From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1757190Ab0BGBPq (ORCPT ); Sat, 6 Feb 2010 20:15:46 -0500 Received: from hapkido.dreamhost.com ([66.33.216.122]:47951 "EHLO hapkido.dreamhost.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1756204Ab0BGBPp (ORCPT ); Sat, 6 Feb 2010 20:15:45 -0500 From: jidanni@jidanni.org To: akpm@linux-foundation.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, randy.dunlap@oracle.com Cc: 330403@bugs.debian.org, torvalds@linux-foundation.org Subject: Re: sysrq: more explicit, less terse help messages Date: Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:15:01 +0800 Message-ID: <87k4upq222.fsf@jidanni.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Re: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=330403 Thanks for the fix, however SysRq still has two things that are non-intelligible to the operator who is locked out of his on-line reference manuals: "saK" and nice-all-"RT"-tasks. "oom" I suppose you can leave as a mystery :-) ... but better not, else 4 years from now I'll Be Back. Better add a comment to the code reminding authors that the SysRq help messages might be printed in situations where the operator is otherwise locked out of his computer, so cannot look up what they mean, so they must be verbose. Also I noticed that at the four year frequency that I end up using SysRq, all I remember is that one is supposed to squeeze a combination of keys that include SysRq and h to get started. Therefore perhaps mention there in the help message, just what one is actually supposed to press (the several ways too), so that ones second press will be more exact, even though they just managed to press it. (Put the answer in the new help message, not in a reply to me!) Now that I haven't yet occupied the whole screen with my ideas for a more verbose SysRq help message, you might also mention there in the message how the user can page the output of some of the more verbose commands so that they don't fly off the screen mostly. Or mention if it is not possible.