It would seem to me that if you had a lot of problems with your machine
crashing, ASSERT() macros placed in every function to verify variables would be
extremely helpful. Of course this code would significantly slow down the kernel,
it would be easier than using one of the kernel based debuggers out there (which
are great btw).
The following ASSERT macro seems adequate:
#ifdef KERNEL_ASSERT
#define KERNEL_ASSERT(expr) (expr || printk(KERN_DEBUG "%s/%d: Assertion failed!
%s\n", __FILE__, __LINE__, #expr));
#else
#define KERNEL_ASSERT(expr) 0
#endif
This sort of thing might be useful if you are having hardware problems which are
are generally difficult to diagnose. Just recompile your kernel with
KERNEL_ASSERT and wait for errors, if you get errors, you know you have
problems.
Of course, this would require putting KERNEL_ASSERT()'s everywhere, any time you
pass a variable where you know that a normal kernel will not set a NULL or odd
range... KERNEL_ASSERT().
KERNEL_ASSERT() could also replace a lot of the checking code already in the
kernel which would not be called under any circumstance unless something was
really wrong...
Just a thought.
Jordan
-- Jordan Mendelson : http://jordy.wserv.com Web Services, Inc. : http://www.wserv.com- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/