[PATCH] kconfig: add kconfig-sym-check static checker

[PATCH] kconfig: add kconfig-sym-check static checker

[Andrew Jones]

Add 'make kconfig-sym-check', a static checker that finds Kconfig
symbols referenced in expressions (select, depends on, default, etc.)
but never defined via config/menuconfig anywhere in the tree. New
dangling symbols are reported as errors (exit 1) unless they are
listed in an exclusion file, e.g.

 KCONFIG_SYM_CHECK_EXCLUDES=sym-check-excludes make kconfig-sym-check

The checker also warns about uppercase N/Y/M used as tristate literal
values following the same logic as checkpatch.

This new static checker is the script used for [1] with a few
improvements to avoid some false positives.

Link: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=216748 [1]
Signed-off-by: Andrew Jones <andrew.jones@linux.dev>
---
 Makefile                             |  7 ++-
 scripts/kconfig/kconfig-sym-check.pl | 93 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 99 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100755 scripts/kconfig/kconfig-sym-check.pl

diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index fc2d94aafb45..5a0a9f9d6169 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -293,6 +293,7 @@ version_h := include/generated/uapi/linux/version.h
 clean-targets := %clean mrproper cleandocs
 no-dot-config-targets := $(clean-targets) \
 			 cscope gtags TAGS tags help% %docs check% coccicheck \
+			 kconfig-sym-check \
 			 $(version_h) headers headers_% archheaders archscripts \
 			 %asm-generic kernelversion %src-pkg dt_binding_check \
 			 outputmakefile rustavailable rustfmt rustfmtcheck \
@@ -1806,6 +1807,7 @@ help:
 	@echo  '  includecheck    - Check for duplicate included header files'
 	@echo  '  headerdep       - Detect inclusion cycles in headers'
 	@echo  '  coccicheck      - Check with Coccinelle'
+	@echo  '  kconfig-sym-check - Check for dangling Kconfig symbol references'
 	@echo  '  clang-analyzer  - Check with clang static analyzer'
 	@echo  '  clang-tidy      - Check with clang-tidy'
 	@echo  ''
@@ -2227,7 +2229,7 @@ endif
 # Scripts to check various things for consistency
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-PHONY += includecheck versioncheck coccicheck
+PHONY += includecheck versioncheck coccicheck kconfig-sym-check
 
 includecheck:
 	find $(srctree)/* $(RCS_FIND_IGNORE) \
@@ -2242,6 +2244,9 @@ versioncheck:
 coccicheck:
 	$(Q)$(BASH) $(srctree)/scripts/$@
 
+kconfig-sym-check:
+	$(Q)cd $(srctree) && $(PERL) scripts/kconfig/kconfig-sym-check.pl $(KCONFIG_SYM_CHECK_EXCLUDES)
+
 PHONY += checkstack kernelrelease kernelversion image_name
 
