[PATCH] relayfs for linux-2.6.11-mm2
Hi Andrew, Here's the latest version of relayfs, against linux-2.6.11-mm2. I'm hoping you'll consider putting this version back into your tree - the previous rounds of comment seem to have shaken out all the API issues and the number of comments on the code itself have also steadily dwindled. This patch is essentially the same as the relayfs redux part 5 patch, with some minor changes based on reviewer comments. Thanks again to Pekka Enberg for those. The patch size without documentation is now a little smaller at just over 40k. Here's a detailed list of the changes: - removed the attribute_flags in relay open and changed it to a boolean specifying either overwrite or no-overwrite mode, and removed everything referencing the attribute flags. - added a check for NULL names in relayfs_create_entry() - got rid of the unnecessary multiple labels in relay_create_buf() - some minor simplification of relay_alloc_buf() which got rid of a couple params - updated the Documentation In addition, this version (through code contained in the relay-apps tarball linked to below, not as part of the relayfs patch) tries to make it as easy as possible to create the cooperating kernel/user pieces of a typical and common type of logging application, one where kernel logging is kicked off when a user space data collection app starts and stops when the collection app exits, with the data being automatically logged to disk in between. To create this type of application, you basically just include a header file (relay-app.h, included in the relay-apps tarball) in your kernel module, define a couple of callbacks and call an initialization function, and on the user side call a single function that sets up and continuously monitors the buffers, and writes data to files as it becomes available. Channels are created when the collection app is started and destroyed when it exits, not when the kernel module is inserted, so different channel buffer sizes can be specified for each separate run via command-line options. See the README in the relay-apps tarball for details. Also included in the relay-apps tarball are a couple examples demonstrating how you can use this to create quick and dirty kernel logging/debugging applications. They are: - tprintk, short for 'tee printk', which temporarily puts a kprobe on printk() and writes a duplicate stream of printk output to a relayfs channel. This could be used anywhere there's printk() debugging code in the kernel which you'd like to exercise, but would rather not have your system logs cluttered with debugging junk. You'd probably want to kill klogd while you do this, otherwise there wouldn't be much point (since putting a kprobe on printk() doesn't change the output of printk()). I've used this method to temporarily divert the packet logging output of the iptables LOG target from the system logs to relayfs files instead, for instance. - klog, which just provides a printk-like formatted logging function on top of relayfs. Again, you can use this to keep stuff out of your system logs if used in place of printk. The example applications can be found here: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/dprobes/relay-apps.tar.gz?download Thanks, Tom Signed-off-by: Tom Zanussi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Documentation/filesystems/relayfs.txt | 206 + fs/Kconfig| 12 fs/Makefile |1 fs/relayfs/Makefile |4 fs/relayfs/buffers.c | 195 fs/relayfs/buffers.h | 12 fs/relayfs/inode.c| 423 +++ fs/relayfs/relay.c| 530 ++ fs/relayfs/relay.h| 12 include/linux/relayfs_fs.h| 263 10 files changed, 1658 insertions(+) diff -urpN -X dontdiff linux-2.6.11-mm2/Documentation/filesystems/relayfs.txt linux-2.6.11-mm2-cur/Documentation/filesystems/relayfs.txt --- linux-2.6.11-mm2/Documentation/filesystems/relayfs.txt 1969-12-31 18:00:00.0 -0600 +++ linux-2.6.11-mm2-cur/Documentation/filesystems/relayfs.txt 2005-03-04 20:27:34.0 -0600 @@ -0,0 +1,206 @@ + +relayfs - a high-speed data relay filesystem + + +relayfs is a filesystem designed to provide an efficient mechanism for +tools and facilities to relay large and potentially sustained streams +of data from kernel space to user space. + +The main abstraction of relayfs is the 'channel'. A channel consists +of a set of per-cpu kernel buffers each represented by a file in the +relayfs filesystem. Kernel clients write into a channel using +efficient write functions which automatically log to the current cpu's +channel buffer. User space applications mmap() the per-cpu files and +retrieve the data as it becomes available. + +The format of the data logged into the channel
