[lm-sensors] issue with clearing alarms

[Jim Cromie]

Jean Delvare wrote:
>>>> 2 - sensors-deamon locks the directory to preclude loss of alarms (is 
>>>> this possible ? bad idea ?)
>>>>         
>>> Which daemon?
>>>       
>> sensorsd - not that it matters.
>>     
>
> The only sensorsd I know of runs on OpenBSD. Did you mean sensord?
> Sensord wasn't designed to be a central access point to the sensors
> data, it's merely a resident monitoring application and nothing more.
>
>   
>> But Ive added a couple lines to Doc/hwmon/sysfs-interface, on the 
>> assumption that
>> app-writers will read it, where they now learn of libsensors, but might 
>> miss this fact otherwise.
>>
>>
>> Signed-off-by:  Jim Cromie  <jim.cromie at gmail.com>
>>
>> $ diffstat diff.doc-touches.20060926.140844
>>  Documentation/hwmon/sysfs-interface |    8 ++++----
>>
>>
>> diff -ruNp -X dontdiff -X exclude-diffs linux-2.6.18-rc6-mm2-sk/Documentation/hwmon/sysfs-interface doc-touches/Documentation/hwmon/sysfs-interface
>> --- linux-2.6.18-rc6-mm2-sk/Documentation/hwmon/sysfs-interface	2006-09-07 16:09:40.000000000 -0600
>> +++ doc-touches/Documentation/hwmon/sysfs-interface	2006-09-26 14:04:19.000000000 -0600
>> @@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ voltages between 0 and +4V. Other voltag
>>  range using external resistors. Since the values of these resistors
>>  can change from motherboard to motherboard, the conversions cannot be
>>  hard coded into the driver and have to be done in user space.
>> +Therefore, all sysfs values are fixed point numbers.
>>     
>
> I see no cause-to-consequence relation here, so why the "therefore"?
> What problem are you trying to address by moving this sentence around?
>
>   
sure, its a little white lie.  I wondered if it would draw comment.
Its easier than explaining why the kernel doesnt allow FP.
Let me turn it around.  Why do you bother to say it at all ?
Motivated readers would just try it, then either google to find out
why its disallowed (I have), or <gasp> ask on some ML.
Besides, the whole paragraph is sufficient reason, to move the sentence,
even if FP were allowed.
>>  For this reason, even if we aim at a chip-independent libsensors, it will
>>  still require a configuration file (e.g. /etc/sensors.conf) for proper
>> @@ -35,8 +36,9 @@ access this data in a simple and consist
>>  will have to implement conversion, labeling and hiding of inputs. For
>>  this reason, it is still not recommended to bypass the library.
>>  
>> -If you are developing a userspace application please send us feedback on
>> -this standard.
>> +If you are developing a userspace application please send us feedback
>> +on this standard.  Note that applications are expected to read all the
>> +sysfs files at once, you may miss transient alarms otherwise.
>>     
>
> Or you could leave the "on" where it was, so that the diff doesn't look
> bigger than it really is?
>
>   
emacs autowrap.  But thats not really the issue is it ?

> You are putting the things in the wrong order, I think. The
> applications are not expected to read all the sysfs values at once, it
> just happens to be what they all do at the moment. And nothing really
> wrong will happen if they don't. The different behavior of transient
> alarms is a minor annoyance, because, as I explained earlier, nobody
> really cares about transient alarms. In fact, people may even be
> _happy_ to miss them. So why frighten them with something we don't
> expect to bother them at all?
>
>   
ignorance != apathy
And if we dont care about alarms, why bother to split them out, 1 per 
sensor ?
>>  Note that this standard isn't completely established yet, so it is subject
>>  to changes. If you are writing a new hardware monitoring driver those
>> @@ -48,8 +50,6 @@ Each chip gets its own directory in the 
>>  find all sensor chips, it is easier to follow the device symlinks from
>>  /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon*.
>>  
>> -All sysfs values are fixed point numbers.
>> -
>>  There is only one value per file, unlike the older /proc specification.
>>  The common scheme for files naming is: <type><number>_<item>. Usual
>>  types for sensor chips are "in" (voltage), "temp" (temperature) and
>>     
>
>