linux-kernel - Re: [QUESTION] Why tristate look like bool?

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Message-ID: <a19284f6-1a60-4aab-ac2a-ecb81a89fa49@infradead.org>
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2025 09:53:29 -0800
From: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@...radead.org>
To: Les Boys <lesboyspp43@...look.com>,
 "yann.morin.1998@...e.fr" <yann.morin.1998@...e.fr>
Cc: "linux-kbuild@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kbuild@...r.kernel.org>,
 "linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [QUESTION] Why tristate look like bool?

Hi,

On 12/3/25 4:07 AM, Les Boys wrote:
> First, I wrote a minimal Kconfig:
> ```
> config TRISTATE_TEST
>     tristate "Test"
> ```
> Then, I ran:
> ```
> ./conf --oldaskconfig test.lbConfig
> ```
> Finally, it showed:
> ```
> Test (TRISTATE_TEST) [N/y] (NEW): 
> ```
> This is not excepted, it should shows:
> ```
> Test (TRISTATE_TEST) [N/y/m] (NEW): 
> ```
> I am confused about this problem, no document talks about it, please explain to me, thanks.

I was fairly sure that it has something to do with MODULES.
To your test config file, I added:

config MODULES
    def_bool y

but the test results were still the same. Then I recalled that there is
a special keyword for "modules", described (or mentioned) in
Documentation/kbuild/kconfig-language.rst. When I add "modules" to
CONFIG_MODULES, it works as expected.

config MODULES
	modules
	def_bool y

The kconfig subsystem knows about modular builds but they must be
enabled for them to be allowed on other kconfig symbols.

HTH.

-- 
~Randy