[PATCH] Documentation/kernel-parameters: Move the kernel build options

[PATCH] Documentation/kernel-parameters: Move the kernel build options

[Borislav Petkov]

From: "Borislav Petkov (AMD)" <bp@alien8.de>

Move the kernel build options abbreviations to the .txt file so that
they are together instead of one having to go hunt them in the .rst
file.

Tweak the formatting so that the inclusion of kernel-parameters.txt
still keeps the whole thing somewhat presentable in the html output too.

Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov (AMD) <bp@alien8.de>
---
 .../admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst         | 97 +-----------------
 .../admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt         | 98 +++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 99 insertions(+), 96 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
index 7bf8cc7df6b5..02a725536cc5 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
@@ -110,102 +110,7 @@ The parameters listed below are only valid if certain kernel build options
 were enabled and if respective hardware is present. This list should be kept
 in alphabetical order. The text in square brackets at the beginning
 of each description states the restrictions within which a parameter
-is applicable::
-
-	ACPI	ACPI support is enabled.
-	AGP	AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) is enabled.
-	ALSA	ALSA sound support is enabled.
-	APIC	APIC support is enabled.
-	APM	Advanced Power Management support is enabled.
-	APPARMOR AppArmor support is enabled.
-	ARM	ARM architecture is enabled.
-	ARM64	ARM64 architecture is enabled.
-	AX25	Appropriate AX.25 support is enabled.
-	CLK	Common clock infrastructure is enabled.
-	CMA	Contiguous Memory Area support is enabled.
-	DRM	Direct Rendering Management support is enabled.
-	DYNAMIC_DEBUG Build in debug messages and enable them at runtime
-	EARLY	Parameter processed too early to be embedded in initrd.
-	EDD	BIOS Enhanced Disk Drive Services (EDD) is enabled
-	EFI	EFI Partitioning (GPT) is enabled
-	EVM	Extended Verification Module
-	FB	The frame buffer device is enabled.
-	FTRACE	Function tracing enabled.
-	GCOV	GCOV profiling is enabled.
-	HIBERNATION HIBERNATION is enabled.
-	HW	Appropriate hardware is enabled.
-	HYPER_V HYPERV support is enabled.
-	IMA     Integrity measurement architecture is enabled.
-	IP_PNP	IP DHCP, BOOTP, or RARP is enabled.
-	IPV6	IPv6 support is enabled.
-	ISAPNP	ISA PnP code is enabled.
-	ISDN	Appropriate ISDN support is enabled.
-	ISOL	CPU Isolation is enabled.
-	JOY	Appropriate joystick support is enabled.
-	KGDB	Kernel debugger support is enabled.
-	KVM	Kernel Virtual Machine support is enabled.
-	LIBATA  Libata driver is enabled
-	LOONGARCH LoongArch architecture is enabled.
-	LOOP	Loopback device support is enabled.
-	LP	Printer support is enabled.
-	M68k	M68k architecture is enabled.
-			These options have more detailed description inside of
-			Documentation/arch/m68k/kernel-options.rst.
-	MDA	MDA console support is enabled.
-	MIPS	MIPS architecture is enabled.
-	MOUSE	Appropriate mouse support is enabled.
-	MSI	Message Signaled Interrupts (PCI).
-	MTD	MTD (Memory Technology Device) support is enabled.
-	NET	Appropriate network support is enabled.
-	NFS	Appropriate NFS support is enabled.
-	NUMA	NUMA support is enabled.
-	OF	Devicetree is enabled.
-	PARISC	The PA-RISC architecture is enabled.
-	PCI	PCI bus support is enabled.
-	PCIE	PCI Express support is enabled.
-	PCMCIA	The PCMCIA subsystem is enabled.
-	PNP	Plug & Play support is enabled.
-	PPC	PowerPC architecture is enabled.
-	PPT	Parallel port support is enabled.
-	PS2	Appropriate PS/2 support is enabled.
-	PV_OPS	A paravirtualized kernel is enabled.
-	RAM	RAM disk support is enabled.
-	RDT	Intel Resource Director Technology.
-	RISCV	RISCV architecture is enabled.
-	S390	S390 architecture is enabled.
-	SCSI	Appropriate SCSI support is enabled.
-			A lot of drivers have their options described inside
-			the Documentation/scsi/ sub-directory.
-        SDW     SoundWire support is enabled.
-	SECURITY Different security models are enabled.
-	SELINUX SELinux support is enabled.
-	SERIAL	Serial support is enabled.
-	SH	SuperH architecture is enabled.
-	SMP	The kernel is an SMP kernel.
-	SPARC	Sparc architecture is enabled.
-	SUSPEND	System suspend states are enabled.
-	SWSUSP	Software suspend (hibernation) is enabled.
-	TPM	TPM drivers are enabled.
-	UMS	USB Mass Storage support is enabled.
-	USB	USB support is enabled.
-	USBHID	USB Human Interface Device support is enabled.
-	V4L	Video For Linux support is enabled.
-	VGA	The VGA console has been enabled.
-	VMMIO   Driver for memory mapped virtio devices is enabled.
-	VT	Virtual terminal support is enabled.
-	WDT	Watchdog support is enabled.
-	X86-32	X86-32, aka i386 architecture is enabled.
-	X86-64	X86-64 architecture is enabled.
-	X86	Either 32-bit or 64-bit x86 (same as X86-32+X86-64)
-	X86_UV	SGI UV support is enabled.
-	XEN	Xen support is enabled
-	XTENSA	xtensa architecture is enabled.
-
-In addition, the following text indicates that the option::
-
-	BOOT	Is a boot loader parameter.
-	BUGS=	Relates to possible processor bugs on the said processor.
-	KNL	Is a kernel start-up parameter.
+is applicable.
 