[PATCH] relayfs for linux-2.6.11-mm2
Hi Andrew, Here's the latest version of relayfs, against linux-2.6.11-mm2. I'm hoping you'll consider putting this version back into your tree - the previous rounds of comment seem to have shaken out all the API issues and the number of comments on the code itself have also steadily dwindled. This patch is essentially the same as the relayfs redux part 5 patch, with some minor changes based on reviewer comments. Thanks again to Pekka Enberg for those. The patch size without documentation is now a little smaller at just over 40k. Here's a detailed list of the changes: - removed the attribute_flags in relay open and changed it to a boolean specifying either overwrite or no-overwrite mode, and removed everything referencing the attribute flags. - added a check for NULL names in relayfs_create_entry() - got rid of the unnecessary multiple labels in relay_create_buf() - some minor simplification of relay_alloc_buf() which got rid of a couple params - updated the Documentation In addition, this version (through code contained in the relay-apps tarball linked to below, not as part of the relayfs patch) tries to make it as easy as possible to create the cooperating kernel/user pieces of a typical and common type of logging application, one where kernel logging is kicked off when a user space data collection app starts and stops when the collection app exits, with the data being automatically logged to disk in between. To create this type of application, you basically just include a header file (relay-app.h, included in the relay-apps tarball) in your kernel module, define a couple of callbacks and call an initialization function, and on the user side call a single function that sets up and continuously monitors the buffers, and writes data to files as it becomes available. Channels are created when the collection app is started and destroyed when it exits, not when the kernel module is inserted, so different channel buffer sizes can be specified for each separate run via command-line options. See the README in the relay-apps tarball for details. Also included in the relay-apps tarball are a couple examples demonstrating how you can use this to create quick and dirty kernel logging/debugging applications. They are: - tprintk, short for 'tee printk', which temporarily puts a kprobe on printk() and writes a duplicate stream of printk output to a relayfs channel. This could be used anywhere there's printk() debugging code in the kernel which you'd like to exercise, but would rather not have your system logs cluttered with debugging junk. You'd probably want to kill klogd while you do this, otherwise there wouldn't be much point (since putting a kprobe on printk() doesn't change the output of printk()). I've used this method to temporarily divert the packet logging output of the iptables LOG target from the system logs to relayfs files instead, for instance. - klog, which just provides a printk-like formatted logging function on top of relayfs. Again, you can use this to keep stuff out of your system logs if used in place of printk. The example applications can be found here: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/dprobes/relay-apps.tar.gz?download Thanks, Tom Signed-off-by: Tom Zanussi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Documentation/filesystems/relayfs.txt | 206 + fs/Kconfig| 12 fs/Makefile |1 fs/relayfs/Makefile |4 fs/relayfs/buffers.c | 195 fs/relayfs/buffers.h | 12 fs/relayfs/inode.c| 423 +++ fs/relayfs/relay.c| 530 ++ fs/relayfs/relay.h| 12 include/linux/relayfs_fs.h| 263 10 files changed, 1658 insertions(+) diff -urpN -X dontdiff linux-2.6.11-mm2/Documentation/filesystems/relayfs.txt linux-2.6.11-mm2-cur/Documentation/filesystems/relayfs.txt --- linux-2.6.11-mm2/Documentation/filesystems/relayfs.txt 1969-12-31 18:00:00.0 -0600 +++ linux-2.6.11-mm2-cur/Documentation/filesystems/relayfs.txt 2005-03-04 20:27:34.0 -0600 @@ -0,0 +1,206 @@ + +relayfs - a high-speed data relay filesystem + + +relayfs is a filesystem designed to provide an efficient mechanism for +tools and facilities to relay large and potentially sustained streams +of data from kernel space to user space. + +The main abstraction of relayfs is the 'channel'. A channel consists +of a set of per-cpu kernel buffers each represented by a file in the +relayfs filesystem. Kernel clients write into a channel using +efficient write functions which automatically log to the current cpu's +channel buffer. User space applications mmap() the per-cpu files and +retrieve the data as it becomes available. + +The format of the data logged into the channel
