[NET] netconsole: Support dynamic reconfiguration using configfs

Based upon initial work by Keiichi Kii <k-keiichi@bx.jp.nec.com>.

This patch introduces support for dynamic reconfiguration (adding, removing
and/or modifying parameters of netconsole targets at runtime) using a
userspace interface exported via configfs.  Documentation is also updated
accordingly.

Issues and brief design overview:

(1) Kernel-initiated creation / destruction of kernel objects is not
    possible with configfs -- the lifetimes of the "config items" is managed
    exclusively from userspace.  But netconsole must support boot/module
    params too, and these are parsed in kernel and hence netpolls must be
    setup from the kernel.  Joel Becker suggested to separately manage the
    lifetimes of the two kinds of netconsole_target objects -- those created
    via configfs mkdir(2) from userspace and those specified from the
    boot/module option string.  This adds complexity and some redundancy here
    and also means that boot/module param-created targets are not exposed
    through the configfs namespace (and hence cannot be updated / destroyed
    dynamically).  However, this saves us from locking / refcounting
    complexities that would need to be introduced in configfs to support
    kernel-initiated item creation / destroy there.

(2) In configfs, item creation takes place in the call chain of the
    mkdir(2) syscall in the driver subsystem.  If we used an ioctl(2) to
    create / destroy objects from userspace, the special userspace program is
    able to fill out the structure to be passed into the ioctl and hence
    specify attributes such as local interface that are required at the time
    we set up the netpoll.  For configfs, this information is not available at
    the time of mkdir(2).  So, we keep all newly-created targets (via
    configfs) disabled by default.  The user is expected to set various
    attributes appropriately (including the local network interface if
    required) and then write(2) "1" to the "enabled" attribute.  Thus,
    netpoll_setup() is then called on the set parameters in the context of
    _this_ write(2) on the "enabled" attribute itself.  This design enables
    the user to reconfigure existing netconsole targets at runtime to be
    attached to newly-come-up interfaces that may not have existed when
    netconsole was loaded or when the targets were actually created.  All this
    effectively enables us to get rid of custom ioctls.

(3) Ultra-paranoid configfs attribute show() and store() operations, with
    sanity and input range checking, using only safe string primitives, and
    compliant with the recommendations in Documentation/filesystems/sysfs.txt.

(4) A new function netpoll_print_options() is created in the netpoll API,
    that just prints out the configured parameters for a netpoll structure.
    netpoll_parse_options() is modified to use that and it is also exported to
    be used from netconsole.

Signed-off-by: Satyam Sharma <satyam@infradead.org>
Acked-by: Keiichi Kii <k-keiichi@bx.jp.nec.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>

1 files changed, 68 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/networking/netconsole.txt b/Documentation/networking/netconsole.txt
index 1aaa7383e41d..3c2f2b328638 100644
--- a/Documentation/networking/netconsole.txt
+++ b/Documentation/networking/netconsole.txt
@@ -3,6 +3,10 @@ started by Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>, 2001.09.17
 2.6 port and netpoll api by Matt Mackall <mpm@selenic.com>, Sep 9 2003
 
 Please send bug reports to Matt Mackall <mpm@selenic.com>
+and Satyam Sharma <satyam.sharma@gmail.com>
+
+Introduction:
+=============
 
 This module logs kernel printk messages over UDP allowing debugging of
 problem where disk logging fails and serial consoles are impractical.
@@ -13,6 +17,9 @@ the specified interface as soon as possible. While this doesn't allow
 capture of early kernel panics, it does capture most of the boot
 process.
 
+Sender and receiver configuration:
+==================================
+
 It takes a string configuration parameter "netconsole" in the
 following format:
 
@@ -46,6 +53,67 @@ address.
 
 The remote host can run either 'netcat -u -l -p <port>' or syslogd.
 
+Dynamic reconfiguration:
+========================
+
+Dynamic reconfigurability is a useful addition to netconsole that enables
+remote logging targets to be dynamically added, removed, or have their
+parameters reconfigured at runtime from a configfs-based userspace interface.
+[ Note that the parameters of netconsole targets that were specified/created
+from the boot/module option are not exposed via this interface, and hence
+cannot be modified dynamically. ]
+
+To include this feature, select CONFIG_NETCONSOLE_DYNAMIC when building the
+netconsole module (or kernel, if netconsole is built-in).
+
+Some examples follow (where configfs is mounted at the /sys/kernel/config
+mountpoint).
+
+To add a remote logging target (target names can be arbitrary):
+
+ cd /sys/kernel/config/netconsole/
+ mkdir target1
+
+Note that newly created targets have default parameter values (as mentioned
+above) and are disabled by default -- they must first be enabled by writing
+"1" to the "enabled" attribute (usually after setting parameters accordingly)
+as described below.
+
+To remove a target:
+
+ rmdir /sys/kernel/config/netconsole/othertarget/
+
+The interface exposes these parameters of a netconsole target to userspace:
+
+        enabled         Is this target currently enabled?       (read-write)
+        dev_name        Local network interface name            (read-write)
+        local_port      Source UDP port to use                  (read-write)
+        remote_port     Remote agent's UDP port                 (read-write)
+        local_ip        Source IP address to use                (read-write)
+        remote_ip       Remote agent's IP address               (read-write)
+        local_mac       Local interface's MAC address           (read-only)
+        remote_mac      Remote agent's MAC address              (read-write)
+
+The "enabled" attribute is also used to control whether the parameters of
+a target can be updated or not -- you can modify the parameters of only
+disabled targets (i.e. if "enabled" is 0).
+
+To update a target's parameters:
+
+ cat enabled                            # check if enabled is 1
+ echo 0 > enabled                       # disable the target (if required)
+ echo eth2 > dev_name                   # set local interface
+ echo 10.0.0.4 > remote_ip              # update some parameter
+ echo cb:a9:87:65:43:21 > remote_mac    # update more parameters
+ echo 1 > enabled                       # enable target again
+
+You can also update the local interface dynamically. This is especially
+useful if you want to use interfaces that have newly come up (and may not
+have existed when netconsole was loaded / initialized).
+
+Miscellaneous notes:
+====================
+
 WARNING: the default target ethernet setting uses the broadcast
 ethernet address to send packets, which can cause increased load on
 other systems on the same ethernet segment.