FILES.CONF(5)             OpenBSD Programmer's Manual            FILES.CONF(5)

NAME
     files.conf - rules base for the config utility

DESCRIPTION
     The various files.* files located in the kernel source tree contain all
     the necessary information needed by config(8) to parse a kernel configu-
     ration file and determine the list of files to compile.

     The files.* rules base are simple, human-readable, text files.  Empty
     lines, as well as text prefixed by the `#' character, are ignored.

DEVICE TREE CONCEPT
     The OpenBSD kernel ``sees'' the various devices as a hierarchical tree,
     where the various devices ``attach'' to parent entities, which can either
     be physical devices themselves (such as a computer bus), or logical enti-
     ties, designed to make the driver code simpler.  Usually, the top-most
     devices are attached to the pseudo-device ``mainbus'', which is itself
     reported as attached to a fictitious ``root'' node.  There is no restric-
     tion on the ``children'' a device node may have; some device drivers can
     attach themselves to different kinds of parent devices.  For example, the
     logical scsibus(4) device can either attach at a SCSI controller device,
     or at the logical atapiscsi(4) bus.

LOCATORS
     Some device attachments need to provide attachment information.  For ex-
     ample, an isa(4) device will use a range of I/O ports, one or more DMA
     channels, and one interrupt vector.  This attachment information is known
     as the ``locators'' for the device.  Most of the buses support default
     values for unspecified locators, for devices that either do not require
     them (such as isa(4) cards not using interrupts), or which can autocon-
     figure themselves (such as pci(4) devices).

     Attachment lines in the kernel configuration file must match the locators
     of the device they are attaching to.  For example:

           define pci {[dev = -1], [function = -1]}

     With the rule above, the following kernel configuration lines are valid:

           pciknob0 at pci? dev 2 function 42 # use fixed values
           pciknob* at pci? dev ? function ?  # use default values
           pciknob* at pci?                   # use default locators

     But the following are not:

           pciknob* at pci? trick ? treat ?               # unknown locators
           pciknob* at pci? dev ? function ? usefulness ? # unknown locators

ATTRIBUTES
     The following syntax defines a simple attribute, which can be later used
     to factorize code dependencies:

           define attribute

     An attachment-like attribute will also require locators to be specified.
     If no locators are necessary:

           define attribute {}

     If locators are provided:

           define attribute {[locator1 = default1], [locator2 = default2]}

DEVICES
     For simple device attachment, the following syntax defines a simple de-
     vice, with no locators:

           device devicename {}

     If locators are necessary, they are specified as:

           device devicename {[locator1 = default1], [locator2 = default2]}

     A device can also reference an attribute with locators.  This is in fact
     a dependency rule.  For example, sys/conf/files defines the following at-
     tribute for SCSI controllers:

           define scsi {}           # no locators

     And SCSI drivers can then be defined as:

           device scsictrl: scsi

     A device may depend on as many attributes as necessary:

           device complexdev: simpledev, otherdev, specialattribute

PSEUDO DEVICES
     Pseudo devices are defined as regular devices, except that they do not
     need locators, and use a different keyword:

           pseudo-device loop: inet
           pseudo-device ksyms

     The rules above define, respectively, the loopback network interface and
     the kernel symbols pseudo-device.

DEVICE ATTACHMENT RULES
     Due to the tree structure of the device nodes, every device but the pseu-
     do devices need to attach to some parent node.  A device driver has to
     specify to which parents it can attach, with the following syntax:

           attach device at parent, parent2, parent3

     The rule above lists all the parent attributes a device may attach to.
     For example, given the following:

           device smartknob: bells, whistles
           attach smartknob at brainbus

     The following configuration line is then valid:

           smartknob* at brainbus?

     Whilst the following is not:

           smartknob* at dumbbus?

