Date:   Sat, 25 Nov 2023 06:51:55 +0000
From:   Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>
To:     Oleksij Rempel <o.rempel@...gutronix.de>
Cc:     Mark Brown <broonie@...nel.org>,
        "Rafael J. Wysocki" <rafael@...nel.org>,
        Ulf Hansson <ulf.hansson@...aro.org>, kernel@...gutronix.de,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-mmc@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-pm@...r.kernel.org,
        Søren Andersen <san@...v.dk>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v1 0/3] introduce priority-based shutdown support

On Fri, Nov 24, 2023 at 07:57:25PM +0100, Oleksij Rempel wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 24, 2023 at 05:26:30PM +0000, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> > On Fri, Nov 24, 2023 at 05:32:34PM +0100, Oleksij Rempel wrote:
> > > On Fri, Nov 24, 2023 at 03:56:19PM +0000, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> > > > On Fri, Nov 24, 2023 at 03:49:46PM +0000, Mark Brown wrote:
> > > > > On Fri, Nov 24, 2023 at 03:27:48PM +0000, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> > > > > > On Fri, Nov 24, 2023 at 03:21:40PM +0000, Mark Brown wrote:
> > > > > 
> > > > > > > This came out of some discussions about trying to handle emergency power
> > > > > > > failure notifications.
> > > > > 
> > > > > > I'm sorry, but I don't know what that means.  Are you saying that the
> > > > > > kernel is now going to try to provide a hard guarantee that some devices
> > > > > > are going to be shut down in X number of seconds when asked?  If so, why
> > > > > > not do this in userspace?
> > > > > 
> > > > > No, it was initially (or when I initially saw it anyway) handling of
> > > > > notifications from regulators that they're in trouble and we have some
> > > > > small amount of time to do anything we might want to do about it before
> > > > > we expire.
> > > > 
> > > > So we are going to guarantee a "time" in which we are going to do
> > > > something?  Again, if that's required, why not do it in userspace using
> > > > a RT kernel?
> > > 
> > > For the HW in question I have only 100ms time before power loss. By
> > > doing it over use space some we will have even less time to react.
> > 
> > Why can't userspace react that fast?  Why will the kernel be somehow
> > faster?  Speed should be the same, just get the "power is cut" signal
> > and have userspace flush and unmount the disk before power is gone.  Why
> > can the kernel do this any differently?
> > 
> > > In fact, this is not a new requirement. It exist on different flavors of
> > > automotive Linux for about 10 years. Linux in cars should be able to
> > > handle voltage drops for example on ignition and so on. The only new thing is
> > > the attempt to mainline it.
> > 
> > But your patch is not guaranteeing anything, it's just doing a "I want
> > this done before the other devices are handled", that's it.  There is no
> > chance that 100ms is going to be a requirement, or that some other
> > device type is not going to come along and demand to be ahead of your
> > device in the list.
> > 
> > So you are going to have a constant fight among device types over the
> > years, and people complaining that the kernel is now somehow going to
> > guarantee that a device is shutdown in a set amount of time, which
> > again, the kernel can not guarantee here.
> > 
> > This might work as a one-off for a specific hardware platform, which is
> > odd, but not anything you really should be adding for anyone else to use
> > here as your reasoning for it does not reflect what the code does.
> 
> I see. Good point.
> 
> In my case umount is not needed, there is not enough time to write down
> the data. We should send a shutdown command to the eMMC ASAP.

If you don't care about the data, why is a shutdown command to the
hardware needed?  What does that do that makes anything "safe" if your
data is lost.

thanks,

greg k-h

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