[RFC] MACHINE vs MACHINE_ARCH in login/loader messages : should gettytab use %p instead of %m?
"Haowu Ge(葛豪武)" <[email protected]> Sun, 24 May 2026 18:45:52 +0800
| Newsgroups | gmane.os.freebsd.devel.hackers |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
Hello everyone,
I'm currently trying to port FreeBSD to loongarch64, and during the process I noticed something about the MACHINE/MACHINE_ARCH values — though I'm not entirely sure it's an actual problem.
I initially found the descriptions of -m and -p in the uname man page, and thought -p should be broader in scope. But after reading the discussion at https://reviews.freebsd.org/D35962, I no longer think that's an issue — the current values make sense:
MACHINE = loongarch
MACHINE_ARCH = loongarch64
Reference:
'''
-m Write the type of the current hardware platform to standard
output. (make(1) uses it to set the MACHINE variable.)
-p Write the type of the machine processor architecture to standard
output. (make(1) uses it to set the MACHINE_ARCH variable.)
...
EXAMPLES
The hardware platform (-m) can be different from the machine's processor
architecture (-p), e.g., on 64-bit PowerPC, -m would return powerpc and
-p would return powerpc64.
'''
That said, since -m and -p are clearly distinct and will not be changed, I looked at libexec/getty/gettytab and noticed it uses %m instead of %p. Would it make more sense to use %p here?
'''
32 # 2. set cs8 -parenb -istrip -inpck.
33 # ep:op: same as ap.
34 #
35 default:\
36 :cb:ce:ck:lc:fd#1000:im=\r\n%s/%m (%h) (%t)\r\n\r\n:sp#1200:\
37 :if=/etc/issue:
38
39 #
40 # Fixed speed entries
Fri Nov 28 03:28:18 UTC 2025
FreeBSD/riscv (generic) (ttyu0)
login:
Consoles: EFI console
Reading loader env vars from /efi/freebsd/loader.env
Setting currdev to disk0p3:
FreeBSD/riscv EFI loader, Revision 3.0
'''
Would "riscv64" be more appropriate in both cases?
loongarch64 has the same issue, so I'd like to hear your thoughts. Thanks.
Thanks & Best Regards
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