Re: [PATCH] EDAC/dmc520: Don't print an error for each unconfigured interrupt line

From: Tyler Hicks <tyhicks@linux.microsoft.com>
To: Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>
Cc: Lei Wang <lewan@microsoft.com>, Tony Luck <tony.luck@intel.com>,
	Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@kernel.org>,
	Sinan Kaya <okaya@kernel.org>,
	Shiping Ji <shiping.linux@gmail.com>,
	James Morse <james.morse@arm.com>,
	Robert Richter <rric@kernel.org>,
	linux-edac@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] EDAC/dmc520: Don't print an error for each unconfigured interrupt line
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2022 13:54:01 -0600	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20220118195401.GB89184@sequoia> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <Yeb4sK+ZmSHjWPWL@zn.tnic>

On 2022-01-18 18:28:16, Borislav Petkov wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 18, 2022 at 09:28:16AM -0600, Tyler Hicks wrote:
> > KERN_ERR messages trip log scanners and cause concern that the
> > kernel/hardware is not configured or working correctly. They also add a
> > little big of ongoing stress into kernel maintainer's lives, as we
> > prepare and test kernel updates, since they show up as red text in
> > journalctl output that we have to think about regularly. Multiple
> > KERN_ERR messages, 8 in this case, can also be considered a little worse
> > than a single error message.
> 
> It sounds to me like you wanna read
> 
> Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
> 
> first.

I'm familiar with it and the sort of commits that flow into stable.

> > I feel like this trivial fix is worth taking into stable rather than
> > suppressing these errors (mentally and in log scanners) for years.
> 
> Years? 

Yes, years. v5.10 is supported through 2026.

> In any case, sorry, no, I don't consider this stable material.

The bar varies by subsystem maintainer but this wouldn't be the first
logging fix that made it into a stable branch. From the linux-5.10.y
branch of linux-stable:

 ddb13ddacc60 scsi: pm80xx: Fix misleading log statement in pm8001_mpi_get_nvmd_resp()
 526261c1b706 amd/display: downgrade validation failure log level
 9a3f52f73c04 bnxt_en: Improve logging of error recovery settings information.
 5f7bda9ba8d7 leds: lm3697: Don't spam logs when probe is deferred
 8b195380cd07 staging: fbtft: Don't spam logs when probe is deferred
 ...

But you do the hard work of maintaining the subsystem tree so you get to
call the shots about where fixes are routed. :) Thanks for applying the
change!

Tyler

> 
> Thx.
> 
> -- 
> Regards/Gruss,
>     Boris.
> 
> https://people.kernel.org/tglx/notes-about-netiquette
> 