Hi Greg, > > > Fintek F81216AD > > > > 00:02: ttyS3 at I/O 0x2e8 (irq = 11, base_baud = 115200) is a 16550A > - > > > Fintek F81216AD > > > > > > > > where the "extra_name", if not empty, is printed > > > > at the end of the line. > > > > For practical space reasons, the "extra_name" length > > > > can be limited to 16 chars. > > > > > > Why? What tool will use this, and why would userspace care about it? > > > > > > What problem are you trying to solve here? > > > > I try to explain my requirement: > > > > we produce some x86 boards with multistandard RS232/422/485 ports > > and, to have this feature, in some of these boards, we use a > > Fintek uart or superIO. > > So this additional info "extra_name" can be useful for > > a quick check if the serial ports are multistandard or not, > > without any other investigations, but using only a simple command > > like: > > > > dmesg| grep ttyS > > But as they work the same, why does it matter? Yes you are right, by the user point of view, they are the same. > > Userspace should not care here. Isn't there some other id you can > read/query for a hardware database tool to determine this? Yes, there is. I can add this info in the BIOS, in SMBIOS table type 8 for example, or I can read the board name and then search in a custom database tool what peripherals are present in the board. > > Printing a random string to the kernel log is not a good way to do > hardware descriptions in a format that everyone can easily parse them :) Ok, right! Thanks very much for your time Greg! 😊 > thanks, > > greg k-h Best regards, Flavio
