Re: [PATCH] kbuild: drop dependency on .config for tools/

[Nicolas Schier]

On Fri, Sep 11, 2026 at 12:42:33PM +0200, Alexis Lothoré (eBPF Foundation) wrote:
> When trying to build some tooling from tools/ in an unconfigured kernel
> tree, the build fails to start because of missing .config:
> 
>   $ make tools/bpf
>   ***
>   *** Configuration file ".config" not found!
>   ***
>   *** Please run some configurator (e.g. "make oldconfig" or
>   *** "make menuconfig" or "make xconfig").
>   ***
>   /home/alexis/src/linux/Makefile:810: include/config/auto.conf: No such file or directory
>   make[1]: *** [/home/alexis/src/linux/Makefile:892: .config] Error 1
>   make: *** [Makefile:248: __sub-make] Error 2
> 
> The failure is due to the tools/<foo> targets having need-config=1 set.
> With a proper .config present, a standard `make tools/bpf` works, but:
>   - those tools don't need a .config to build and run, they are built
>     independently of the kernel configuration

Doesn't tools/testing/ need a kernel configuration?

-- 
Nicolas