linux-kernel - Re: [RFC PATCH v2] tools/x86: add kcpuid tool to show raw CPU features

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Message-ID: <20200925171631.GL16872@zn.tnic>
Date:   Fri, 25 Sep 2020 19:16:31 +0200
From:   Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>
To:     Feng Tang <feng.tang@...el.com>
Cc:     Arvind Sankar <nivedita@...m.mit.edu>,
        Tom Lendacky <thomas.lendacky@....com>,
        Yazen Ghannam <yazen.ghannam@....com>,
        Wei Huang <wei.huang2@....com>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>,
        "H . Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
        Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@...el.com>, x86@...nel.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH v2] tools/x86: add kcpuid tool to show raw CPU
 features

On Wed, Sep 23, 2020 at 10:45:29AM +0800, Feng Tang wrote:
> > Rather than a tool, would additional file(s) in, say,
> > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu<n> be nicer? They could show the raw CPUID
> > features, one file per leaf or sub-leaf, maybe even along with whether
> > they were disabled at boot-time.
> 
> My thought is we already have in-kernel powerful /proc/cpuinfo, while 
> a user space tool could be more flexible for text parsing/layout, and
> show different info on user's demand/options.

The important thing here is that a separate tool would be decoupled from
the kernel and thus will be independent from it, i.e., you can get the
tool and run it without having to install a new kernel.

And with the CPUID leafs specified in a text file, you won't even need
to update the tool even - just cpuid.txt. It can't get any better than
that.

-- 
Regards/Gruss,
    Boris.

https://people.kernel.org/tglx/notes-about-netiquette