linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH printk v2 06/11] printk: nbcon: Wire up nbcon console atomic flushing

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Date:   Thu, 05 Oct 2023 16:05:27 +0206
From:   John Ogness <john.ogness@...utronix.de>
To:     Petr Mladek <pmladek@...e.com>
Cc:     Sergey Senozhatsky <senozhatsky@...omium.org>,
        Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH printk v2 06/11] printk: nbcon: Wire up nbcon console
 atomic flushing

On 2023-09-26, Petr Mladek <pmladek@...e.com> wrote:
> Anyway, the proposed behavior (agreed on LPC2022) seems
> to contradict the original plan from LPC 2019, see
> https://lore.kernel.org/all/87k1acz5rx.fsf@linutronix.de/
> Namely:
>
>   --- cut ---
>   3. Rather than defining emergency _messages_, we define an emergency
>   _state_ where the kernel wants to flush the messages immediately before
>   dying. Unlike oops_in_progress, this state will not be visible to
>   anything outside of the printk infrastructure.
>
>   4. When in emergency state, the kernel will use a new console callback
>   write_atomic() to flush the messages in whatever context the CPU is in
>   at that moment. Only consoles that implement the NMI-safe write_atomic()
>   will be able to flush in this state.
>   --- cut ---
>
> We wanted to flush it ASAP.

In 2019 we didn't have all the code yet. Yes, we assumed that flushing
each individual printk() call would be how to do it. But in 2022, during
a live demo with real code, we saw that it was a bad idea.

I disagree that the 2022 decisions are contradicting the 2019
decisions. We have added more details because now we have a real
implementation.

v2 establishes an emergency state before dying. v2 flushes the messages
safely before dying (and unsafely _immediately_ before dying). v2
flushes the messages in whatever context the CPU is in. v2 uses
write_atomic() to perform the flush.

John