Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH] xen/console: introduce a 'w' debug-key that dumps the console ring

[Ian Jackson <Ian.Jackson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jan Beulich writes ("Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH] xen/console: introduce a 'w' 
debug-key that dumps the console ring"):
> On 29.09.12 at 20:49, Matt Wilson <msw@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > It would have been. But what if no one was looking, or dom0 cleared
> > the console, or placed it into a scrolling mode that prevents a
> > virtual terminal from placing output into a scrollback buffer. With
> > this patch, you can connect to a serial console after a machine
> > becomes unresponsive and gather clues on what went wrong.
> 
> That's an operator error then.

Speaking as someone who does some sysadmin in their spare time, I
think this would be a very useful feature.  It is often the case that,
best intentions notwithstanding, the arrangements for collecting
serial output fail.  Many serial concentrators and ipkvms are very
bad.

> I completely agree with Keir that what you propose is pretty
> questionable (and you provide one argument against it already - the
> shortage of remaining keys).

If necessary we can have multi-keystroke keys, surely.  We should
start with assigning a prefix punctuation character which will give us
another 52 letters to play with.

Ian.

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