 Parameters denoted with BOOT are actually interpreted by the boot
 loader, and have no meaning to the kernel directly.
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
index 6c42061ca20e..e85a91e63f48 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,101 @@
+	ACPI	ACPI support is enabled.
+	AGP	AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) is enabled.
+	ALSA	ALSA sound support is enabled.
+	APIC	APIC support is enabled.
+	APM	Advanced Power Management support is enabled.
+	APPARMOR AppArmor support is enabled.
+	ARM	ARM architecture is enabled.
+	ARM64	ARM64 architecture is enabled.
+	AX25	Appropriate AX.25 support is enabled.
+	CLK	Common clock infrastructure is enabled.
+	CMA	Contiguous Memory Area support is enabled.
+	DRM	Direct Rendering Management support is enabled.
+	DYNAMIC_DEBUG Build in debug messages and enable them at runtime
+	EARLY	Parameter processed too early to be embedded in initrd.
+	EDD	BIOS Enhanced Disk Drive Services (EDD) is enabled
+	EFI	EFI Partitioning (GPT) is enabled
+	EVM	Extended Verification Module
+	FB	The frame buffer device is enabled.
+	FTRACE	Function tracing enabled.
+	GCOV	GCOV profiling is enabled.
+	HIBERNATION HIBERNATION is enabled.
+	HW	Appropriate hardware is enabled.
+	HYPER_V HYPERV support is enabled.
+	IMA     Integrity measurement architecture is enabled.
+	IP_PNP	IP DHCP, BOOTP, or RARP is enabled.
+	IPV6	IPv6 support is enabled.
+	ISAPNP	ISA PnP code is enabled.
+	ISDN	Appropriate ISDN support is enabled.
+	ISOL	CPU Isolation is enabled.
+	JOY	Appropriate joystick support is enabled.
+	KGDB	Kernel debugger support is enabled.
+	KVM	Kernel Virtual Machine support is enabled.
+	LIBATA  Libata driver is enabled
+	LOONGARCH LoongArch architecture is enabled.
+	LOOP	Loopback device support is enabled.
+	LP	Printer support is enabled.
+	M68k	M68k architecture is enabled.
+			These options have more detailed description inside of
+			Documentation/arch/m68k/kernel-options.rst.
+	MDA	MDA console support is enabled.
+	MIPS	MIPS architecture is enabled.
+	MOUSE	Appropriate mouse support is enabled.
+	MSI	Message Signaled Interrupts (PCI).
+	MTD	MTD (Memory Technology Device) support is enabled.
+	NET	Appropriate network support is enabled.
+	NFS	Appropriate NFS support is enabled.
+	NUMA	NUMA support is enabled.
+	OF	Devicetree is enabled.
+	PARISC	The PA-RISC architecture is enabled.
+	PCI	PCI bus support is enabled.
+	PCIE	PCI Express support is enabled.
+	PCMCIA	The PCMCIA subsystem is enabled.
+	PNP	Plug & Play support is enabled.
+	PPC	PowerPC architecture is enabled.
+	PPT	Parallel port support is enabled.
+	PS2	Appropriate PS/2 support is enabled.
+	PV_OPS	A paravirtualized kernel is enabled.
+	RAM	RAM disk support is enabled.
+	RDT	Intel Resource Director Technology.
+	RISCV	RISCV architecture is enabled.
+	S390	S390 architecture is enabled.
+	SCSI	Appropriate SCSI support is enabled.
+			A lot of drivers have their options described inside
+			the Documentation/scsi/ sub-directory.
+        SDW     SoundWire support is enabled.
+	SECURITY Different security models are enabled.
+	SELINUX SELinux support is enabled.
+	SERIAL	Serial support is enabled.
+	SH	SuperH architecture is enabled.
+	SMP	The kernel is an SMP kernel.
+	SPARC	Sparc architecture is enabled.
+	SUSPEND	System suspend states are enabled.
+	SWSUSP	Software suspend (hibernation) is enabled.
+	TPM	TPM drivers are enabled.
+	UMS	USB Mass Storage support is enabled.
+	USB	USB support is enabled.
+	USBHID	USB Human Interface Device support is enabled.
+	V4L	Video For Linux support is enabled.
+	VGA	The VGA console has been enabled.
+	VMMIO   Driver for memory mapped virtio devices is enabled.
+	VT	Virtual terminal support is enabled.
+	WDT	Watchdog support is enabled.
+	X86-32	X86-32, aka i386 architecture is enabled.
+	X86-64	X86-64 architecture is enabled.
+	X86	Either 32-bit or 64-bit x86 (same as X86-32+X86-64)
+	X86_UV	SGI UV support is enabled.
+	XEN	Xen support is enabled
+	XTENSA	xtensa architecture is enabled.
+
+In addition, the following text indicates that the option
+
+	BOOT	Is a boot loader parameter.
+	BUGS=	Relates to possible processor bugs on the said processor.
+	KNL	Is a kernel start-up parameter.
+
+
+Kernel parameters
+
 	accept_memory=  [MM]
 			Format: { eager | lazy }
 			default: lazy
-- 
2.51.0

