[PATCH][RFC] vmcore: Remove saved_max_pfn check

[Vivek Goyal]

On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 03:40:45PM +0900, Magnus Damm wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 10:04 PM, Vivek Goyal <vgoyal at redhat.com> wrote:
> > On Mon, Sep 08, 2008 at 12:21:32PM +0900, Magnus Damm wrote:
> >> From: Magnus Damm <damm at igel.co.jp>
> >>
> >> This patch removes the saved_max_pfn check from the /proc/vmcore
> >> function read_from_oldmem(). No need to verify, we should be able
> >> to just trust that "elfcorehdr=" is correctly passed to the crash
> >> kernel on the kernel command line like we do with other parameters.
> >>
> >> The read_from_oldmem() function in fs/proc/vmcore.c is quite similar
> >> to read_from_oldmem() in drivers/char/mem.c, but only in the latter
> >> it makes sense to use saved_max_pfn. For oldmem it is used to determine
> >> when to stop reading. For vmcore we already have the elf header info
> >> pointing out the physical memory regions, no need to pass the end-of-
> >> old-memory twice.
> >>
> >> Removing the saved_max_pfn check from vmcore makes it possible for
> >> architectures to skip oldmem but still support crash dump through
> >> vmcore - without the need for the old saved_max_pfn cruft.
> >>
> >> Architectures that want to play safe can do the saved_max_pfn check
> >> in copy_oldmem_page(). Not sure why anyone would want to do that,
> >> but that's even safer than today - the saved_max_pfn check in vmcore
> >> removed by this patch only checks the first page.
> 
> Hi Vivek,
> 
> > Though I don't feel very strongly for saved_max_pfn check in vmcore.c,
> > but at the same time I don't understand what are you gaining by removing
> > this check. Any way we are not getting rid of this symbol altogether
> > because /dev/oldmem needs it.
> 
> Let me try to be a bit more clear. =)
> 
> > Is it sh arch for which you want to disable /dev/oldmem and only enable
> > /proc/vmcore and hence want to get rid of saved_max_pfn?
> 
> Yes, exactly. I could do as powerpc and just pass the saved_max_pfn on
> the command line together with the elfcorehdr pointer, but why? For
> vmcore we only need the elfcorehdr pointer.
> 
> > Though I agree that we should elfcorehdrs but at the same time it does not
> > hard doing additional check (We are anyway carrying saved_max_pfn for
> > /dev/oldmem). We can always extend current code to check for end page also
> > to make sure we are not reading beyond saved_max_pfn.
> 
> Maybe it doesn't harm, but it doesn't do any good either. Relying on
> saved_max_pfn just requires more architecture specific code. The
> existing vmcore.c code can of course be fixed up to handle the end
> page, but what is the exact point with using saved_max_pfn in
> vmcore.c?
> 
> I understand it is needed for oldmem, so I'm not saying that we should
> remove the symbol all together.
> 
> > How much code is it to set value of saved_max_pfn in sh that you want to
> > completely get rid of it. My feeling is that it should be just few lines.
> 
> You are correct. We just need to add a kernel command line parameter
> and change kexec-tools to pass along that value. Like powerpc does
> today. I did of course do just that in my first iteration of crash
> support for SuperH and it works just fine. But why should we pass more
> information than we actually need?
> 
> So it's not a matter of coding effort. It's more about passing just
> the information that is needed to the secondary kernel. And if we want
> to use vmcore but not oldmem, saved_max_pfn isn't needed. Unless I'm
> mistaken that is. =)
> 
> > So though I don't feel strongly for saved_max_pfn check  in vmcore.c, at
> > the same time I don't see you are gaining anything significant by removing
> > it. We can just introduce saved_max_pfn in sh also.
> 
> Yep, we could introduce that on SuperH, but pruning code that is not
> really needed is a step in the right direction IMO.
> 

Hi Magnus,

Ok, I can't think of a strong reason why should we retain saved_max_pfn
check in /proc/vmcore and it looks like elfcorehdr= should be equally 
reliable.

I have no objections to the patch.

Acked-by: Vivek Goyal <vgoyal at redhat.com>

Thanks
Vivek