From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from mail-pf1-f195.google.com ([209.85.210.195]:40349 "EHLO mail-pf1-f195.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1726410AbeI0CAI (ORCPT ); Wed, 26 Sep 2018 22:00:08 -0400 Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2018 12:45:34 -0700 From: Guenter Roeck To: Nicolin Chen Cc: jdelvare@suse.com, corbet@lwn.net, afd@ti.com, linux-hwmon@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-doc@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2] hwmon: ina3221: Add power sysfs nodes Message-ID: <20180926194534.GB18731@roeck-us.net> References: <20180926064245.4091-1-nicoleotsuka@gmail.com> <20180926064245.4091-2-nicoleotsuka@gmail.com> <20180926182006.GB6329@Asurada-Nvidia.nvidia.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20180926182006.GB6329@Asurada-Nvidia.nvidia.com> Sender: linux-hwmon-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-hwmon@vger.kernel.org Hi Nicolin, On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 11:20:06AM -0700, Nicolin Chen wrote: > On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 05:34:53AM -0700, Guenter Roeck wrote: > > Hi Nicolin, > > > > On 09/25/2018 11:42 PM, Nicolin Chen wrote: > > > The hwmon sysfs ABI supports powerX_input and powerX_crit. This > > > can ease user space programs who care more about power in total > > > than voltage or current individually. > > > > > > So this patch adds these two sysfs nodes for INA3221 driver. > > > Ah, sorry, we can't do that. The sysfs nodes are for chips providing power > > registers, not for kernel drivers to provide calculations based on voltage > > and current measurements. > > Hmm..I saw ina2xx.c and ltc4215.c are doing similar calculations... > ina2xx.c doesn't; the chips supported by the driver do have a register reporting the power (0x03). ltc4215.c was not reviewed by a hwmon maintainer. I think I mentioned before that you can find anything you want in the Linux kernel. That doesn't make it right. > > Basic guideline is that we report what is there, not some calculation based > > on it. > > I could feel the back thoughts behind the guideline, but this does > give user space programs some trouble -- I have a few programs that > were used to read ina2xx driver which provides power nodes, but now > those programs will have to implement another function to read the > voltage and current separately to do further calculations. > > Do you know any better solution for this situation? > Userspace simply must not assume that power attributes exist and calculate it from voltage and current attributes if needed. > > This is even more true for power limits: We can not assume that the power limit > > is (max voltage * max current). or (current voltage * max_current), or anything > > else. We simply don't have the knowledge to make that assumption. > > I agree that power limit is a bit tricky here as the voltage could > change depending on the user space, Yes, I assumed that users who > set_power() should be aware of it (whether fixed or dynamical) so > as to decide to configure power limit or just current limit. > You just can not make any such assumptions, sorry. Limit attributes absolutely must be reflected in hardware. Thanks, Guenter