RE: [PATCH 04/24] rtw89: add debug files

[Pkshih <pkshih@realtek.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brian Norris [mailto:briannorris@chromium.org]
> Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2021 2:38 AM
> To: Oleksij Rempel
> Cc: Pkshih; Kalle Valo; linux-wireless; <netdev@vger.kernel.org>; Sascha Hauer
> Subject: Re: [PATCH 04/24] rtw89: add debug files
> 
> On Fri, Jul 2, 2021 at 10:57 AM Oleksij Rempel <o.rempel@pengutronix.de> wrote:
> > On Fri, Jul 02, 2021 at 10:08:53AM -0700, Brian Norris wrote:
> > > On Fri, Jul 2, 2021 at 12:23 AM Oleksij Rempel <o.rempel@pengutronix.de> wrote:
> > > > For dynamic debugging we usually use ethtool msglvl.
> > > > Please, convert all dev_err/warn/inf.... to netif_ counterparts
> > >
> > > Have you ever looked at a WiFi driver?
> >
> > Yes. You can parse the kernel log for my commits.
> 
> OK! So I see you've touched a lot of ath9k, >3 years ago. You might
> notice that it is one such example -- it supports exactly the same
> kind of debugfs file, with a set of ath_dbg() log types. Why doesn't
> it use this netif debug logging?
> 
> > > I haven't seen a single one that uses netif_*() for logging.
> > > On the other hand, almost every
> > > single one has a similar module parameter or debugfs knob for enabling
> > > different types of debug messages.
> > >
> > > As it stands, the NETIF_* categories don't really align at all with
> > > the kinds of message categories most WiFi drivers support. Do you
> > > propose adding a bunch of new options to the netif debug feature?
> >
> > Why not? It make no sense or it is just "it is tradition, we never do
> > it!" ?
> 
> Well mainly, I don't really like people dreaming up arbitrary rules
> and enforcing them only on new submissions. If such a change was
> Recommended, it seems like a better first step would be to prove that
> existing drivers (where there are numerous examples) can be converted
> nicely, instead of pushing the work to new contributors arbitrarily.
> Otherwise, the bar for new contributions gets exceedingly high -- this
> one has already sat for more than 6 months with depressingly little
> useful feedback.
> 
> I also know very little about this netif log level feature, but if it
> really depends on ethtool (seems like it does?) -- I don't even bother
> installing ethtool on most of my systems. It's much easier to poke at
> debugfs, sysfs, etc., than to construct the relevant ethtool ioctl()s
> or netlink messages. It also seems that these debug knobs can't be set
> before the driver finishes coming up, so one would still need a module
> parameter to mirror some of the same features. Additionally, a WiFi
> driver doesn't even have a netdev to speak of until after a lot of the
> interesting stuff comes up (much of the mac80211 framework focuses on
> a |struct ieee80211_hw| and a |struct wiphy|), so I'm not sure your
> suggestion really fits these sorts of drivers (and the things they
> might like to support debug-logging for) at all.
> 
> Anyway, if Ping-Ke wants to paint this bikeshed for you, I won't stop him.

I encounter the problems you mentioned mostly:
1. no netdev to be the parameter 'dev' of 'netif_dbg(priv, type, dev, format, args...)'
2. predefined 'type' isn't enough for wifi application. There're many wifi- or vendor-
   specific components, such as RF calibration, BT coexistence, DIG, CFO and so on.

So, I don't plan to change them for now.

--
Ping-Ke