Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753359AbYHPTg4 (ORCPT ); Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:36:56 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751181AbYHPTgq (ORCPT ); Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:36:46 -0400 Received: from 136-022.dsl.LABridge.com ([206.117.136.22]:1672 "EHLO mail.perches.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751042AbYHPTgp (ORCPT ); Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:36:45 -0400 Subject: Re: [patch 1/3] kmsg: Kernel message catalog macros. From: Joe Perches To: schwidefsky@de.ibm.com Cc: Greg KH , 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 , Jochen =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Vo=DF?= , Kunai Takashi , Tim Bird In-Reply-To: <1218326902.14983.22.camel@localhost> 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> <1218124771.5882.37.camel@localhost> <1218326902.14983.22.camel@localhost> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2008 12:36:14 -0700 Message-Id: <1218915375.24527.105.camel@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.12.3-1.3mdv2008.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 3097 Lines: 81 On Sun, 2008-08-10 at 02:08 +0200, Martin Schwidefsky wrote: > On Thu, 2008-08-07 at 08:59 -0700, Joe Perches wrote: > > On Thu, 2008-08-07 at 10:31 +0200, Martin Schwidefsky wrote: > > > 1) The message tag is for the user of the system. If it does not have a > > > fixed position it gets confusing. > > I think the message tag today is not useful for a user. > > It seems a barely useful maintainer value. > > Perhaps the message tag allows for run-time language > > translation and maybe a bit better selective logging. > Aehhm, .. what ? If a user does not understand a message directly > how can he NOT be interested in the kmsg tag? As a random example > consider the situation when the user gets the message > > monwriter.1: Writing monitor data failed with rc=5 > > Usually a user will go "Huh?" except if he is a z/VM expert. Looking > at the source code won't help too much either: > > static int monwrite_diag(struct monwrite_hdr *myhdr, char *buffer, int fcn) > { > struct appldata_product_id id; > int rc; > > strcpy(id.prod_nr, "LNXAPPL"); > id.prod_fn = myhdr->applid; > id.record_nr = myhdr->record_num; > id.version_nr = myhdr->version; > id.release_nr = myhdr->release; > id.mod_lvl = myhdr->mod_level; > rc = appldata_asm(&id, fcn, (void *) buffer, myhdr->datalen); > if (rc <= 0) > return rc; > if (rc == 5) > return -EPERM; > kmsg_err(1,"Writing monitor data failed with rc=%i\n", rc); > return -EINVAL; > } > > What the user should do is to cut-copy-paste the kmsg tag monwriter.1 > and pass it to man: > > # man monwriter.1 > > What the user will then get is the man page that has been generated > from the kmsg comment with "make D=2": > > --- snip > monwriter.1(9) monwriter.1(9) > > Message > monwriter.1: Writing monitor data failed with rc=%i > > Severity > Error > > Parameters > @1: return code > > Description > The monitor stream application device driver used the z/VM diagnose > call DIAG X'DC' to start writing monitor data. z/VM returned an error > and the monitor data cannot be written. If the return code is 5, your > z/VM guest virtual machine is not authorized to write monitor data. > > User action > If the return code is 5, ensure that your z/VM guest virtual machine's > entry in the z/VM directory includes the OPTION APPLMON statement. For > other return codes see the section about DIAGNOSE Code X'DC' in "z/VM > CP Programming Services". Doesn't this example better illustrate the barely useful user value of such a message and documentation? In your example, monwriter.1 with a return code of 5 isn't possible. -- 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/