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/kernel-parameters: Move the kernel build options

[Randy Dunlap]

Hi,

On 11/12/25 3:46 AM, Borislav Petkov wrote:
> From: "Borislav Petkov (AMD)" <bp@alien8.de>
> 
> Move the kernel build options abbreviations to the .txt file so that
> they are together instead of one having to go hunt them in the .rst
> file.
> 
> Tweak the formatting so that the inclusion of kernel-parameters.txt
> still keeps the whole thing somewhat presentable in the html output too.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov (AMD) <bp@alien8.de>
> ---
>  .../admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst         | 97 +-----------------
>  .../admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt         | 98 +++++++++++++++++++
>  2 files changed, 99 insertions(+), 96 deletions(-)
> 

[snip]

> diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
> index 6c42061ca20e..e85a91e63f48 100644
> --- a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
> @@ -1,3 +1,101 @@

[snip]

> +	X86_UV	SGI UV support is enabled.
> +	XEN	Xen support is enabled
> +	XTENSA	xtensa architecture is enabled.
> +
> +In addition, the following text indicates that the option
> +
> +	BOOT	Is a boot loader parameter.
> +	BUGS=	Relates to possible processor bugs on the said processor.
> +	KNL	Is a kernel start-up parameter.
> +
> +
> +Kernel parameters
> +
>  	accept_memory=  [MM]
>  			Format: { eager | lazy }
>  			default: lazy

WorksForMe although I prefer to highlight the "Kernel Parameters" line somehow,
e.g., all caps or underline with "======================" (yes, that's still a
literal underline, not a Sphinx doc. heading).


