watchdog question

[Alex Hornung]

On 30/07/12 14:58, Konrad Neuwirth wrote:
> Now, my question: I read the kernel.watchdog.auto and kernel.watchdog.period knobs to mean the kernel can auto-update the kernel; on the other hand, the documentation refers me to the watchdogd daemon. The latter one claims /dev/wdog isn't writable. But why have two solutions to one problem? Doesn't the kernel auto updating suffice, anyway? 

There are two options: the kernel auto-refreshing or a userland process
(watchdogd) refreshing.

Whether you want one or the other depends; obviously the kernel
auto-refresh is more convenient, but it may not be sufficient for your
scenario. Just picture userland processes hanging but bits of the kernel
going on. This is a scenario that only the latter option will get you
out of.

HTH,
Alex