Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932291AbWBVQIU (ORCPT ); Wed, 22 Feb 2006 11:08:20 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932306AbWBVQIU (ORCPT ); Wed, 22 Feb 2006 11:08:20 -0500 Received: from e2.ny.us.ibm.com ([32.97.182.142]:13281 "EHLO e2.ny.us.ibm.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932291AbWBVQIT (ORCPT ); Wed, 22 Feb 2006 11:08:19 -0500 Message-ID: <43FC8C6B.60002@us.ibm.com> Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 11:08:11 -0500 From: "Mike D. Day" User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5 (Macintosh/20051201) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Arjan van de Ven CC: Heiko Carstens , Dave Hansen , xen-devel@lists.xensource.com, lkml , Greg KH Subject: Re: [ PATCH 2.6.16-rc3-xen 3/3] sysfs: export Xen hypervisor attributes to sysfs References: <43FB2642.7020109@us.ibm.com> <1140542130.8693.18.camel@localhost.localdomain> <20060222123250.GB9295@osiris.boeblingen.de.ibm.com> <43FC5B1D.5040901@us.ibm.com> <1140612969.2979.20.camel@laptopd505.fenrus.org> <43FC61C4.30002@us.ibm.com> <20060222131918.GC9295@osiris.boeblingen.de.ibm.com> <43FC6A86.90901@us.ibm.com> <1140616911.2979.22.camel@laptopd505.fenrus.org> In-Reply-To: <1140616911.2979.22.camel@laptopd505.fenrus.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1530 Lines: 33 Arjan van de Ven wrote: > but again those tools and agents *already* have a way of talking to the > hypervisor themselves. Why can't they just first ask this info? Why does > that need to be in the kernel, in unswappable memory? Currently the two ways to get this data from user space are python via xend, the xen control daemon, and through a C library call. The two arguments for making some data available via sysfs are (1) to support scripts and to (2) support efforts to slim down the required user space tool stack. There are alternatives for both arguments. To support scripting one could add bindings (perl etc.) to the c library. Another alternative is to write a succinct set of utility programs that call the c library and invoke those utilities from scripts. Neither of the above alternatives really help to slim down existing user space tools, but on the other hand they don't materially add to the problem either. Sysfs is the simplest way to expose this info to user space. As an 8k module it is pretty small. It fits well with convention because Xen support is driver-like in the current linux patches. I think a xen sysfs module is a reasonable solution. However I understand and agree with the desire to keep unnecessary code out of the kernel. Mike - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/