linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH -v2] x86: Add an archinfo dumper module

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Date:	Tue, 9 Feb 2016 13:23:00 +0100
From:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>
To:	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>
Cc:	Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>, "Luck, Tony" <tony.luck@...el.com>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	Andy Lutomirski <luto@...capital.net>,
	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
	Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
	Brian Gerst <brgerst@...il.com>,
	lkml <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH -v2] x86: Add an archinfo dumper module


* H. Peter Anvin <hpa@...or.com> wrote:

> On 02/04/16 07:22, Borislav Petkov wrote:
> > Here's v2 with the stuff we talked about, implemented. I've added
> > 'control_regs' file too so that you can do:
> > 
> > $ cat /sys/kernel/debug/x86/archinfo/control_regs
> > CR4: [-|-|SMEP|OSXSAVE|-|-|-|-|OSXMMEXCPT|OSFXSR|-|PGE|MCE|PAE|PSE|-|-|-|-]: 0x1406f0
> > 
> > for example. Yeah, only CR4 right now.
> > 
> > Off the top of my head, we would need "msrs" which dumps EFER and a
> > bunch of other interesting MSRs along with the names of the set bits.
> 
> Is there a reason why all this parsing has to be done in kernel space?

Ease of use I suspect, no need to locate some separate utility. Also, no need to 
define an ABI for the information displayed - which keeps things simpler. Since 
it's a kernel module there's no real bloat argument.

Thanks,

	Ingo