x86, nmi-watchdog: update procfs nmi_watchdog file documentation v2

Impact: improve documentation

This patch updates the /proc/sys/kernel/nmi_watchdog documentation.
Updated: included Randy Dunlap's corrections.

Signed-off-by: Aristeu Rozanski <aris@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>

2 files changed, 11 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
index bcceb99b81dd..86be879ed70e 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
@@ -1338,10 +1338,13 @@ nmi_watchdog
 
 Enables/Disables the NMI watchdog on x86 systems.  When the value is non-zero
 the NMI watchdog is enabled and will continuously test all online cpus to
-determine whether or not they are still functioning properly.
+determine whether or not they are still functioning properly. Currently,
+passing "nmi_watchdog=" parameter at boot time is required for this function
+to work.
 
-Because the NMI watchdog shares registers with oprofile, by disabling the NMI
-watchdog, oprofile may have more registers to utilize.
+If LAPIC NMI watchdog method is in use (nmi_watchdog=2 kernel parameter), the
+NMI watchdog shares registers with oprofile. By disabling the NMI watchdog,
+oprofile may have more registers to utilize.
 
 msgmni
 ------
diff --git a/Documentation/nmi_watchdog.txt b/Documentation/nmi_watchdog.txt
index 90aa4531cb67..bf9f80a98282 100644
--- a/Documentation/nmi_watchdog.txt
+++ b/Documentation/nmi_watchdog.txt
@@ -69,6 +69,11 @@ to the overall system performance.
 On x86 nmi_watchdog is disabled by default so you have to enable it with
 a boot time parameter.
 
+It's possible to disable the NMI watchdog in run-time by writing "0" to
+/proc/sys/kernel/nmi_watchdog. Writing "1" to the same file will re-enable
+the NMI watchdog. Notice that you still need to use "nmi_watchdog=" parameter
+at boot time.
+
 NOTE: In kernels prior to 2.4.2-ac18 the NMI-oopser is enabled unconditionally
 on x86 SMP boxes.