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authorJoel Fernandes <joelagnelf@nvidia.com>2026-07-18 13:15:36 -0400
committerPaul E. McKenney <paulmck@kernel.org>2026-07-23 10:39:57 -0700
commit34ff636f322c6d5e4f0a52338fa63a7dff09a495 (patch)
tree7629759c1ec7148b95bc8ab3080df20a5ecd2273 /Documentation/networking/netif-msg.rst
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scftorture: Count single_rpc offline failures in statistics outputgrafted
scf_torture_stats_print() aggregates each invoker thread's counters into a local scf_statistics structure before printing, but the n_single_rpc_ofl field is missing from the aggregation loop. As a result, the "single_rpc_ofl" value printed in the statistics line is always zero, even when smp_call_function_single() invocations for the RPC test have failed due to offline CPUs and been counted by the invoker threads. Add the missing accumulation so that the printed value reflects the actual counts. Signed-off-by: Joel Fernandes <joelagnelf@nvidia.com> Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@kernel.org>
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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+===============
+NETIF Msg Level
+===============
+
+The design of the network interface message level setting.
+
+History
+-------
+
+ The design of the debugging message interface was guided and
+ constrained by backwards compatibility previous practice. It is useful
+ to understand the history and evolution in order to understand current
+ practice and relate it to older driver source code.
+
+ From the beginning of Linux, each network device driver has had a local
+ integer variable that controls the debug message level. The message
+ level ranged from 0 to 7, and monotonically increased in verbosity.
+
+ The message level was not precisely defined past level 3, but were
+ always implemented within +-1 of the specified level. Drivers tended
+ to shed the more verbose level messages as they matured.
+
+ - 0 Minimal messages, only essential information on fatal errors.
+ - 1 Standard messages, initialization status. No run-time messages
+ - 2 Special media selection messages, generally timer-driver.
+ - 3 Interface starts and stops, including normal status messages
+ - 4 Tx and Rx frame error messages, and abnormal driver operation
+ - 5 Tx packet queue information, interrupt events.
+ - 6 Status on each completed Tx packet and received Rx packets
+ - 7 Initial contents of Tx and Rx packets
+
+ Initially this message level variable was uniquely named in each driver
+ e.g. "lance_debug", so that a kernel symbolic debugger could locate and
+ modify the setting. When kernel modules became common, the variables
+ were consistently renamed to "debug" and allowed to be set as a module
+ parameter.
+
+ This approach worked well. However there is always a demand for
+ additional features. Over the years the following emerged as
+ reasonable and easily implemented enhancements
+
+ - Using an ioctl() call to modify the level.
+ - Per-interface rather than per-driver message level setting.
+ - More selective control over the type of messages emitted.
+
+ The netif_msg recommendation adds these features with only a minor
+ complexity and code size increase.
+
+ The recommendation is the following points
+
+ - Retaining the per-driver integer variable "debug" as a module
+ parameter with a default level of '1'.
+
+ - Adding a per-interface private variable named "msg_enable". The
+ variable is a bit map rather than a level, and is initialized as::
+
+ 1 << debug
+
+ Or more precisely::
+
+ debug < 0 ? 0 : 1 << min(sizeof(int)-1, debug)
+
+ Messages should changes from::
+
+ if (debug > 1)
+ printk(MSG_DEBUG "%s: ...
+
+ to::
+
+ if (np->msg_enable & NETIF_MSG_LINK)
+ printk(MSG_DEBUG "%s: ...
+
+
+The set of message levels is named
+
+
+ ========= =================== ============
+ Old level Name Bit position
+ ========= =================== ============
+ 0 NETIF_MSG_DRV 0x0001
+ 1 NETIF_MSG_PROBE 0x0002
+ 2 NETIF_MSG_LINK 0x0004
+ 2 NETIF_MSG_TIMER 0x0004
+ 3 NETIF_MSG_IFDOWN 0x0008
+ 3 NETIF_MSG_IFUP 0x0008
+ 4 NETIF_MSG_RX_ERR 0x0010
+ 4 NETIF_MSG_TX_ERR 0x0010
+ 5 NETIF_MSG_TX_QUEUED 0x0020
+ 5 NETIF_MSG_INTR 0x0020
+ 6 NETIF_MSG_TX_DONE 0x0040
+ 6 NETIF_MSG_RX_STATUS 0x0040
+ 7 NETIF_MSG_PKTDATA 0x0080
+ ========= =================== ============