From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Oct 7 17:51:50 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 36FCF1065679 for ; Fri, 7 Oct 2011 17:51:50 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kaduk@mit.edu) Received: from dmz-mailsec-scanner-7.mit.edu (DMZ-MAILSEC-SCANNER-7.MIT.EDU [18.7.68.36]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C84158FC08 for ; Fri, 7 Oct 2011 17:51:48 +0000 (UTC) X-AuditID: 12074424-b7ef76d0000008dc-0f-4e8f3c33dd72 Received: from mailhub-auth-4.mit.edu ( [18.7.62.39]) by dmz-mailsec-scanner-7.mit.edu (Symantec Messaging Gateway) with SMTP id 4B.76.02268.33C3F8E4; Fri, 7 Oct 2011 13:51:47 -0400 (EDT) Received: from outgoing.mit.edu (OUTGOING-AUTH.MIT.EDU [18.7.22.103]) by mailhub-auth-4.mit.edu (8.13.8/8.9.2) with ESMTP id p97Hpmqw019572; Fri, 7 Oct 2011 13:51:48 -0400 Received: from multics.mit.edu (MULTICS.MIT.EDU [18.187.1.73]) (authenticated bits=56) (User authenticated as kaduk@ATHENA.MIT.EDU) by outgoing.mit.edu (8.13.6/8.12.4) with ESMTP id p97HpjdF009070 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Fri, 7 Oct 2011 13:51:47 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from kaduk@localhost) by multics.mit.edu (8.12.9.20060308) id p97HpimT027089; Fri, 7 Oct 2011 13:51:44 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2011 13:51:43 -0400 (EDT) From: Benjamin Kaduk To: Garrett Cooper In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: User-Agent: Alpine 1.10 (GSO 962 2008-03-14) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: MULTIPART/MIXED; BOUNDARY="-559023410-1851342366-1318009904=:882" X-Brightmail-Tracker: H4sIAAAAAAAAA+NgFmphleLIzCtJLcpLzFFi42IRYrdT1zW26fcz2HtW32LOmw9MFuu/L2N0 YPKY8Wk+i8fOWXfZA5iiuGxSUnMyy1KL9O0SuDLaXq1nLPgsXLH0eDNzA+Nf/i5GTg4JAROJ n4u/MkHYYhIX7q1n62Lk4hAS2Mcosb3xKhtIQkhgPaPE97kmEIn9TBItHzrZIRL1El933QMr YhHQkrj0fSbYJDYBFYmZbzaCxUUE1CUuHdgCVs8sIC/x/8plsBphAQuJB2eWM4PYnAKBEttP Xwer5xWwl7i+8Ds7xLIWRomWV0/AmkUFdCRW75/CAlEkKHFy5hMWiKH+EqvubmKcwCg4C0lq FpLULEYOINta4tl5C4iwtsT9m21sCxhZVjHKpuRW6eYmZuYUpybrFicn5uWlFuma6+Vmluil ppRuYgQHtovKDsbmQ0qHGAU4GJV4eGc+7fUTYk0sK67MPcQoycGkJMq7zqrfT4gvKT+lMiOx OCO+qDQntfgQowQHs5IIr8ObPj8h3pTEyqrUonyYlDQHi5I4r81OBz8hgfTEktTs1NSC1CKY rAwHh5IE7zJroKGCRanpqRVpmTklCGkmDk6Q4TxAw5eA1PAWFyTmFmemQ+RPMSpKifMWgiQE QBIZpXlwvbDE84pRHOgVYd4kkCoeYNKC634FNJgJaPBpY7DBJYkIKakGRpNuvslX2C4/lfn3 V2Sq5PUqzjYZfoYPqSfa7UJs9lRs+iYz16B743P1cL0rsz8ZHfT8zbf6obrnkfxr3wKCQiu2 /Dy06sOSBa+ZXvzZoXX63frm6KVHQlV/c//qPPCZYd203S6/t3rECmf8k7zzzS3u5qbk3tgC yzW39+ax2tSwzWfX3y+xd50SS3FGoqEWc1FxIgCR8gYJFwMAAA== Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: aliasing (or renaming) kern.geom.debugflags X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:51:50 -0000 This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text, while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools. ---559023410-1851342366-1318009904=:882 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE On Fri, 7 Oct 2011, Garrett Cooper wrote: > On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 10:42 AM, Benjamin Kaduk wrote: >> Dear all, >> >> I feel like this has come up before, but a quick search didn't reveal >> anything terribly recent, at least. >> >> The new installation chapter of the handbook for 9.0 (that Warren and Gl= en >> and Garrett and Gavin and more people I am probably missing have sunk hu= ge >> amounts of time into) has instructions on (e.g.) preparing a USB stick >> install image: >> http://www.glenbarber.us/FreeBSD9/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ins= tall-pre.html >> (scroll down most of the way). =A0But in order to do so, the instruction= s >> include 'sysctl kern.geom.debugflags=3D16'! =A0Now, an ordinary user who= is >> doing this for the first time might ask, "why do I need to do something = with >> 'debugflags' in order to make a USB stick? =A0I'm not debugging anything= , this >> is a standard operation!". >> >> I can't really advocate for changing the geom logic at this point in the >> release cycle (though it's not really clear why rank 1 geom providers ne= ed >> to be so special), but I think it would be nice to have a user-visible >> interface to it that does not have "debug" in the name, since the actual >> flags are apparently here for the long haul. =A0I could certainly imagin= e >> aliasing the debugflags to just "flags", which seems more >> innocuous-sounding. >> >> Does this sound crazy? > > Yes. From geom(4): > > DIAGNOSTICS > Several flags are provided for tracing GEOM operations and unlocking = pro- > tection mechanisms via the kern.geom.debugflags sysctl. All of these > flags are off by default, and great care should be taken in turning t= hem > on. > > geom(4) has more details about what they do. I'm not sure I follow your point. Yes, geom(4) describes what they do; my= =20 objection is to the use of "debug" to describe the one in particular that= =20 we tell new users to blindly set. A hypothetical kern.geom.flags need not= =20 allow setting (e.g.) "0x01 (G_T_TOPOLOGY) Provide tracing of topology=20 change events" if we don't want it to. -Ben ---559023410-1851342366-1318009904=:882--