linux-kernel - Re: Purpose of dmi-sysfs kernel module

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Date:	Wed, 14 May 2014 08:52:36 -0700
From:	Mike Waychison <mikew@...gle.com>
To:	Jean Delvare <jdelvare@...e.de>
Cc:	Bjorn Helgaas <bhelgaas@...gle.com>,
	Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
	"linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: Purpose of dmi-sysfs kernel module

Hi Jean,

On Wed, May 14, 2014 at 2:23 AM, Jean Delvare <jdelvare@...e.de> wrote:
> Hi Mike, Bjorn,
>
> Sorry for joining the party a little late but I am just discovering the
> dmi-sysfs kernel module. I have to admit that I am very curious about
> why it was needed. What does it let you achieve that you couldn't
> already do with dmidecode [1]?

The downside to using dmidecode is that (at least at the time), it
involved requiring giving access to /dev/mem to the binary so that it
could grub around in raw memory looking for the records.  dmi-sysfs
provides an alternative that allows for kernel-parsed entries to be
exposed to userland without having to expose /dev/mem and raw IO which
is insecure.

> I read on LWM [2] that you were mostly interested in type 15 records,
> to gain access to the System Event Log information. Well, "dmidecode -t
> 15" does exactly that. It may be a bit late now but if anything is
> missing from dmidecode, I would rather add it there than implement a
> separate solution.
>
> [1] http://www.nongnu.org/dmidecode/
> [2] http://lwn.net/Articles/429427/
>
> Thanks,
> --
> Jean Delvare
> SUSE L3 Support
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