[+CC Laurent and Jani]
Hi,
On Mon, 28 Jul 2025 16:54:29 +0200, Mauro Carvalho Chehab wrote:
> Python is listed as an optional dependency, but this is not
> true, as:
>
> 1) CONFIG_LTO_CLANG runs a python script at scripts/Makefile.vmlinux_o;
>
> 2) kernel-doc is called during compilation when some DRM options
> like CONFIG_DRM_I915_WERROR are enabled;
>
> 3) allyesconfig/allmodconfig will enable both.
Well, these conditions still sound to me optional.
>
> So, better document that.
>
> Signed-off-by: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+huawei@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> Documentation/process/changes.rst | 13 ++++++++++++-
> 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/process/changes.rst b/Documentation/process/changes.rst
> index bccfa19b45df..f6abecf6da86 100644
> --- a/Documentation/process/changes.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/process/changes.rst
> @@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ Sphinx\ [#f1]_ 3.4.3 sphinx-build --version
> GNU tar 1.28 tar --version
> gtags (optional) 6.6.5 gtags --version
> mkimage (optional) 2017.01 mkimage --version
> -Python (optional) 3.9.x python3 --version
> +Python 3.9.x python3 --version
> GNU AWK (optional) 5.1.0 gawk --version
> ====================== =============== ========================================
>
> @@ -154,6 +154,17 @@ Perl
> You will need perl 5 and the following modules: ``Getopt::Long``,
> ``Getopt::Std``, ``File::Basename``, and ``File::Find`` to build the kernel.
>
> +Python
> +------
> +
> +CONFIG_LTO_CLANG requires python 2.7 or 3.0+; some DRM config options like
> +CONFIG_DRM_I915_WERROR require at least Python 2.7 or 3.4+.
> +
> +The kernel-doc tool and docs build require at least 3.6, but they depend on
> +dict changes that happened on 3.7 to produce valid results.
> +
> +Other tools within the Kernel tree require newer versions.
> +
These details look confusing in changes.rst. The table above says
python >=3.9.x. All you need to say here would just something lile:
+Python
+------
+
+Required with CONFIG_LTO_CLANG, some DRM config options like
+CONFIG_DRM_I915_WERROR, the kernel-doc tool, and docs build (Sphinx),
+among others.
Other details can go to comments in each script or other docs if
necessary.
Thanks, Akira
