options of configuration file

[Srinivas Srinivas]

Hello,

May be these are beginner questions ... could you plz answer the following
questions?

I think "options" line and "device" line are in the configuration file, in
order to support those features and devices. I see that sed script will
parse that file. Could you plz let me know what will be done in this phase
and how these lines will be transferred into gcc define directives(in the
case of options) and inclusion of source files for compilation(in case of
device).

I have seen lint in some Makefiles, but dont know why it was used. Why is
lint used?

The "device" line adds device support to the kernel. What exactly does this
mean. A more basic question is: how the devices are detected initially by
the FreeBSD with the aid of hardware and bios? I think this is a broad
topic. Could you plz provide a link if there is any info, you know, in the
net?

Thanks,

Srinivas