[Nut-upsuser] Enhanced driver troubleshooting

[gene heskett]

On 4/24/23 08:31, Jim Klimov via Nut-upsuser wrote:
> As a follow-up, that R&D led to several other issues and PRs, now mostly
> merged and summarized in
> https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/issues/1781#issuecomment-1519824607
> (with a few points still awaiting completion).
> 
> They added new features to NUT master branch, including:
> * drivers/upsdrvquery.{c,h}: mini-client for socket protocol, so drivers
> (and upsdrvctl) can talk to the already-running driver instance, if any,
> other than by sending signals and making guesses if they were handled; this
> mini-client is usable for SET and INSTCMD with TRACKING and timeouts on
> POSIX and WIN32 builds
> * This mini-client is used to enable `programname -c reload-or-error`
> commands on both platforms, allowing callers to either reload driver
> configurations "on the fly" where supported (e.g.. `debug_min` setting;
> more can be revised by specific driver maintainers) or to return an
> exit-code stating that a driver restart is required to apply the
> configuration change
> * The exit-code is integrated with `nut-driver-enumerator` service
> (systemd/SMF) to decide whether a detected change in an `ups.conf` section
> requires re-definition (and restart) of a service instance for the
> `nut-driver` (which was the knee-jerk reaction to any change until now,
> since we only track checksums of config sections and do not know what
> exactly changed), or if a live reload suffices - improving driver uptime
> during troubleshooting investigations
> * On both platforms, clients to the socket protocol (e.g.
> `server/sockdebug(.exe)`) can newly `SET driver.debug NUM` to change
> verbosity on the fly
> * On both platforms, clients to the socket protocol can `SET
> driver.flag.allow_killpower 1` (failsafe that can be pre-configured via
> `ups.conf`) and `INSTCMD driver.killpower` to request that the running
> driver does the "force shutdown" equivalent of earlier `drivername -k`. In
> fact, handling of the latter was changed to try using the running driver
> (if any) first, and try the old approach of possibly killing off that
> driver process and starting a new device connection to request its poweroff
> only if the INSTCMD did not report successful handling (meaning that its
> `upsdrv_shutdown()` method returned - some are no-ops, a few are infinite
> loops waiting for power state). As a consequence, this allows OS
> integrations to revise just how the shutdown is handled - e.g. if the
> nut-driver services should be stopped at all before the endgame (`upsmon`
> and `upsd` may well be stopped, socket protocol does not depend on them).
> * On POSIX platforms currently (WIN32 equivalent to complete later) some
> more commands and notably signals are available for configuration reloading
> (including `reload-or-restart` for driver-wrapping service instances) and
> troubleshooting.
> * Note that `upsdrvctl` is limited to devices persistently defined in
> `ups.conf`, but drivers called directly can signal their instances spawned
> with `-s TempUPSname` experiments.
> 
> That was a fun if bumpy ride :)
> 
> Hope this helps,
> Jim Klimov

Jim, would an upgrade to the install on my rpi4b running a medium sized 
80+ yo lathe give me better control over a:
device.mfr: CPS
device.model: CP625HGa
device.type: ups
driver.name: usbhid-ups
driver.parameter.offdelay: 120
where that offdelay seems hard coded. The 625WA rating could run that pi 
for t least an hour, but it chops it off in 2 minutes.
currently running 2.7.4 on raspios buster.
> 
> On Wed, Apr 19, 2023 at 5:18 PM Jim Klimov <jimklimov+nut at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Cheers,
>>
>>    With https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/pull/1906 and
>> https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/pull/1912 (and probably some more
>> later), I've been enhancing NUT driver framework with support for live
>> reload of configuration, primarily to acknowledge changes to debug_min
>> setting in ups.conf - but made in a generic fashion that specific drivers
>> may take advantage of for their `addvar`'ed options handling (as a separate
>> effort from users/maintainers of those drivers).
>>
>>    Live testing and other forms of review would be welcome :)
>>
>> Jim
>>
>>
> 
> 
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Cheers, Gene Heskett.
-- 
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