Re: [PATCH 1/2] x86: Cleanup TIF value gaps in shift range

David Rientjes
2010-10-18T21:36:11Z

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010, H. Peter Anvin wrote:

> The problem is that someone exports something as debugging information,
> then someone else suddenly thinks it's an ABI. I believe the same
> complainant in the past has objected to changing of formatting in dmesg,
> which is equally insane.
>

It's not insane if there is no other way to ascertain that information.
If it's available through sysfs or debugfs (and, even better, documented
as part of the API in Documentation/ABI), then I don't think anyone would
object to changing a log message. But I don't think all log messages
should be fair game under some general principle if they are being changed
(instead of just extending it) without a compelling reason, such as
technically being incorrect in its present form.