From:   Nathan Lynch <nathanl@linux.ibm.com>
To:     Laurent Dufour <ldufour@linux.ibm.com>,
        Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au>
Cc:     linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linuxppc-dev@lists.ozlabs.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v4] powerpc/pseries: read the lpar name from the firmware
In-Reply-To: <25527544-b0ac-596c-3876-560493b99f6b@linux.ibm.com>
References: <20211207171109.22793-1-ldufour@linux.ibm.com>
 <25527544-b0ac-596c-3876-560493b99f6b@linux.ibm.com>
Date:   Wed, 05 Jan 2022 17:19:49 -0600
Message-ID: <8735m1ixd6.fsf@li-e15d104c-2135-11b2-a85c-d7ef17e56be6.ibm.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Precedence: bulk

Laurent Dufour <ldufour@linux.ibm.com> writes:
> On 07/12/2021, 18:11:09, Laurent Dufour wrote:
>> The LPAR name may be changed after the LPAR has been started in the HMC.
>> In that case lparstat command is not reporting the updated value because it
>> reads it from the device tree which is read at boot time.
>> 
>> However this value could be read from RTAS.
>> 
>> Adding this value in the /proc/powerpc/lparcfg output allows to read the
>> updated value.
>
> Do you consider taking that patch soon?

This version prints an error on non-PowerVM guests the first time
lparcfg is read.

And I still contend that having this function fall back to reporting the
partition name in the DT would provide a beneficial consistency in the
user-facing API, allowing programs to avoid hypervisor-specific branches
in their code. I don't understand the resistance I've encountered here.
The fallback I'm suggesting (a root node property lookup) is certainly
not more complex than the RTAS call sequence you've already implemented.