Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751392AbWCJE6P (ORCPT ); Thu, 9 Mar 2006 23:58:15 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751394AbWCJE6P (ORCPT ); Thu, 9 Mar 2006 23:58:15 -0500 Received: from mx.pathscale.com ([64.160.42.68]:53666 "EHLO mx.pathscale.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751392AbWCJE6O (ORCPT ); Thu, 9 Mar 2006 23:58:14 -0500 Subject: Re: Revenge of the sysfs maintainer! (was Re: [PATCH 8 of 20] ipath - sysfs support for core driver) From: "Bryan O'Sullivan" To: Greg KH Cc: Roland Dreier , rolandd@cisco.com, akpm@osdl.org, davem@davemloft.net, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, openib-general@openib.org In-Reply-To: <20060310010050.GA9945@suse.de> References: <1141947143.10693.40.camel@serpentine.pathscale.com> <20060310003513.GA17050@suse.de> <1141951589.10693.84.camel@serpentine.pathscale.com> <20060310010050.GA9945@suse.de> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Thu, 09 Mar 2006 20:58:13 -0800 Message-Id: <1141966693.14517.20.camel@camp4.serpentine.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.2.3 (2.2.3-2.fc4) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1124 Lines: 29 On Thu, 2006-03-09 at 17:00 -0800, Greg KH wrote: > They are in the latest -mm tree if you wish to use them. Unfortunatly > it might look like they will not work out, due to the per-cpu relay > files not working properly with Paul's patches at the moment. Hmm, OK. > What's wrong with debugfs? It's not configured into the kernels of either of the distros I use (Red Hat or SUSE). I can't have a required part of my driver depend on a feature that's not enabled in the major distro kernels. I'd like a mechanism that is (a) always there (b) easy for kernel to use and (c) easy for userspace to use. A sysfs file satisfies a, b, and c, but I can't use it; a sysfs bin file satisfies all three (a bit worse on b), but I can't use it; debugfs isn't there, so I can't use it. That leaves me with few options, I think. What do you suggest? (Please don't say netlink.)