From 23b2a3be999bd53cfac63325b8bc02a205f1fe5b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Paolo Bonzini Date: Wed, 3 May 2023 19:30:40 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] docs: clarify --without-default-devices --without-default-devices is a specialized option that should only be used when configs/devices/ is changed manually. Explain the model towards which we should tend, with respect to failures to start guests and to run "make check". Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini --- docs/devel/kconfig.rst | 16 +++++++++++++--- 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/docs/devel/kconfig.rst b/docs/devel/kconfig.rst index ac9453eba9..e3a544e463 100644 --- a/docs/devel/kconfig.rst +++ b/docs/devel/kconfig.rst @@ -282,9 +282,19 @@ want to change some lines in the first group, for example like this:: CONFIG_PCI_DEVICES=y #CONFIG_TEST_DEVICES=n -and/or pick a subset of the devices in those device groups. Right now -there is no single place that lists all the optional devices for -``CONFIG_PCI_DEVICES`` and ``CONFIG_TEST_DEVICES``. In the future, +and/or pick a subset of the devices in those device groups. Without +further modifications to ``configs/devices/``, a system emulator built +without default devices might not do much more than start an empty +machine, and even then only if ``--nodefaults`` is specified on the +command line. Starting a VM *without* ``--nodefaults`` is allowed to +fail, but should never abort. Failures in ``make check`` with +``--without-default-devices`` are considered bugs in the test code: +the tests should either use ``--nodefaults``, and should be skipped +if a necessary device is not present in the build. Such failures +should not be worked around with ``select`` directives. + +Right now there is no single place that lists all the optional devices +for ``CONFIG_PCI_DEVICES`` and ``CONFIG_TEST_DEVICES``. In the future, we expect that ``.mak`` files will be automatically generated, so that they will include all these symbols and some help text on what they do.