Subject: Re: [PATCH 10/14] ps3: get firmware version

From: Geoff Levand <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:52:05 -0800

Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 24, 2007 at 06:40:17PM -0800, Geoff Levand wrote:
>> Output the PS3 firmware version to dmesg and /proc/cpuinfo.
> 
> Do we really need to bloat /proc/cpuinfo with more information that's
> totally platform-specific?  The file is enough of a mess already..

I wanted to make the firmware version available to user space utilities, so
for example, I plan to make a utility to write the kernel to flash.  If the
utility can query the firmware version, it can prompt the user that a firmware
update would allow the kernel to take advantage of some new or updated feature.
Without this, the only way to notify the user is with a message to the system
log when the new kernel is running.

Anyway, that is the need, the question is where to make it available.  I thought
/proc/cpuinfo already has the platform type (coming from the generic powerpc
code), so it would be convenient for utilities to have the firmware version
there too.  I don't think parsing the dmsg is an option for minimal
configs like bootloaders and distro installers, as they may not keep the boot
messages around, and in general doesn't seem a reliable way.  If you can make
a suggestion, I'd like to hear it.

-Geoff