netdev - RE: [RFC PATCH 00/10] net: hns3: Adds support of debugfs to HNS3 driver

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date:   Sun, 11 Nov 2018 15:12:34 +0000
From:   Salil Mehta <salil.mehta@...wei.com>
To:     Andrew Lunn <andrew@...n.ch>
CC:     "davem@...emloft.net" <davem@...emloft.net>,
        "yuvalm@...lanox.com" <yuvalm@...lanox.com>,
        "leon@...nel.org" <leon@...nel.org>,
        "Zhuangyuzeng (Yisen)" <yisen.zhuang@...wei.com>,
        "lipeng (Y)" <lipeng321@...wei.com>,
        "mehta.salil@...src.net" <mehta.salil@...src.net>,
        "netdev@...r.kernel.org" <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
        "linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        "linux-rdma@...r.kernel.org" <linux-rdma@...r.kernel.org>,
        Linuxarm <linuxarm@...wei.com>
Subject: RE: [RFC PATCH 00/10] net: hns3: Adds support of debugfs to HNS3
 driver

Hi Andrew,
Thanks for replying. Sorry, for not being prompt as I was
traveling.

Please find some further follow-up questions below

Salil.

> From: linux-rdma-owner@...r.kernel.org [mailto:linux-rdma-
> owner@...r.kernel.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Lunn
> Sent: Friday, November 9, 2018 10:44 PM
> To: Salil Mehta <salil.mehta@...wei.com>
> Cc: davem@...emloft.net; yuvalm@...lanox.com; leon@...nel.org;
> Zhuangyuzeng (Yisen) <yisen.zhuang@...wei.com>; lipeng (Y)
> <lipeng321@...wei.com>; mehta.salil@...src.net; netdev@...r.kernel.org;
> linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org; linux-rdma@...r.kernel.org; Linuxarm
> <linuxarm@...wei.com>
> Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH 00/10] net: hns3: Adds support of debugfs to
> HNS3 driver
> 
> > 3. Debugfs looks more unstructured unlike sysfs. Is there any
> >    de-facto standard of the user-api or drivers are allowed to
> >    use it in any way to expose the information from kernel.
> 
> Hi Salil
> 
> You don't really have a user api using debugfs, because debugfs is
> unstable. Anything can change at any time. Any user tools which use
> debugfs can be expected to break at any time as the information in
> debugfs changes. debugfs is for debug, not to export an API. And in
> production systems, it is often not mounted.


Sure, I understand. 

> 
> As much as possible, you are recommended to use existing APIs,
> ethtool, devlink, etc.


Agreed. But what about if we want to expose anything related to
firmware to user-space using the debugfs, assuming we are presenting
information in structured way and not as a black-box to some user-space
application. Is it something which might be discouraged?

Many Thanks