$1 argument to scripts that have it should be dev or dongle, see autobuild for examples. autobuild - does full clean then full build prepare $1 - unpacks kernel tree into $1 dir and runs patch on it only to be used after fullclean (or just un-tarred package) patch $1 - applies patches to kernel under $1 dir build $1 $2 - work with kernel under $1 dir. copy config file $2 to kernel and compile kernel only to be used on a cleaned and patched kernel tree clean $1 - runs make mrproper on kernel tree in dir $1 makes it ready for build fullclean - removes kernel trees in order to start from scratch