Message-ID: <4AE87AC8.4060001@sgi.com>
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:09:28 -0700
From: Mike Travis <travis@sgi.com>
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To: Hidetoshi Seto <seto.hidetoshi@jp.fujitsu.com>
CC: Andi Kleen <ak@linux.intel.com>, Roland Dreier <rdreier@cisco.com>,
       Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>,
       "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
       x86@kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] x86, mce: disable MCE if cpu has no MCE banks
References: <adaeip473qt.fsf@cisco.com> <4AE74D25.8090901@sgi.com> <4AE75DB9.3040702@sgi.com> <4AE7C396.7040109@jp.fujitsu.com> <4AE7D59D.9070307@linux.intel.com> <4AE7E40F.20602@jp.fujitsu.com> <4AE7E931.6040703@linux.intel.com> <4AE7FE5F.4000402@jp.fujitsu.com>
In-Reply-To: <4AE7FE5F.4000402@jp.fujitsu.com>
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Hidetoshi Seto wrote:
> Andi Kleen wrote:
>> Hidetoshi Seto wrote:
>>> Without disabling, what can we do on MCE with no bank?
>> Nothing, but is it really worth adding a special case?
> 
> If question were:
>   - is it really worth to support this special environment,
>     "MCE-capable but no MCE banks" ?
> then I'd like to say no.
> 
> So I suggested to disable MCE on this uncertain environment.
> Or we will end up adding more codes for special cases...
> 
>>> I found that do_machine_check() does nothing if banks==0 ... it is better
>>> to let system to panic with "Machine check from unknown source"?
>> IMHO yes. In this case the system must be very confused and panic is the
>> best you can do. Otherwise it won't do anything interesting anyways.
> 
> Agreed, but this is also a special case.
> Not depending on the real number of banks, confused system could fail to
> get the value from memory... Humm, in theory MCE handler must be
> implemented carefully, but I bet the confused value will not be always 0,
> ... is it worth to do?
> 
>>>>> Hum, I suppose the line for CPU 0 was slightly different from others,
>>>>> because SHD means "this bank is shared bank and controlled by other".
>>>>> Maybe:
>>>>>  CPU 0 MCA banks CMCI:0 CMCI:1 CMCI:2 CMCI:3 CMCI:5 ... CMCI:21
>>>>>
>>>>> But I agree that we could some work for this messages...
>>>>> Is it better to change the message level to debug from info?
>>>> Can be made INFO yes, but I would prefer not removing them
>>>> from the dmesg for now.
>>>>
>>>> Perhaps they could be also compressed a bit like SRAT.
>>> Like SRAT?  I could not catch the meaning ... For example?
>> See the recent patches from David Rientjes in the same original thread.
> 
> I found it, thanks.
> 
> So I suppose your idea is like:
>   CPU 0 MCA banks CMCI:{0-3,5-9,12-21} POLL:{4,10,11}
>   CPU 1 MCA banks SHD:{0,1,6-9,12-21} CMCI:{2,3,5} POLL:{4,10,11}
> right?
> 
> IMHO the format I suggested is better to read, as far as banks is
> not so big number.
>   CPU 0 MCA banks map : CCCC PCCC CCPP CCCC CCCC CC
>   CPU 1 MCA banks map : ssCC PCss ssPP ssss ssss ss
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> H.Seto

The problem comes up when you have a whole bunch of cpus, and the lines
become redundant.  Can you compress the lines so that cpus with the
same given mappings are printed on one line?

Thanks,
Mike
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