Reviewed-by: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>
Tested-by: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>

-- 
~Randy

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/kernel-parameters: Move the kernel build options

[Jonathan Corbet]

Borislav Petkov <bp@kernel.org> writes:

> From: "Borislav Petkov (AMD)" <bp@alien8.de>
>
> Move the kernel build options abbreviations to the .txt file so that
> they are together instead of one having to go hunt them in the .rst
> file.
>
> Tweak the formatting so that the inclusion of kernel-parameters.txt
> still keeps the whole thing somewhat presentable in the html output too.
>
> Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov (AMD) <bp@alien8.de>
> ---
>  .../admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst         | 97 +-----------------
>  .../admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt         | 98 +++++++++++++++++++
>  2 files changed, 99 insertions(+), 96 deletions(-)

So I applied this, but it's dancing around the real problem: that this
material is split into two files in the first place.  I honestly don't
remember why it was done that way - maybe just to ease the RST
transition back in 2016.  I think we should really just pull all of
kernel-parameters.txt into the RST file.

jon

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/kernel-parameters: Move the kernel build options

[Borislav Petkov]

On Tue, Nov 18, 2025 at 09:20:36AM -0700, Jonathan Corbet wrote:
> So I applied this, but it's dancing around the real problem: that this
> material is split into two files in the first place.  I honestly don't
> remember why it was done that way

I was wondering the same thing.

> - maybe just to ease the RST transition back in 2016.  I think we should
> really just pull all of kernel-parameters.txt into the RST file.

Except the .txt file has its own formatting and if the conversion to .rst
makes it more unreadable due to the .rst formatting gunk, that would be a step
in the wrong direction, I'd say.

So including it verbatim as it is done now looks like a good compromise.
Unless you have a better idea...

Thx.

-- 
Regards/Gruss,
    Boris.

https://people.kernel.org/tglx/notes-about-netiquette

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/kernel-parameters: Move the kernel build options

[Jonathan Corbet]

Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de> writes:

> On Tue, Nov 18, 2025 at 09:20:36AM -0700, Jonathan Corbet wrote:
>> So I applied this, but it's dancing around the real problem: that this
>> material is split into two files in the first place.  I honestly don't
>> remember why it was done that way
>
> I was wondering the same thing.
>
>> - maybe just to ease the RST transition back in 2016.  I think we should
>> really just pull all of kernel-parameters.txt into the RST file.
>
> Except the .txt file has its own formatting and if the conversion to .rst
> makes it more unreadable due to the .rst formatting gunk, that would be a step
> in the wrong direction, I'd say.
>
> So including it verbatim as it is done now looks like a good compromise.
> Unless you have a better idea...

What the effect would be of making it all into proper RST is unclear, I
don't think anybody has tried.

But we could certainly just put the whole contents of
kernel-parameters.txt as a literal block within kernel-parameters.rst
and at least have it all in one place.

jon

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/kernel-parameters: Move the kernel build options

[Borislav Petkov]

On Wed, Nov 19, 2025 at 08:42:43AM -0700, Jonathan Corbet wrote:
> But we could certainly just put the whole contents of kernel-parameters.txt
> as a literal block within kernel-parameters.rst and at least have it all in
> one place.

That would've been my next idea...

-- 
Regards/Gruss,
    Boris.

https://people.kernel.org/tglx/notes-about-netiquette

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/kernel-parameters: Move the kernel build options

[Jani Nikula]

On Wed, 19 Nov 2025, Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de> wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 19, 2025 at 08:42:43AM -0700, Jonathan Corbet wrote:
>> But we could certainly just put the whole contents of kernel-parameters.txt
>> as a literal block within kernel-parameters.rst and at least have it all in
>> one place.
>
> That would've been my next idea...

That's how it was originally, but that lead to some problems with the
PDF builds. I wish I could tell you what the issues were specifically,
instead I just have to blame my past self for not recording the details
in the commit message properly: e52347bd66f6
("Documentation/admin-guide: split the kernel parameter list to a
separate file").


BR,
Jani.



-- 
Jani Nikula, Intel