summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation/ABI/testing/pstore
blob: f1fb2a004264bc6989a20d92ca333b436c7154d4 (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
Where:		/dev/pstore/...
Date:		January 2011
Kernel Version: 2.6.38
Contact:	tony.luck@intel.com
Description:	Generic interface to platform dependent persistent storage.

		Platforms that provide a mechanism to preserve some data
		across system reboots can register with this driver to
		provide a generic interface to show records captured in
		the dying moments.  In the case of a panic the last part
		of the console log is captured, but other interesting
		data can also be saved.

		# mount -t pstore - /dev/pstore

		$ ls -l /dev/pstore
		total 0
		-r--r--r-- 1 root root 7896 Nov 30 15:38 dmesg-erst-1

		Different users of this interface will result in different
		filename prefixes.  Currently two are defined:

		"dmesg"	- saved console log
		"mce"	- architecture dependent data from fatal h/w error

		Once the information in a file has been read, removing
		the file will signal to the underlying persistent storage
		device that it can reclaim the space for later re-use.

		$ rm /dev/pstore/dmesg-erst-1

		The expectation is that all files in /dev/pstore
		will be saved elsewhere and erased from persistent store
		soon after boot to free up space ready for the next
		catastrophe.