RE: [PATCH 1/3] xen/mce: Add mcelog support for Xen platform (v2)

From: Liu, Jinsong
Date: Thu May 24 2012 - 12:53:11 EST


Borislav Petkov wrote:
> On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 04:15:02PM +0000, Liu, Jinsong wrote:
>> The reason is, if we do so, it would be covered by native
>> misc_register(&mce_chrdev_device) later when native kernel init (xen
>> init first and then start native kernel).
>> Under such case, if linux running under xen platform, /dev/mcelog
>> point to vcpu, that's pointless since it cannot get any mcelog from
>> physical cpu (which owned by xen).
>>
>> Yes, we can use another misc device like /dev/xen-mcelog, w/ another
>> device minor like 226, but that's not good for userspace mcelog
>> tools. As far as I know, Novell mcelog use unified /dev/mcelog
>> interface for linux running under either bare metal or xen platform.
>
> Maybe create a symlink in /dev/mcelog pointing to /dev/xen-mcelog?
>
> That should solve it.

Kernel has created a file /dev/mcelog no matter running at native or xen platform.
If xen try to mask kernel creating /dev/mcelog, that would be harmful to native kernel.

>
>> This patch just do redirection at xen code path, and that would not
>> hurt anything to native kernel.
>
> My concern is that if we remove /dev/mcelog one day, xen people will
> cry.

Don't worry :)
Xen people would handle that case (that's not trouble for xen), just notify us is enough.
If kernel really remove /dev/mcelog some day, xen just need simply add 1 line misc_register(&xen_mce_chrdev_device), since currently all other code are xen-self-contained.

Thanks,
Jinsong

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