[[a fuzzy discussion of replacing printk() and panic()
calls with an event macro that emits binary data
instead of ASCII strings. Each event is also identified
by subsystem, priority level, group and serial number.
Selection would be available by all these criteria.]]
> Here are the advantages as I see them (without going into
> full implementation details -- which I will if there is
> interest):
>
> 1. Formatting strings are removed, saving about 32K of locked mem
> 2. Format processing is removed from the kernel, reducing
> the latency involved and solving MP contention problems
> I think most events were handled in two or three dozen
> instructions. (Not counting rare spin lock delays)
> 3. Event levels can be compiled out of the kernel for
> specific subsystems, as desired (INFO level events
> for the serial driver, for example)
> 4. Event levels can be selected for each subsystem where
> the events get generated
> 5. Event display code (e.g. syslogd) has much greater
> flexibility in selecting the events to display
> (levels by subsystem and even specific events)
> 6. Tracing support was added. Subsystems could implement
> tracing of their own actions or the processing of
> certain requests. It worked seamlessly with regular
> kernel events.
> 7. Panic level events had special handling, obviously.
oh, and:
> 8. The ascii format strings get collected into a small number
> of files that can be more easily translated, sans "gettext()"
> 9. If remote consoles are required over narrow-band serial links,
> less data are transmitted to the waiting event display daemon
I just found "http://www.cs.uml.edu/~acahalan/linux/21wishlist.html".
My proposal would address all of these issues (except differential,
tho it might easily facilitate that):
> Categorize all kernel messages.
>
> Reduce message output at boot, keep lines to 80 characters.
> This is really important for blind people using braille terminals.
>
> Let people completely disable boot messages so that they can have
> the boot loader put up a graphical logo and have init start up
> X directly from the logo screen. It seems this is available as a patch.
>
> Find way to only display a diff of the boot messages from the last boot.
> Maybe use color instead of +/-.
>
> It would be good to change messages to all use the same format and style.
> The way to do this would probably be to provide a
> report_config() that did the formatting.
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