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authorMike Dunn <mikedunn@newsguy.com>2012-04-25 23:06:08 +0400
committerDavid Woodhouse <David.Woodhouse@intel.com>2012-05-14 08:11:39 +0400
commitd062d4ede877fcd2ecc4c6262abad09a6f32950a (patch)
tree320869428d5aef43b803c4a8131140aabb21c8fb /Documentation/ABI
parenta9b672e82bca47bf2b37ee869b8095000cf3ca88 (diff)
downloadlinux-d062d4ede877fcd2ecc4c6262abad09a6f32950a.tar.xz
mtd: bitflip_threshold added to mtd_info and sysfs
An element 'bitflip_threshold' is added to struct mtd_info, and also exposed as a read/write variable in sysfs. This will be used to determine whether or not mtd_read() returns -EUCLEAN or 0 (absent a hard error). If the driver leaves it as zero, mtd will set it to a default value of ecc_strength. This v2 adds the line that propagates bitflip_threshold from the master to the partitions - thanks Ivan¹. ¹ http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-mtd/2012-April/040900.html Signed-off-by: Mike Dunn <mikedunn@newsguy.com> Signed-off-by: Artem Bityutskiy <artem.bityutskiy@linux.intel.com> Signed-off-by: David Woodhouse <David.Woodhouse@intel.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/ABI')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-mtd36
1 files changed, 36 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-mtd b/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-mtd
index 43d18180b46e..78835080856a 100644
--- a/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-mtd
+++ b/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-mtd
@@ -135,3 +135,39 @@ Description:
have multiple ecc steps within each writesize region.
In the case of devices lacking any ECC capability, it is 0.
+
+What: /sys/class/mtd/mtdX/bitflip_threshold
+Date: April 2012
+KernelVersion: 3.4
+Contact: linux-mtd@lists.infradead.org
+Description:
+ This allows the user to examine and adjust the criteria by which
+ mtd returns -EUCLEAN from mtd_read(). If the maximum number of
+ bit errors that were corrected on any single region comprising
+ an ecc step (as reported by the driver) equals or exceeds this
+ value, -EUCLEAN is returned. Otherwise, absent an error, 0 is
+ returned. Higher layers (e.g., UBI) use this return code as an
+ indication that an erase block may be degrading and should be
+ scrutinized as a candidate for being marked as bad.
+
+ The initial value may be specified by the flash device driver.
+ If not, then the default value is ecc_strength.
+
+ The introduction of this feature brings a subtle change to the
+ meaning of the -EUCLEAN return code. Previously, it was
+ interpreted to mean simply "one or more bit errors were
+ corrected". Its new interpretation can be phrased as "a
+ dangerously high number of bit errors were corrected on one or
+ more regions comprising an ecc step". The precise definition of
+ "dangerously high" can be adjusted by the user with
+ bitflip_threshold. Users are discouraged from doing this,
+ however, unless they know what they are doing and have intimate
+ knowledge of the properties of their device. Broadly speaking,
+ bitflip_threshold should be low enough to detect genuine erase
+ block degradation, but high enough to avoid the consequences of
+ a persistent return value of -EUCLEAN on devices where sticky
+ bitflips occur. Note that if bitflip_threshold exceeds
+ ecc_strength, -EUCLEAN is never returned by the read functions.
+
+ This is generally applicable only to NAND flash devices with ECC
+ capability. It is ignored on devices lacking ECC capability.