linux-kernel - [PATCH 0/4] [RFC] Verification and debugging of memory initialisation

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Message-Id: <20080416135058.1346.65546.sendpatchset@skynet.skynet.ie>
Date:	Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:50:58 +0100 (IST)
From:	Mel Gorman <mel@....ul.ie>
To:	linux-mm@...ck.org
Cc:	Mel Gorman <mel@....ul.ie>, mingo@...e.hu,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH 0/4] [RFC] Verification and debugging of memory initialisation

Boot initialisation has always been a bit of a mess with a number
of ugly points. While significant amounts of the initialisation
is architecture-independent, it trusts of the data received from the
architecture layer. This was a mistake in retrospect as it has resulted in
a number of difficult-to-diagnose bugs.

This patchset is an RFC to add some validation and tracing to memory
initialisation. It also introduces a few basic defencive measures and
depending on a boot parameter, will perform additional tests for errors
"that should never occur". I think this would have reduced debugging time
for some boot-related problems. The last part of the patchset is a similar
fix for the patch "[patch] mm: sparsemem memory_present() memory corruption"
that corrects a few more areas where similar errors were made.

I'm not looking to merge this as-is obviously but are there opinions on
whether this is a good idea in principal? Should it be done differently or
not at all?

-- 
Mel Gorman
Part-time Phd Student                          Linux Technology Center
University of Limerick                         IBM Dublin Software Lab
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