSI generic) v4 support
57   - for any block device.
  73 + Saying Y here will enable generic SG (SCSI generic) v4 support
  74 + for any block device.
58 75  
59   - Unlike SG v3 (aka block/scsi_ioctl.c drivers/scsi/sg.c), SG v4
60   - can handle complicated SCSI commands: tagged variable length cdbs
61   - with bidirectional data transfers and generic request/response
62   - protocols (e.g. Task Management Functions and SMP in Serial
63   - Attached SCSI).
  76 + Unlike SG v3 (aka block/scsi_ioctl.c drivers/scsi/sg.c), SG v4
  77 + can handle complicated SCSI commands: tagged variable length cdbs
  78 + with bidirectional data transfers and generic request/response
  79 + protocols (e.g. Task Management Functions and SMP in Serial
  80 + Attached SCSI).
  81 +
  82 + If unsure, say N.
64 83  
65 84 endif # BLOCK
66 85