Re: [PATCH] powerpc/powernv: Add kernel cmdline parameter to disable imc

From: Michael Ellerman
Date: Thu Oct 12 2017 - 08:05:44 EST


Anju T Sudhakar <anju@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> Hi mpe, stewart,
>
>
> On Wednesday 11 October 2017 01:55 AM, Stewart Smith wrote:
>> Michael Ellerman <mpe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>>> Anju T Sudhakar <anju@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>>>
>>>> Add a kernel command line parameter option to disable In-Memory Collection
>>>> (IMC) counters and add documentation. This helps in debug.
>>> I'd really rather we didn't. Do we *really* need this?
>>>
>>> We don't have command line parameters to disable any of the other ~20
>>> PMUs, why is this one special?
>
> This one is really helpful in debugging, incase if we want to proceed
> without nest counters OR
> core counters . But if we have the facility to do the same from
> petitboot, its fine.

I understand it's helpful for debugging.

But we can't afford to have a command line option to disable every
~1K SLOC of code.

If there's a compelling reason why we need to disable IMC *on production
systems* - then a command line option is a possibility. Though really if
there is a compelling reason for that maybe we have bigger problems :)

This is also a very new driver, so we're still finding some bugs, in a
few months it should be more stable and then the command line option
will just be cruft.

cheers