Re: [PATCH] add blockconsole version 1.1

From: Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>
To: "Jörn Engel" <joern@logfs.org>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Jeff Moyer <jmoyer@redhat.com>,
	Steve Hodgson <steve@purestorage.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] add blockconsole version 1.1
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:26:08 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20120719092608.GA24872@liondog.tnic> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20120718210814.GA1871@logfs.org>

On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 05:08:15PM -0400, Jörn Engel wrote:
> On Wed, 18 July 2012 23:45:21 +0200, Borislav Petkov wrote:
> > 
> > > > So why is that first megabyte full of zeros there?
> > > 
> > > It gives you some scratch space to store information in.
> > 
> > How? By me writing something in that empty line in vim? Or something
> > else storing stuff there?
> 
> Assuming you want to do it in an automated fashion - by patching or
> replacing mkblockconsole.  Again, I have no opinion on whether this
> actually makes sense.  It is possible, it does not really hurt the
> primary function and people have explicitly asked me for it.  Good
> enough for me.

I see. It would be interesting to know what the use cases of those
people are. In any case, this is not an interface since you only have
one-way data movement from kernel to userspace and you can change the
formatting/layout of that data later with no obvious issues, AFAICT.

[ … ]

> Or show off your geekiness by using back ticks:
> $ vi `./bcon_tail`

Uuh, magic. Definitely! :-)

Thanks.

-- 
Regards/Gruss,
    Boris.