menuconfiglike

Menuconfiglike describes a family of configuration interfaces that emulate the interactive, menu-driven style popularized by the Linux kernel's menuconfig tool. They provide a text-based user interface for selecting, enabling, or disabling build-time features through a hierarchical set of options, often with dependencies and constraints. The resulting configuration is typically saved to a single file (for example .config), which is then consumed by the project's build system to enable or disable code paths, libraries, and features.

Most menuconfiglike tools run in a terminal and rely on a lightweight UI library such as ncurses. Users navigate menus with the keyboard, toggle options on or off, and consult inline help text. Options may be boolean, tri-state, or multi-select, and changing one option can automatically enable or disable related options. They commonly provide a search function, and the ability to generate a defconfig or to export/import configurations.

Implementation for menuconfiglike interfaces often relies on a metadata format that describes options, dependencies, default values, and help text. The Linux kernel uses Kconfig; other projects adapt similar approaches, sometimes with custom DSLs.

Examples include the Linux kernel’s own make menuconfig, BusyBox, Buildroot, and U-Boot, all of which use a menu-driven interface to select features before building.

Advantages of this approach include reproducible builds, low runtime overhead, and the ability to work entirely offline. Limitations include potential complexity for large option sets and a learning curve for new users. See also: menuconfig, Kconfig, ncurses, defconfig.