From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Stephen Hemminger Subject: Re: [NET_NEXT RFC PATCH 3/3] ixgbe: added reg_ops file to debugfs Date: Wed, 9 May 2012 20:54:59 -0700 Message-ID: <20120509205459.4939c98d@s6510.linuxnetplumber.net> References: <20120509230814.31910.80709.stgit@localhost6.localdomain6> <20120509230950.31910.6032.stgit@localhost6.localdomain6> <20120509161449.43704ea7@nehalam.linuxnetplumber.net> <1336609090.2499.18.camel@bwh-desktop.uk.solarflarecom.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Catherine Sullivan , To: Ben Hutchings Return-path: Received: from mail.vyatta.com ([76.74.103.46]:32972 "EHLO mail.vyatta.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755628Ab2EJDzH (ORCPT ); Wed, 9 May 2012 23:55:07 -0400 In-Reply-To: <1336609090.2499.18.camel@bwh-desktop.uk.solarflarecom.com> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Thu, 10 May 2012 01:18:10 +0100 Ben Hutchings wrote: > On Wed, 2012-05-09 at 16:14 -0700, Stephen Hemminger wrote: > > On Wed, 09 May 2012 16:09:50 -0700 > > Catherine Sullivan wrote: > > > > > Added the reg_ops file to debugfs with commands to read and write > > > a register to give users the ability to read and write individual > > > registers on the fly. > > > > > > Signed-off-by: Catherine Sullivan > > > --- > > > > > > drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_debugfs.c | 112 ++++++++++++++++++++++ > > > 1 files changed, 112 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) > > > > > > > Aren't these registers already in ethtool? > > ethtool register access is read-only and would be very heavy-weight for > interactive debugging. Not sure this is the best interface to > read/write registers, but it's certainly not redundant. For debugging couldn't you could mmap the PCI space? That would allow writing a user level debugger for the hardware.