config PROC_FS bool "/proc file system support" if EXPERT default y help This is a virtual file system providing information about the status of the system. "Virtual" means that it doesn't take up any space on your hard disk: the files are created on the fly by the kernel when you try to access them. Also, you cannot read the files with older version of the program less: you need to use more or cat. It's totally cool; for example, "cat /proc/interrupts" gives information about what the different IRQs are used for at the moment (there is a small number of Interrupt ReQuest lines in your computer that are used by the attached devices to gain the CPU's attention -- often a source of trouble if two devices are mistakenly configured to use the same IRQ). The program procinfo to display some information about your system gathered from the /proc file system. Before you can use the /proc file system, it has to be mounted, meaning it has to be given a location in the directory hierarchy. That location should be /proc. A command such as "mount -t proc proc /proc" or the equivalent line in /etc/fstab does the job. The /proc file system is explained in the file <file:Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt> and on the proc(5) manpage ("man 5 proc"). This option will enlarge your kernel by about 67 KB. Several programs depend on this, so everyone should say Y here. config PROC_KCORE bool "/proc/kcore support" if !ARM depends on PROC_FS && MMU help Provides a virtual ELF core file of the live kernel. This can be read with gdb and other ELF tools. No modifications can be made using this mechanism. config PROC_VMCORE bool "/proc/vmcore support" depends on PROC_FS && CRASH_DUMP default y help Exports the dump image of crashed kernel in ELF format. config PROC_SYSCTL bool "Sysctl support (/proc/sys)" if EXPERT depends on PROC_FS select SYSCTL default y ---help--- The sysctl interface provides a means of dynamically changing certain kernel parameters and variables on the fly without requiring a recompile of the kernel or reboot of the system. The primary interface is through /proc/sys. If you say Y here a tree of modifiable sysctl entries will be generated beneath the /proc/sys directory. They are explained in the files in <file:Documentation/sysctl/>. Note that enabling this option will enlarge the kernel by at least 8 KB. As it is generally a good thing, you should say Y here unless building a kernel for install/rescue disks or your system is very limited in memory. config PROC_PAGE_MONITOR default y depends on PROC_FS && MMU bool "Enable /proc page monitoring" if EXPERT help Various /proc files exist to monitor process memory utilization: /proc/pid/smaps, /proc/pid/clear_refs, /proc/pid/pagemap, /proc/kpagecount, and /proc/kpageflags. Disabling these interfaces will reduce the size of the kernel by approximately 4kb.