Re: [PATCH 0/3] lsmem/chmem: add memory zone awareness

[Gerald Schaefer <gerald.schaefer@de.ibm.com>]

On Fri, 3 Nov 2017 11:11:04 +0100
Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Nov 02, 2017 at 05:54:08PM +0100, Gerald Schaefer wrote:
> > Sorry for the late answer. I'm not sure if I understand the problem, it
> > "works as designed" that the range merging is done based on the output
> > columns, but I see that it was not really described as such. So I do
> > like the note that you added with the above mentioned commit.
> > 
> > However, regarding the --split option, I think it may be confusing at
> > least for human users, if an "lsmem -oRANGE" will now print more than
> > one range, even if this is now based on a "fixed" set of default columns
> > that are used for merging (but "subject to change" according to the man
> > page).  
> 
> OK, I think we can support both concepts :-) I have modified lsmem to:
> 
>  - follow output columns for split policy by default (= your original implementation)
>  - the --split is optional and may be used to override the default behavior
> 
> it means for humans it's probably less concussing and advanced users may
> define by --split another way how to generate the ranges.
> 
> I think it's good compromise and it's backwardly compatible with
> the previous version. OK?

Yes, that looks good.

> 
> If yes, I need to backport this change to RHEL7.5 :-)
> 

Yes, please :-)


> > I also do not really see the benefit for script usage, at least if we
> > define it as "expected behavior" to have the ranges merged based on the  
> 
> We want to keep it user friendly. The "expected behavior" (now
> default) forces you to parse lsmem output to filter out unnecessary 
> columns (if you care about RANGE only). 
> 
> And in all our utils the --output option really control the output, but 
> no another behavior.

OK, that makes sense. I did not have any output selection in the original
implementation, and also no focus on script usage, but as (maybe so far
the only) human user I did get confused by the new range merging.

Regards,
Gerald