Re: Watchdog-Drivers

[Rusty Lynch <rusty@linux.co.intel.com>]

On Thu, 2003-03-13 at 14:24, Wim Van Sebroeck wrote:
> Hi Rusty,
> 
> sorry for the late response
> 
> > Ok, I started looking through your patch and realized that we took some 
> > rather different approaches to isolating common watchdog code.  I have
> > comments on code specifics, but I think it is more important to call out 
> > the big picture differences between our two patches.  
> > 
> > (Let me know if I missed some stuff, or misinterpreted your code.)
> > 
> > big picture differences:
> > ------------------------
> > 
> > * Your code only allows one watchdog_driver device to be registered at a time,
> >   while mine will allow multiple drivers to be registered, but only one
> >   of those devices will be exposed via the legacy /dev/watchdog interface.
> > 
> > It seems like the single watchdog device limitation is artificial once
> > the kernel is able move away from the existing legacy interface. I rather
> > like the idea of enabling user space to see multiple watchdog devices.
> 
> I was only working on the legacy /dev/watchdog interface before I saw your sysfs patch.
> I personnaly think we should go for multiple watchdog_driver devices on the same system.
> (Reason why: suppose you have a multi-processor system where each processor-board would have it's own CPU it's own external cache and it's own watchdog, in this case you would need multiple watchdog devices on the same system).
> So I'm just like you in favour of having more then 1 watchdog driver running on the same system.
> But like you said: the current interface (/dev/watchdog) doesn't support this.
> So we have two options here: 
> 1) Abandon the current /dev/watchdog interface and go for a new way of using watchdogs 
> or 2) change the legacy /dev/watchdog device so that it would handle multiple watchdog's. 
> Anyone any suggestions on this?

or, we could enable a new /dev/watchdog free interface (i.e. all user
space interaction via sysfs), while at the same time adding a shim to
the common code that will enable /dev/watchdog (working exactly the way
it did before) to expose one of the watchdog devices.

It is unclear to me if people think such a watchdog re-write would be
appropriate for 2.5, or if it is a 2.7 thing.  IMHO this is an example
of porting drivers for the new driver model, but I don't have any vested
interest in reworking the watchdog driver... I was just looking for some
code to prove/disprove my assumptions about the new driver-model. 

>
> > For example I have a bladed architecture that can expose multiple watchdog 
> > devices over a common management bus where each watchdog is implemented in a 
> > micro controller that can do thing like send snmp traps on separate networks
> > regardless of the heath of the cpu blade. Each watchdog could be triggering 
> > separate actions external to the view of cpu blade that is running the watchdog
> > deamon.
> > 
> > * Your code removes the temperature related function callbacks from 
> >   the watchdog_driver, and instead creates a new driver type called
> >   temperature_driver that follows a consistent usage model to watchdog_driver.
> > 
> > I like the idea of creating a temperature_driver since any piece of hardware
> > could expose a temperature sensor.  
> > 
> > Although I think if we are going to bother exposing a legacy interface for 
> > watchdog devices then we need to expose the entire interface, i.e. watchdogs 
> > should still support the temperature related ioctl calls.  This could be done
> > by adding a 'struct temperature_driver *' to watchdog_driver, and then
> > let the miscdevice logic for watchdog drivers call on the temperature_ops
> > from that pointer (if it is not null.)
> 
> We seem to have the same idea's here. And you're absolutely wright: The watchdog driver needs to be able to handle things like TEMP-PANIC's which in functionality is and stays a part of the watchdog logic. I like the idea of having a 'struct temperature_driver *' into the watchdog driver. But I think we need to solve first how we can handle multiple watchdog drivers in an efficient way. If that's clear: the temperature device will just follow :-)
> 
> > * Your code moves more watchdog logic into the common code. 
> > 
> > There are a couple of places where logic has been pushed to the common code 
> > that I'm not so sure I would like in the common code.  For example I kind of 
> > like the notion of letting the actual device driver decide when it is 
> > appropriate to force the 'nowayout' functionality.
> 
> I know what you mean. For me I had the problem with both nowayout and the timeout value.
> If we go for multiple watchdog's then these 2 variables should be somewhere in the watchdog_Âdrver struct's. If only one is possible then they can be in the common code.
> I don't know what other's think about this.
> 
> > I like increasing code reuse, but don't really care for forcing too restrictive
> > of a programming model for watchdog device drivers.  Maybe others have some
> > opinions on where the line should be drawn.
> > 
> > A coule of  comments on the code:
> > ---------------------------------
> > 
> > * Everything compiles, but attempting to load the softdog (the only driver
> > I tried) will cause the kernel to oops.  The problem is you are not 
> > initializing the embedded device_driver struct in your watchdog_driver
> > with enough information.
> 
> No, I know. I quickly changed the generic drivers and not the modules to include the sysfs part and start the discussion on how to proceed first. 
> > 
> > So changing:
> > 
> > static struct watchdog_driver softdog_watchdog_driver = {
> > 	.info =		&softdog_info,
> > 	.ops =		&softdog_ops,
> > };
> > 
> > to be:
> > 
> > static struct watchdog_driver softdog_watchdog_driver = {
> > 	.info =		&softdog_info,
> > 	.ops =		&softdog_ops,
> > 	.driver = {
> > 		.name		= "softdog",
> > 		.bus		= &system_bus_type,
> > 		.devclass       = &watchdog_devclass,
> > 	}
> > 
> > };
> > 
> > will get you in the game.
> > 
> > * Instead of having two mechanisms for exposing functionality up to the
> > common code (ie. the old watchdog_info and the new watchdog_ops), I would
> > rather simplify the device drivers to only expose watchdog_ops, but add
> > enough functionality in watchdog_ops for the common code to send
> > watchdog_info to the user using the legacy interface.
> 
> I think different approaches are possible here. I'm not sure which one is the best yet.
> 
> > * I would rather see the watchdog_ops function pointers return success/failure
> > so the common code can at least translate a failure into EFAIL or something.
> > The common code has no way of knowing if the driver had a problem trying to
> > talk to the hardware.
> > 
> > * If you are touching all the drivers anyway, why not move the code to the 
> > new module_param() functions and then loose the #ifdefine MODULE code
> > that parses the command line args?
> 
> ok, will be done.
> 
> > * Your softdog.c inherited a bug from my first patch where casually looking
> > at the current timeout value will cause the watchdog to start ticking.  If
> > you do not happen to have a watchdog deamon running then the watchdog will
> > sneak a machine_restart on you.
> 
> Greetings,
> Wim.