"After recent discussions on LKML and a general dissatisfaction at the current printk() kernel-message logging interface, I've decided to write down some of the ideas for a better system," began Vegard Nossum, defining his proposed message logging API for the Linux kernel. He noted that what he was proposing was both backwards compatible with existing logging mechanisms, as well as extensible. Vegard described his proposed kprint() interfaces and their implementations, summarizing, "this scheme is obviously much more complex than the printk() is today. But at the same time, it is also much more powerful, extensible, and clearly/cleanly defined." He described one of the benefits:

"The kprint() and its log-level variants are implemented as macros in order to be able to transparently pass extra information into the main kprint() machinery. As an example, it might happen that an extra feature is added that prepends the current file and line (the __FILE__ and __LINE__ macros) to the message, but in such a way that it can be discarded at run-time, or recorded along with the messages. Additionally, this would allow the compiler to completely optimize out calls that are below a certain log-level severity level."

The proposal generated a lengthy discussion, but there was no indication as to whether or not it would be something that would ultimately be merged into the mainline kernel.