RE: [RFC PATCH v2 0/3] pmem memmap dump support

From: Dan Williams
Date: Fri Apr 28 2023 - 15:00:19 EST


Li Zhijian wrote:
> Hello folks,
>
> About 2 months ago, we posted our first RFC[3] and received your kindly feedback. Thank you :)
> Now, I'm back with the code.
>
> Currently, this RFC has already implemented to supported case D*. And the case A&B is disabled
> deliberately in makedumpfile. It includes changes in 3 source code as below:

I think the reason this patchkit is difficult to follow is that it
spends a lot of time describing a chosen solution, but not enough time
describing the problem and the tradeoffs.

For example why is updating /proc/vmcore with pmem metadata the chosen
solution? Why not leave the kernel out of it and have makedumpfile
tooling aware of how to parse persistent memory namespace info-blocks
and retrieve that dump itself? This is what I proposed here:

http://lore.kernel.org/r/641484f7ef780_a52e2940@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.notmuch

...but never got an answer, or I missed the answer.