kconfig: sort found symbols by relevance

When searching for symbols, return the symbols sorted by relevance.

Sorting is done as thus:
  - first, symbols that match exactly
  - then, alphabetical sort

Since the search can be a regexp, it is possible that more than one symbol
matches exactly. In this case, we can't decide which to sort first, so we
fallback to alphabeticall sort.

Explain this (new!) sorting heuristic in the documentation.

Reported-by: Jean Delvare <jdelvare@suse.de>
Signed-off-by: "Yann E. MORIN" <yann.morin.1998@free.fr>
Cc: Jean Delvare <jdelvare@suse.de>
Cc: Michal Marek <mmarek@suse.cz>
Cc: Roland Eggner <edvx1@systemanalysen.net>
Cc: Wang YanQing <udknight@gmail.com>

--
Changes v1->v2:
  - drop the previous, complex heuristic in favour of a simpler heuristic
    that is both easier to understand, *and* to maintain (Jean)
  - explain sorting heuristic in the doc  (Jean)

1 files changed, 13 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.txt b/Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.txt
index 3f429ed8b3b8..e9f9e767f82a 100644
--- a/Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.txt
+++ b/Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.txt
@@ -174,6 +174,19 @@ Searching in menuconfig:
 
                 /^hotplug
 
+        When searching, symbols are sorted thus:
+          - exact match first: an exact match is when the search matches
+            the complete symbol name;
+          - alphabetical order: when two symbols do not match exactly,
+            they are sorted in alphabetical order (in the user's current
+            locale).
+        For example: ^ATH.K matches:
+            ATH5K ATH9K ATH5K_AHB ATH5K_DEBUG [...] ATH6KL ATH6KL_DEBUG
+            [...] ATH9K_AHB ATH9K_BTCOEX_SUPPORT ATH9K_COMMON [...]
+        of which only ATH5K and ATH9K match exactly and so are sorted
+        first (and in alphabetical order), then come all other symbols,
+        sorted in alphabetical order.
+
 ______________________________________________________________________
 User interface options for 'menuconfig'