Alexey Dobriyan | 6eedf8d | 2008-07-25 01:48:30 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | config PROC_FS |
David Rientjes | 6a108a1 | 2011-01-20 14:44:16 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 2 | bool "/proc file system support" if EXPERT |
Alexey Dobriyan | 6eedf8d | 2008-07-25 01:48:30 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 3 | default y |
| 4 | help |
| 5 | This is a virtual file system providing information about the status |
| 6 | of the system. "Virtual" means that it doesn't take up any space on |
| 7 | your hard disk: the files are created on the fly by the kernel when |
| 8 | you try to access them. Also, you cannot read the files with older |
| 9 | version of the program less: you need to use more or cat. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | It's totally cool; for example, "cat /proc/interrupts" gives |
| 12 | information about what the different IRQs are used for at the moment |
| 13 | (there is a small number of Interrupt ReQuest lines in your computer |
| 14 | that are used by the attached devices to gain the CPU's attention -- |
| 15 | often a source of trouble if two devices are mistakenly configured |
| 16 | to use the same IRQ). The program procinfo to display some |
| 17 | information about your system gathered from the /proc file system. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Before you can use the /proc file system, it has to be mounted, |
| 20 | meaning it has to be given a location in the directory hierarchy. |
| 21 | That location should be /proc. A command such as "mount -t proc proc |
| 22 | /proc" or the equivalent line in /etc/fstab does the job. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | The /proc file system is explained in the file |
| 25 | <file:Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt> and on the proc(5) manpage |
| 26 | ("man 5 proc"). |
| 27 | |
| 28 | This option will enlarge your kernel by about 67 KB. Several |
| 29 | programs depend on this, so everyone should say Y here. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | config PROC_KCORE |
| 32 | bool "/proc/kcore support" if !ARM |
| 33 | depends on PROC_FS && MMU |
Randy Dunlap | 1c3fc3e5 | 2013-11-12 15:11:16 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 34 | help |
| 35 | Provides a virtual ELF core file of the live kernel. This can |
| 36 | be read with gdb and other ELF tools. No modifications can be |
| 37 | made using this mechanism. |
Alexey Dobriyan | 6eedf8d | 2008-07-25 01:48:30 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 38 | |
| 39 | config PROC_VMCORE |
WANG Cong | a4f7326 | 2010-10-26 14:21:21 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 40 | bool "/proc/vmcore support" |
| 41 | depends on PROC_FS && CRASH_DUMP |
Alexey Dobriyan | 6eedf8d | 2008-07-25 01:48:30 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 42 | default y |
| 43 | help |
| 44 | Exports the dump image of crashed kernel in ELF format. |
| 45 | |
| 46 | config PROC_SYSCTL |
David Rientjes | 6a108a1 | 2011-01-20 14:44:16 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 47 | bool "Sysctl support (/proc/sys)" if EXPERT |
Alexey Dobriyan | 6eedf8d | 2008-07-25 01:48:30 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 48 | depends on PROC_FS |
| 49 | select SYSCTL |
| 50 | default y |
| 51 | ---help--- |
| 52 | The sysctl interface provides a means of dynamically changing |
| 53 | certain kernel parameters and variables on the fly without requiring |
| 54 | a recompile of the kernel or reboot of the system. The primary |
| 55 | interface is through /proc/sys. If you say Y here a tree of |
| 56 | modifiable sysctl entries will be generated beneath the |
| 57 | /proc/sys directory. They are explained in the files |
| 58 | in <file:Documentation/sysctl/>. Note that enabling this |
| 59 | option will enlarge the kernel by at least 8 KB. |
| 60 | |
| 61 | As it is generally a good thing, you should say Y here unless |
| 62 | building a kernel for install/rescue disks or your system is very |
| 63 | limited in memory. |
Alexey Dobriyan | 53167a3 | 2008-10-03 02:01:51 +0400 | [diff] [blame] | 64 | |
| 65 | config PROC_PAGE_MONITOR |
| 66 | default y |
| 67 | depends on PROC_FS && MMU |
David Rientjes | 6a108a1 | 2011-01-20 14:44:16 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 68 | bool "Enable /proc page monitoring" if EXPERT |
Alexey Dobriyan | 53167a3 | 2008-10-03 02:01:51 +0400 | [diff] [blame] | 69 | help |
| 70 | Various /proc files exist to monitor process memory utilization: |
| 71 | /proc/pid/smaps, /proc/pid/clear_refs, /proc/pid/pagemap, |
| 72 | /proc/kpagecount, and /proc/kpageflags. Disabling these |
| 73 | interfaces will reduce the size of the kernel by approximately 4kb. |
Iago López Galeiras | 2e13ba5 | 2015-06-25 15:00:57 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 74 | |
| 75 | config PROC_CHILDREN |
| 76 | bool "Include /proc/<pid>/task/<tid>/children file" |
| 77 | default n |
Iago López Galeiras | db5d5b3 | 2015-07-17 16:23:23 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 78 | help |
| 79 | Provides a fast way to retrieve first level children pids of a task. See |
| 80 | <file:Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt> for more information. |
| 81 | |
| 82 | Say Y if you are running any user-space software which takes benefit from |
| 83 | this interface. For example, rkt is such a piece of software. |