[PATCH v2] kconfig: add kconfig-sym-check static checker

From: Andrew Jones

Date: Tue May 19 2026 - 18:00:07 EST


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@xxxxxxxxx>
Acked-by: Andy Shevchenko <andriy.shevchenko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Acked-by: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Tested-by: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---

v2:
- Added Andy's and Randy's tags
- Accept srctree as first argument so the Makefile can drop 'cd $(srctree)' [Nathan]
- Replace git ls-files with git+find fallback [Nathan and Andy]
- Changes thanks to sashiko's review
- strip quoted strings before inline comments to avoid '#' inside a string
- use [^)]* instead of .* in macro strip regex to avoid greedy match
eating tokens between adjacent $(macro) expansions

Makefile | 7 +-
scripts/kconfig/kconfig-sym-check.pl | 97 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2 files changed, 103 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
create mode 100755 scripts/kconfig/kconfig-sym-check.pl

diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index fbc67fcb6cdb..b86ccc1e08cd 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 \
@@ -1811,6 +1812,7 @@ 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 ''
@@ -2232,7 +2234,7 @@ 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) \
@@ -2247,6 +2249,9 @@ versioncheck:
coccicheck:
$(Q)$(BASH) $(srctree)/scripts/$@

+kconfig-sym-check:
+ $(Q)$(PERL) $(srctree)/scripts/kconfig/kconfig-sym-check.pl $(srctree) $(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..6bf32fb37929
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/kconfig/kconfig-sym-check.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+use warnings;
+use strict;
+
+my $srctree = shift @ARGV;
+my $kconfig_sym_check_excludes = defined $ARGV[0] ? $ARGV[0] : undef;
+
+my @files = `git -C \Q$srctree\E ls-files '*Kconfig*' 2>/dev/null`;
+if (@files) {
+ chomp @files;
+ @files = map { "$srctree/$_" } @files;
+} else {
+ @files = `find \Q$srctree\E -name '*Kconfig*'`;
+ chomp @files;
+}
+
+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{$2}++;
+ next;
+ }
+
+ if (/^\s*(default|def_bool|def_tristate|select|depends\s+on|imply|visible\s+if|range|if)\s+(.+)\s*$/) {
+ my $s = $2;
+ $s =~ s/"[^"]*"//g;
+ $s =~ s/'[^']*'//g;
+ $s =~ s/#.*//;
+ $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