Automate compiling of linux kernel

Hi,

I'm a newbie at kernel compilation.
Currently trying to do a bash script to automate the compiling process of the linux kernel.

I'm having some problems with automating the configuration.
I know its possible to load an existing .config file in the make menuconfig screen prompt.
But it is possible to load the .config file by passing it as some kind of argument?
Something like make some-command /path/to/my/.config/?
If not, is there any alternative to that, so I can go through the configuration process without selecting manually?

Thanks in advance.

I'm not positive, but I think

export KCONFIG_CONFIG=path/to/.config_file
make

will tell it to use that particular configuration file. Or you could just replace the .config file with whatever alternative configuration you want and that's what it will build.

how about using make oldconfig?

Thanks for the replies.
I've tried make oldconfig, and it still prompts me to enter my choices.
I think it's taking the old config file for the build, that why it's prompting me for the new functions.

What I've done is to pre-generate a .config for the particular kernel build and just build with that when I'm compiling on other machines. Another choice is to compile with default config, using make defconfig.