Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1764131AbXKTUxr (ORCPT ); Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:53:47 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1760504AbXKTUxh (ORCPT ); Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:53:37 -0500 Received: from ts.adaptec.com ([162.62.93.58]:55461 "EHLO mail-gw3.adaptec.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1757237AbXKTUxg convert rfc822-to-8bit (ORCPT ); Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:53:36 -0500 Content-class: urn:content-classes:message MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8BIT Subject: RE: [PATCH] Unify sysfs filenames for firmware version Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:53:34 -0500 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5 Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <20071120200212.GI31112@earth.li> X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: Thread-Topic: [PATCH] Unify sysfs filenames for firmware version Thread-Index: AcgrsEUgVqhLo/DcQhmSCfpgbKzZ4AAAgyxQ References: <20071120133824.GD31112@earth.li> <47430CCE.50701@emulex.com> <20071120171454.GH31112@earth.li> <20071120200212.GI31112@earth.li> From: "Salyzyn, Mark" To: "Jonathan McDowell" Cc: "James Smart" , , , "Greg Kroah-Hartman" , Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1940 Lines: 48 Jonathan McDowell [mailto:noodles@earth.li] sez: > On Tue, Nov 20, 2007 at 12:49:49PM -0500, Salyzyn, Mark wrote: > > The aacraid cards, which uses hba_monitor_version, > > hba_kernel_version and hba_bios_version for each piece > > does not fit into the single 'firmware revision' common ideal > While I've used the aacraid cards in the past I think I agree > with you that no 1 of those 3 pieces of information represents > the firmware. Perhaps it could export a triplet though? A single can be used in 99% of all cases, OEM or users can muck it up. I would 'vote' for hba_kernel_version == fw_version. Maybe add a companion standard for hba_bios_version == bios_version and hba_monitor_version == exec_version (executive_version) if other cards can supply such info ... > Management stuff always seems to be tied to a single card. It's one of > the things that puts me off hardware RAID. There are 113 cards this driver works for in concert. Maybe my tail feathers are showing ;-> > Do the management folks actually have some ideas about what sort of > interface they'd like in sysfs? Simple answer: No Detailed answer (I digress): They love ioctls as a commonality across all operating systems and a pass-through to proprietary firmware portals: binary, bidirectional, atomic and freely formatted migrating structures that do not herd the cats into just one specification. These are all eventually presented as documented stable objects exported by a sizeable C++ StorLib(tm) library that provides the consistent interface that the OEMs and Adaptec use to the higher level install, event, GUI and CLI applications. Driver is only involved as a transport. Sincerely -- Mark Salyzyn - 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/