Syslinux - May 2007 - Including multiple configuration files

Due to a large number of targets, I'm working on a menu based PXE system 
to ease finding the difficult to remember obscure labels.  I'd like to 
split these up into separate menus, and thus in multiple configuration 
files.  However, in doing this, I don't want to sacrifice the ability to 
type in any label at the main boot prompt, but I also dont' want to 
maintain duplicate entries of a particular label.  While I see the 
options "MENU INCLUDE" and the ability to append multiple filenames to
the menu.c32 target, I don't believe there is currently any way for the 
core syslinux to handle information in multiple files.  Is this correct? 
  Is there any technical reason this isn't possible?  It would simplify 
my configuration if such a feature were implemented.  Without it, I 
imagine I'll just take all the sub-menu config files and concatenate 
them together to form a core syslinux configuration.

Also, is there any functional difference between the use of MENU INCLUDE 
vs appending multiple files to the menu.c32 target?

Thanks,
Joel Ebel

Joel Ebel wrote:
> Due to a large number of targets, I'm working on a menu based PXE
system
> to ease finding the difficult to remember obscure labels.  I'd like to 
> split these up into separate menus, and thus in multiple configuration 
> files.  However, in doing this, I don't want to sacrifice the ability
to
> type in any label at the main boot prompt, but I also dont' want to 
> maintain duplicate entries of a particular label.  While I see the 
> options "MENU INCLUDE" and the ability to append multiple
filenames to
> the menu.c32 target, I don't believe there is currently any way for the
> core syslinux to handle information in multiple files.  Is this correct? 
>   Is there any technical reason this isn't possible?
Yes.  The core of syslinux is written in assembly, and the memory
management issues in the assembly code makes maintaining multiple open
buffers infeasible.  The menu system is written in C and doesn't have
this limitation.

I have been planning to move sizable chunks of syslinux to C, but that's
a huge project.
> It would simplify 
> my configuration if such a feature were implemented.  Without it, I 
> imagine I'll just take all the sub-menu config files and concatenate 
> them together to form a core syslinux configuration.
Using a server-side make is probably the best option.  Note that the CLI
also has a limit on the number of labels which the menu system doesn't
(including hitting [Tab] in the menu.)
> Also, is there any functional difference between the use of MENU INCLUDE 
> vs appending multiple files to the menu.c32 target?
No.
	
	-hpa