From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Thu, 28 Jun 2001 15:31:01 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Thu, 28 Jun 2001 15:30:50 -0400 Received: from panic.ohr.gatech.edu ([130.207.47.194]:27785 "HELO havoc.gtf.org") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id ; Thu, 28 Jun 2001 15:30:37 -0400 Message-ID: <3B3B8601.2FEA031E@mandrakesoft.com> Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 15:31:13 -0400 From: Jeff Garzik Organization: MandrakeSoft X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.77 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.4.6-pre5 i686) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Gerhard Mack Cc: Linus Torvalds , Patrick Dreker , Alan Cox , David Woodhouse , jffs-dev@axis.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Cosmetic JFFS patch. In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Gerhard Mack wrote: > > On Thu, 28 Jun 2001, Jeff Garzik wrote: > > > Linus Torvalds wrote: > > > Things like version strings etc sound useful, but the fact is that the > > > only _real_ problem it has ever solved for anybody is when somebody thinks > > > they install a new kernel, and forgets to run "lilo" or something. But > > > even that information you really get from a simple "uname -a". > > > > > > Do we care that when you boot kernel-2.4.5 you get "net-3"? No. Do we care > > > that we have quota version "dquot_6.4.0"? No. Do we want to get the > > > version printed for every single driver we load? No. > > > > > > If people care about version printing, it (a) only makes sense for modules > > > and (b) should therefore maybe be done by the module loader. And modules > > > already have the MODULE_DESCRIPTION() thing, so they should NOT printk it > > > on their own. modprobe can do it if it wants to. > > > > As Alan said, driver versions are incredibly useful. People use update > > their drivers over top of kernel drivers all the time. Vendors do it > > too. "Run dmesg and e-mail me the output" is 1000 times more simple for > > end users. > > Why not a generic way to query the drivers for version info from > userspace? For NICs at least, there's already a generic way... :) Sigh, in my technically correct heart I know putting driver versions in dmesg is probably not the best thing, but it makes support -so- -much- easier that I am not inclined to change the existing code. FWIW, all the NIC drivers I mess with (most originated from Becker) should print out: eth0: short product name, base addr, MAC addr, irq eth1: ... eth2: ... I grant you there are tons of exceptions even in NIC drivers, but that is the goal I am striving for. One line version, plus one line per registered netif. FWIW I find usb and parport messages exceptionally verbose, but some of that is probably related to KERN_DEBUG being set in the bootloader or kernel/printk.c or somewhere... Jeff -- Jeff Garzik | Andre the Giant has a posse. Building 1024 | MandrakeSoft |