 # UML needs a little special treatment here.  It wants to use the host
diff --git a/scripts/kconfig/kconfig-sym-check.pl b/scripts/kconfig/kconfig-sym-check.pl
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..a6907e585962
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/kconfig/kconfig-sym-check.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+use warnings;
+use strict;
+
+my $kconfig_sym_check_excludes = undef;
+$kconfig_sym_check_excludes = $ARGV[0] if (defined $ARGV[0]);
+
+my @files = `git ls-files '*Kconfig*'`;
+my %configs = ();
+my %refs = ();
+
+foreach my $file (<@files>) {
+	open F, $file or die "Cannot open $file: $!";
+
+	my $help = 0;
+	my $help_level;
+	my $level;
+
+	while (<F>) {
+		chomp;
+
+		next if /^\s*$/;
+		next if /^\s*#/;
+
+		/^(\s*)/;
+		$level = length $1;
+
+		if ($help && $level < $help_level) {
+			$help = 0;
+		}
+
+		next if ($help);
+
+		if (/^\s*(help|\-\-\-help\-\-\-)$/) {
+			$help = 1;
+			$_ = <F>;
+			/^(\s*)/;
+			$help_level = length $1;
+			next;
+		}
+
+		if (/^\s*(config|menuconfig)\s+([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\s*(#.*)?$/) {
+			$configs{$2}++;
+			next;
+		}
+
+		my $comment_idx = index $_, "#";
+		if ($comment_idx != -1) {
+			$_ = substr $_, 0, $comment_idx;
+		}
+
+		if (/^\s*(default|def_bool|def_tristate|select|depends\s+on|imply|visible\s+if|range|if)\s+(.+)\s*$/) {
+			my $s = $2;
+			$s =~ s/\$\(.*\)//g;
+			$s =~ s/'[^']*'//g;
+			$s =~ s/"[^"]*"//g;
+			$s =~ s/%%[^%]*%%//g;
+			my @syms = split /[^a-zA-Z0-9_]+/, $s;
+			map {
+				$refs{$_}++ if (/[a-zA-Z]/ && $_ ne "if" && $_ ne "y" && $_ ne "n" && $_ ne "m" && !(/^0[xX]/ && !/[g-wy-zG-WY-Z]/));
+			} @syms
+		}
+	}
+
+	close F;
+}
+
+my %known_syms = ();
+if (defined $kconfig_sym_check_excludes) {
+	my $file = $kconfig_sym_check_excludes;
+	open F, $file or die "Cannot open $file: $!";
+	while (<F>) {
+		chomp;
+		next if /^\s*$/;
+		next if /^\s*#/;
+		$known_syms{$1}++ if (/^\s*([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\s*(#.*)?$/);
+	}
+}
+
+my $ret = 0;
+foreach my $k (sort keys %refs) {
+	next if (exists $configs{$k} || exists $known_syms{$k});
+
+	print "$k";
+	print " - warning: '$k' is probably not what you want; Kconfig tristate literals are always lowercase ('n', 'y', 'm')" if ($k eq "N" || $k eq "Y" || $k eq "M");
+	print "\n";
+
+	$ret = 1;
+}
+
+exit $ret;
-- 
2.43.0

Re: [PATCH] kconfig: add kconfig-sym-check static checker

[Andy Shevchenko]

+Cc: Randy: FYI.

On Wed, May 13, 2026 at 04:03:29PM -0500, Andrew Jones wrote:
> Add 'make kconfig-sym-check', a static checker that finds Kconfig
> symbols referenced in expressions (select, depends on, default, etc.)
> but never defined via config/menuconfig anywhere in the tree. New
> dangling symbols are reported as errors (exit 1) unless they are
> listed in an exclusion file, e.g.
> 
>  KCONFIG_SYM_CHECK_EXCLUDES=sym-check-excludes make kconfig-sym-check
> 
> The checker also warns about uppercase N/Y/M used as tristate literal
> values following the same logic as checkpatch.
> 
> This new static checker is the script used for [1] with a few
> improvements to avoid some false positives.

Acked-by: Andy Shevchenko <andriy.shevchenko@linux.intel.com>

-- 
With Best Regards,
Andy Shevchenko

Re: [PATCH] kconfig: add kconfig-sym-check static checker

[Randy Dunlap]

On 5/13/26 2:03 PM, Andrew Jones wrote:
> Add 'make kconfig-sym-check', a static checker that finds Kconfig
> symbols referenced in expressions (select, depends on, default, etc.)
> but never defined via config/menuconfig anywhere in the tree. New
> dangling symbols are reported as errors (exit 1) unless they are
> listed in an exclusion file, e.g.
> 
>  KCONFIG_SYM_CHECK_EXCLUDES=sym-check-excludes make kconfig-sym-check
> 
> The checker also warns about uppercase N/Y/M used as tristate literal
> values following the same logic as checkpatch.
> 
> This new static checker is the script used for [1] with a few
> improvements to avoid some false positives.
> 
> Link: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=216748 [1]
> Signed-off-by: Andrew Jones <andrew.jones@linux.dev>
> ---
>  Makefile                             |  7 ++-
>  scripts/kconfig/kconfig-sym-check.pl | 93 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  2 files changed, 99 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>  create mode 100755 scripts/kconfig/kconfig-sym-check.pl

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

Thanks.

-- 
~Randy