Thorsten Leemhuis (acct. 1/4)

Do not ask users to share the output of #dmidecode without strong need, as it contains data some people would prefer to keep privat (like serial numbers for board, chassis, …).

Instead tell them to share the output of the following command, which usually suffices (for example to generate #kernel quirks):

grep '' /sys/class/dmi/id/* 2>/dev/null

#NoteToSelf #LinuxKernel

[Edits: grep command updated after valid critique and good suggestions from @Aissen and @lkundrak]

Aug 28, 2023 at 12:15pmWeb
Show threadThorsten Leemhuis (acct. 1/4)Aug 28, 2023
FWWI, using "head" instead of "grep" creates a longer format that depending on the situation and the consumer might or might not be considered easier to read:
Show threadljsAug 28, 2023
@kernellogger that grep -v trick is nice :) will steal that
Show threadThorsten Leemhuis (acct. 1/4)Aug 28, 2023

@ljs

credit goes to Hans and Mario, they recently mentioned this.

I until now used "head" in such situations (see the reply to self I just added).

Show threadAnisseAug 28, 2023
@kernellogger @ljs hmmmm, with that grep -v trick you're basically skipping /sys/class/dmi/id/bios_date. Not sure if intentional.
Show threadljsAug 28, 2023
@Aissen @kernellogger ruh roh
Show threadljsAug 28, 2023
@Aissen @kernellogger forgive my ignorance, but why is that? I had assumed grep -v [nothing] = everything?
Show threadAnisseAug 28, 2023

@ljs @kernellogger * will be expanded by the shell. The first element will be considered by grep to be the pattern, and the rest the files to be grepped. So you're basically doing :

grep -v /sys/class/dmi/id/bios_date /sys/class/dmi/id/bios_release /sys/class/dmi/id/bios_vendor ...

An alternative with grep, but longer:

grep --color=never . /sys/class/dmi/id/* 2>/dev/null

(or just keep the color)

Show threadljsAug 28, 2023
@Aissen @kernellogger ah damn of course. I did find it odd that no argument was supplied but had assumed it must have been some special mode :)
Show threadThorsten Leemhuis (acct. 1/4)Aug 28, 2023

@ljs

yup;

thx for mentioning it @Aissen, I updated the toot

Show threadKees BakkerAug 28, 2023
@kernellogger maybe I'm missing something, but why is the first file matched by * used as the grep pattern?
Show threadThorsten Leemhuis (acct. 1/4)Aug 28, 2023

@keestux

yeah, that was stupid, but I fixed the post (not the screenshot) earlier (before your toot actually)

Show threadJozef MlichAug 28, 2023
@kernellogger @Aissen @lkundrak
and the same just with bash builtins `for i in /sys/class/dmi/id/*; do echo $i:$(<$i); done`
Show threadThorsten Leemhuis (acct. 1/4)Aug 28, 2023

@jmlich @Aissen @lkundrak

sure, that works as well, but in this case "easier to remember &less to type" and "easier to understand" are important factors as well.