Re: [PATCH 1/2 v2] kdump: add the vmcoreinfo documentation
From: lijiang
Date: Wed Dec 05 2018 - 09:22:02 EST
å 2018å12æ05æ 18:16, Dave Young åé:
>>>> +init_uts_ns
>>>> +===========
>>>> +This is the UTS namespace, which is used to isolate two specific elements
>>>> +of the system that relate to the uname system call. The UTS namespace is
>>>> +named after the data structure used to store information returned by the
>>>> +uname system call.
>>>
>>> Those non-obvious exports should also have a short explanation why
>>> they're part of VMCOREINFO.
>>>
>>>> +
>>>> +node_online_map
>>>> +===============
>>>> +It is a macro definition, actually it is an arrary node_states[N_ONLINE],
>>>> +and it represents the set of online node in a system, one bit position
>>>> +per node number.
>>>
>>> Ditto.
>>>
>>> So yeah, people can find out what those things are but I think it is
>>> more important to state here *why* they're part of VMCOREINFO and how
>>> they're used and why they're exported.
>>>
>>
>> This is a good question.
>>
>> For these two *why*, it should be easy to understand. Because user-space tools
>> need to know basic information, such as the symbol values, field offset, structure
>> size, etc. Otherwise, these tools won't know how to analyze the memory of the crash
>> kernel.
>>
>> For the second question 'how they are used', we can get the answer from user-space
>> tools, such as makedumpfile, crash tools. Therefore, it may not need to explain any
>> more in kernel document. On the other hand, if we must put these contents into kernel
>> document, i have to say, that would be a hard task.
>
> It should be a good chance to learn how makedumpfile works :), Maybe it is
> hard to get *all* of them, but it would be good to dig and find the
> thing you can find then explain it. And leave those *unknown* part as
> FIXME or TODO, people can add description later.
>
Thank you, Dave.
It looks like a good idea.
Regards,
Lianbo
> Added Kazu in cc as well..
> > Thanks
> Dave
>