[dpdk-dev] [PKTGEN] fixing weird termio issues that complicate debugging

[Panu Matilainen]

On 01/20/2016 06:26 PM, Wiles, Keith wrote:
> On 1/20/16, 12:32 AM, "dev on behalf of Matthew Hall" <dev-bounces at dpdk.org on behalf of mhall at mhcomputing.net> wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> Since the pktgen code is reindented I am finding time to read through it
>> and experiment and see if I can get it working.
>>
>> I have issues with the init process of pktgen. It is difficult to debug
>> it because the init code does a lot of very scary stuff to the terminal
>> control / TTY device at inconvenient times in an inconvenient order, and
>> in the process damages the debug output and damages the screen of your
>> GDB without doing weird things to run GDB on a different TTY.
>>
>> Of course I am willing to contribute patches and not just complain, but
>> first I need some help to follow what is going on.
>>
>> Here is the problematic call-flow with some explanation what went wrong
>> trying it on some community machines outside of its original environment:
>>
>> 1) it calls printf("\n%s %s\n", wr_copyright_msg(), wr_powered_by());
>> which dumps tons of weird boilerplate of licenses, copyrights, code
>> creator, etc.
>>
>> It is open source and everybody that matters already knows who coded it,
>> so is this stuff really that important? This gets in the way when you
>> are trying to work on it and I just have to comment it out.
>
> One problem is a number of people wanted to steal the code and use in
> a paid application, so the copyright is some what a requirement.

In that case, why is it under a BSD'ish license instead of something 
like GPL that's designed to prevent it in the first place? Might be too 
late to change it by now, just wondering.

> As you may know I do a lot of debugging on Pktgen and I feel they are
> a nuisance. I can try to see if we can clean up these messages, but
> do not hold your breath on getting them to be removed.

It would make a world of difference if it just printed the copyright etc 
in a couple of lines during startup, instead of taking over the entire 
screen for several seconds.

This is a whole lot like those anti-piracy ad campaigns on DVDs which 
you cant skip, so all the *legitimate* users are forced to suffer 
through them but all the bad guys just rip it out of their copies. DRM 
that ends up hurting the legitimate users the most is never a good idea.

	- Panu -