[dm-devel] [PATCH] multipath-tools: replace multipath configuration output

[Martin Wilck]

On Wed, 2016-12-07 at 16:44 +0100, Xose Vazquez Perez wrote:
> On 11/25/2016 10:00 AM, Martin Wilck wrote:
> 
> > I am not sure I see the merit of these changes. If it's really
> > necessary to change the wording of the log messages which people
> > have
> > got used to, the new ones should be really more self-explanatory
> > than
> > the old ones.
> 
> Some of them are a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
> For example "LUN setting". "setting: multipath.conf multipaths
> section"
> is, by far, a better description.

Agreed.

> > The common "setting: " formatting is nice but IMHO this alone
> > doesn't
> > really justify overthrowing old habits.
> 
> I really don't care the marker name, "setting:" "conf:" ...
> But a standard one should be used.

Agreed.

> > On Thu, 2016-11-24 at 23:44 +0100, Xose Vazquez Perez wrote:
> > > sysfs setting           -> setting: kernel sysfs
> > > 
> > > detected setting        -> setting: array autodetected
> > > 
> > > controller setting      -> setting: array configuration
> > Is "array" really more understandable to users than "controller"?
> 
> "controller", what controller? local hba? array controller?
> "array" is unequivocal.

I tend to associate "array" with "RAID", and therefore I found this
term confusing. Perhaps "storage" or "storage array"? Or even "device",
overloaded as it may be, because that would match the section name in
multipath.conf?

> > These settings come from hwentries, so in reality they're either
> > part
> > of the built-in hwtable or of the multipath.conf "devices"
> > section, 
> > or am I wrong here? 
> Also from /sys fs, from the array or auto-negotiated kernel<->array.

> > It would be helpful for users to be able to distinguish which
> > config file section
> > the option was taken from (defaults/devices/multipaths/overrides).
> > The
> > same argument applies to the hardware enries - being able to
> > distinguish built in hardware defaults from config file "devices"
> > settings would be really helpful, but this patch doesn't provide
> > that
> > functionality.
> 
> This is a first step. Anyhow only "multipath.conf defaults/devices"
> could be split.
> overrides and multipaths sections already are independent as you can
> see in
> libmultipath/propsel.c

OK.

>From an end user perspective, figuring out the "sysfs" and "auto-
negotiated" config option origin, as you mentioned above, might be most
important, in particular when these take precedence over config file
settings.

Anyway, thanks for putting thought into this.

Best Regards
Martin

-- 
Dr. Martin Wilck <mwilck at suse.com>, Tel. +49 (0)911 74053 2107
SUSE Linux GmbH, GF: Felix Imendörffer, Jane Smithard, Graham Norton
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