Slashdot reports that the new Linux kernel configuration tool, LinuxKernelConf is nearing completion. According to the LinuxKernelConf web page . . .

LinuxKernelConf is (another) attempt at replacing the aging Linux configuration system (also known as CML1). It has a number of problems which make it difficult to maintain and it's even harder to extend the language.

The important changes which come with LinuxKernelConf are a new configuration syntax and a single parser for this language. Multiple utilities can be build on top of this, right now only the old configuration utilities are reimplemented which make use of it. The console utilities (“make config” and “make menuconfig”) preserve their old behaviour for all the kernel hackers which loathe drastic behaviour changes. :-) The new X interface (“make xconfig”) shows a bit how kernel configuration could be done in the future.

The new configuration syntax is now a collection of configuration options, which can have a number of attributes attached to it, so it's not a programming language like CML1 anymore. This makes the language more easily extensible, as new attributes can be defined as needed. Currently the configuration represents only the information from the old CML1 config files, but more than just configuration options can be easily added later.

The above text is quoted from the LinuxKernelConf web page.

 
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