Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754705AbYHJAEr (ORCPT ); Sat, 9 Aug 2008 20:04:47 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1752226AbYHJAEj (ORCPT ); Sat, 9 Aug 2008 20:04:39 -0400 Received: from mtagate7.de.ibm.com ([195.212.29.156]:32966 "EHLO mtagate7.de.ibm.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752009AbYHJAEh (ORCPT ); Sat, 9 Aug 2008 20:04:37 -0400 Subject: Re: [patch 1/3] kmsg: Kernel message catalog macros. From: Martin Schwidefsky Reply-To: schwidefsky@de.ibm.com To: Greg KH Cc: Kay Sievers , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-s390@vger.kernel.org, lf_kernel_messages@lists.linux-foundation.org, Andrew Morton , Michael Holzheu , Gerrit Huizenga , Randy Dunlap , Jan Kara , Pavel Machek , Sam Ravnborg , Joe Perches , Jochen =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Vo=DF?= , Kunai Takashi , Tim Bird In-Reply-To: <20080807170144.GB9214@suse.de> References: <20080730165656.118280544@de.ibm.com> <20080730171156.824640459@de.ibm.com> <3ae72650807301502h3e54e80yb405af7192048b89@mail.gmail.com> <20080730220432.GA24800@suse.de> <1217495404.8555.20.camel@localhost> <20080805223117.GA6552@suse.de> <1218011716.20769.12.camel@localhost> <20080806200721.GA30086@suse.de> <1218097901.1033.10.camel@localhost> <20080807170144.GB9214@suse.de> Content-Type: text/plain Organization: IBM Corporation Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:03:41 +0200 Message-Id: <1218326621.14983.17.camel@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.22.3.1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 4036 Lines: 94 On Thu, 2008-08-07 at 10:01 -0700, Greg KH wrote: > On Thu, Aug 07, 2008 at 10:31:41AM +0200, Martin Schwidefsky wrote: > > On Wed, 2008-08-06 at 13:07 -0700, Greg KH wrote: > > > > > > Using dev_printk won't work because of the order of the elements of the > > > > > > printk. The kmsg tag should not have a "random" position in the printk > > > > > > but should be the first element. If we use dev_printk the kmsg tag will > > > > > > be the third element, for other kmsg printks it will be the first. In > > > > > > addition the kmsg message tag for the device drivers already includes > > > > > > the driver name .. > > > > > > > > > > But the structure of dev_printk() is well definied and should be pretty > > > > > trival to parse even with missing fields. > > > > > > > > The missing field is the message tag. Which is the key for the message > > > > lookup. As far as the kmsg catalog is concerned this is a pretty > > > > important field that may not be missing from the printk itself. > > > > > > No, I mean use dev_printk() as the base for your logging macro. Add > > > your message tag as the first field after the dev_printk() information. > > > > Hmm, you are proposing to introduce a second format for the kmsg > > messages to avoid the need for some more printk wrapper macros. To me it > > seems that this has two problems: > > No, only 1 format, use dev_printk() instead of printk() in your macro. No, there are more printks in the system then just dev_printk. The kmsg interface is supposed to cover all of them. > > 1) The message tag is for the user of the system. If it does not have a > > fixed position it gets confusing. > > How would it not be in a fixed position with dev_printk()? It is fixed in the macro for standard kmsg printks, there the message tag is the first field. It is fixed in the macro for the dev_printk variant of the kmsg message, there it is the third field. This mismatch I refer to as not have a fixed position, for some message (the standard ones) it is at the start of the final message, for others (the dev_printk ones) it is in the middle of the message. Not good. > > 2) The message tag for a driver message usually already includes the > > driver name, the dev_printk will print it again. This is ugly and > > reduces the quality of the message. > > Then the message needs to change and remove that "driver name", as it is > redundant, saving a tiny ammount of space :) Then lets look at how this will look like. First a standard printk message and its conversion to kmsg: printk(KERN_WARNING "cpcmd: could not allocate response buffer\n"); vs. kmsg_warn(1, "The cpcmd kernel function failed " "to allocate a response buffer\n"); The message comes out as cpcmd: cound not allocate response buffer vs. cpcmd.1: The cpcmd kernel function failed to allocate a response buffer As an example for a dev_printk I use a message from the zfcp driver: dev_warn(&req->adapter->ccw_device->dev, "The local link is down: no light detected.\n"); vs. kmsg_dev_warn(27, &req->adapter->ccw_device->dev, "The local link is down: no light detected.\n"); The dev_printk versus the original kmsg macro comes out as zfcp: 0.0.1234: The local link is down: no light detected. vs. zfcp.27: 0.0.1234: The local link is down: no light detected. If I would just use dev_printk in kmsg_dev_warn as proposed by Greg: zfcp: 0.0.1234: zfcp.27: The local link is down: no light detected. If the message component is skipped from the message tag: zfcp: 0.0.1234: 27: The local link is down: no light detected. Is it just me who thinks that the later two message variants are crap? -- blue skies, Martin. "Reality continues to ruin my life." - Calvin. -- 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/