     If a device supports attachments to multiple parents, using different
     ``glue'' routines every time, the following syntax specifies the details:

           attach device at parent with device_parent_glue
           attach device at parent2 with device_parent2_glue

     This will define more required attributes, depending on the kernel con-
     figuration file's contents.

RULE FILE INCLUSION
     It is possible to include other rules files anywhere in a file, using the
     ``include'' keyword:

           include "dev/pci/files.pci"

     The above rule will include the rules for machine-independent PCI code.

     The files sys/arch/machine/conf/files.machine, for every ``machine''
     listed in the machine line in the kernel configuration file, as well as
     sys/conf/files, are always processed, and do not need to be included.

ATTRIBUTE REQUIREMENTS
     The kernel configuration file description passed to config(8) lists sev-
     eral compilation options, as well as several device definitions.  From
     this list, config(8) will build a list of required attributes, which are:

           o   The ``option'' lines, with the option name translated to lower-
               case (for example, an ``option INET'' line will produce the
               ``inet'' attribute).
           o   The device and pseudo-device names, except for ``root''.

KERNEL FILE LIST
     Kernel source files are defined as:

           file file-list  dependencies    need-rules

     ``file-list'' typically only specifies a single filename.  If instead it
     contains a list of filenames separated by the `|' character, config(8)
     will select the first file from the list which exists.  If
     ``${MACHINE_ARCH}'' or ``${MACHINE}'' is found in the filename, it will
     be substituted with the relevant base architecture name.

     If the ``dependencies'' part is empty, the file will always be compiled
     in.  This is the case for the core kernel files.  Otherwise, the file
     will only be added to the list if the dependencies are met.  Dependencies
     are based upon attributes and device names.  Multiple dependencies can be
     written using the ``|'' and ``&'' operators.  For example:

           file netinet/ipsec_input.c    (inet | inet6) & ipsec

     The above rule teaches config(8) to only add sys/netinet/ipsec_input.c to
     the filelist if the ``ipsec'' attribute, and at least one of the ``inet''
     and ``inet6'' attributes, are required.

     The ``need'' rules can be empty, or one of the following keywords:

     needs-flag   Create an attribute header file, defining whether or not
                  this attribute is compiled in.
     needs-count  Create an attribute header file, defining how many instances
                  of this attribute are to be compiled in.  This rule is most-
                  ly used for pseudo-devices.

     The ``attribute header files'' are simple C header files created in the
     kernel compilation directory, with the name attribute.h and containing
     the following line:

           #define NATTRIBUTE  0

     This would substitute the attribute name and its uppercase form, prefixed
     with the letter ``N'', to ``attribute'' and ``NATTRIBUTE'', respectively.
     For a ``needs-flag'' rule, the value on the ``#define'' line is either 1
     if the attribute is required, or 0 if it is not required.  For a ``needs-
     count'' rule, the value is the number of device instances required, or 0
     if the device is not required.

     Attribute files are created for every attribute listed with a ``need''
     rule, even if it is never referenced from the kernel configuration file.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
     sys/arch/machine/conf/files.machine must also supply the following spe-
     cial commands:

     maxpartitions  Defines how many partitions are available on disk block
                    devices, usually 16.  This value is used by config(8) to
                    set up various device information structures.

     maxusers       Defines the bounds, and the default value, for the
                    ``maxusers'' parameter in the kernel configuration file.
                    The usual values are 2 8 64 ; config(8) will report an er-
                    ror if the ``maxusers parameter'' in the kernel configura-
                    tion file does not fit in the specified range.

FILES
     sys/arch/machine/conf/files.machine
             Rules for architecture-dependent files, for the ``machine'' ar-
             chitecture.

     sys/compat/emul/files.emul
             Rules for the ``emul'' operating system or subsystem emulation.

     sys/dev/class/files.class
             Rules for the ``class'' class of devices.

     sys/scsi/files.scsi
             Rules for the common SCSI subsystem.

SEE ALSO
     config(8)

OpenBSD 4.7                     April 26, 2009                               4
