Dear Lee Jones,
In message 20121121095045.GI28265@gmail.com you wrote:
Yes, I intend to extend this functionality into Device Tree. That way it will be architecture and OS independent.
And forcing something upon a mechanism that was designed for a completely different purpose, where you see right from the first glance that it does not math easily?
Not entirely sure what you mean here. This mechanism works perfectly with ATAGs.
Neither ATAGS not the device tree are intended nor designed for passing logfile information. Yes, you can use them like that, and it will actually work. You can also drive a nail in using a microscope as hammer.
The advantages should be obvious: we will need no extra kernel modification, we do not depend on ATAGS, and we are automatically architecture-independent.
Wouldn't this clog up the kernel's log buffer? I'm sure no user wants to see reams of otherwise useless logging scrawled throughout their bootlog. We'd also have a write a text parser to obtain the information for processing. It would be easier to either pass in a struct, as we do with the ATAG mechanism, or though Device Tree as previously discussed.
I think these are pretty poor arguments. There are standard methods (like log levels) to provide adequate filtering of which messages are passed on to a user. An there exists a plethora of tools for automatic filtering and post-processing of syslog messages. You will need to write _less_ code than with your homebrew implementation.
Best regards,
Wolfgang Denk