[Crash-utility] [Patch] Fix handling the ring buffer for 'log' command.

[Jeff Moyer]

Dave Anderson <anderson at redhat.com> writes:

> Good question -- I'm not sure.
>
> If the buffer were "cleared" by the administrator, the logical "end" of
> the buffer would not be the last thing displayed by the "log" command.
> But that's really not a problem, given that the relevant kernel-crash-related
> data is still available to be examined.  
>
> On the other hand, even though the administrator has "cleared" the log
> buffer, the data is still there.  My concern would be what if there is
> crucial data in the log buffer that the administrator "cleared" out of
> convenience?  Like for example, I've often done a "dmesg -c" to clear
> the buffer so that subsequent dmesg commands just dump the latest 
> information.  But then I've gone back with the crash utility and
> re-examined the log buffer data that still remains in memory -- which
> can be still be seen with the "log" command.
>
> So my initial leaning would be to continue to show what's actually there.
> I trust myself as a crash analyzer more than I trust the administrator. 
>
> But I could be convinced otherwise.
>
> What do others on the list think about this?

I would much rather see all of the contents of the log buffer.

Cheers,
Jeff