On Sun, 2008-08-10 at 02:08 +0200, Martin Schwidefsky wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-08-07 at 08:59 -0700, Joe Perches wrote:
> > On Thu, 2008-08-07 at 10:31 +0200, Martin Schwidefsky wrote:
> > > 1) The message tag is for the user of the system. If it does not have a
> > > fixed position it gets confusing.
> > I think the message tag today is not useful for a user.
> > It seems a barely useful maintainer value.
> > Perhaps the message tag allows for run-time language
> > translation and maybe a bit better selective logging.
> Aehhm, .. what ? If a user does not understand a message directly
> how can he NOT be interested in the kmsg tag? As a random example
> consider the situation when the user gets the message
>
> monwriter.1: Writing monitor data failed with rc=5
>
> Usually a user will go "Huh?" except if he is a z/VM expert. Looking
> at the source code won't help too much either:
>
> static int monwrite_diag(struct monwrite_hdr *myhdr, char *buffer, int fcn)
> {
> struct appldata_product_id id;
> int rc;
>
> strcpy(id.prod_nr, "LNXAPPL");
> id.prod_fn = myhdr->applid;
> id.record_nr = myhdr->record_num;
> id.version_nr = myhdr->version;
> id.release_nr = myhdr->release;
> id.mod_lvl = myhdr->mod_level;
> rc = appldata_asm(&id, fcn, (void *) buffer, myhdr->datalen);
> if (rc <= 0)
> return rc;
> if (rc == 5)
> return -EPERM;
> kmsg_err(1,"Writing monitor data failed with rc=%i\n", rc);
> return -EINVAL;
> }
>
> What the user should do is to cut-copy-paste the kmsg tag monwriter.1
> and pass it to man:
>
> # man monwriter.1
>
> What the user will then get is the man page that has been generated
> from the kmsg comment with "make D=2":
>
> --- snip
> monwriter.1(9) monwriter.1(9)
>
> Message
> monwriter.1: Writing monitor data failed with rc=%i
>
> Severity
> Error
>
> Parameters
> @1: return code
>
> Description
> The monitor stream application device driver used the z/VM diagnose
> call DIAG X'DC' to start writing monitor data. z/VM returned an error
> and the monitor data cannot be written. If the return code is 5, your
> z/VM guest virtual machine is not authorized to write monitor data.
>
> User action
> If the return code is 5, ensure that your z/VM guest virtual machine's
> entry in the z/VM directory includes the OPTION APPLMON statement. For
> other return codes see the section about DIAGNOSE Code X'DC' in "z/VM
> CP Programming Services".
Doesn't this example better illustrate the barely useful
user value of such a message and documentation?
In your example, monwriter.1 with a return code of 5 isn't possible.
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