Talk:Watchdog timer

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Software: Computing Low‑importance

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Software watchdog

May I suggest adding a mention of the linux software watchdog service? (/dev/watchdog)

How about "kicking the dog", since it makes the dog bark! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.4.0.55 (talk) 21:37, 2 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

actually there is quite a lot missing here. 1. watchdog timers are a special kind of watchdog, as there are also, e.g. challenge-response watchdogs, time-frame watchdogs, etc. watchdog are a special kind of supervisor. in a hardware design a supervisor is a contraption that supervises the functionality of the device and executes a defined procedure when it detects a failure. a superviser can supervise voltage (brown-out-detector), a clock frequency, etc. i think maybe the watchdog article should be worked over, that won't be hard and an additional supervisor article might not be a bad thing at all.--188.195.79.173 (talk) 06:28, 29 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Use of "kick" as general term for resetting watchdog timer

OP blocked as a sock. Nothing to see here. Girth Summit _(blether) 19:06, 2 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Can we please alter this to be a more appropriate metaphor? "Kicking the dog" is a relic widely in disuse in programming now. "Petting" is much more commonplace. Ultimately, neither is as intuitive as "reset," though. --SallowDay (talk) 21:14, 28 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I respectfully disagree. "Kick" is commonly used today and, IMO, more appropriate than "petting" due to the suddenness of the underlying electric pulse. "Reset" can be confused with the (typically) resulting CPU reset, and it's not always a valid description of what's happening (e.g., loading a down-counter). Opinions aside, it would be useful to have a RS that lists the frequency of usage of the various terms. Lambtron talk 14:06, 30 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Misleading if not wrong intro

WRT "[WDT is a ] timer that is used to detect and recover from computer malfunctions" is basically wrong since it's too general. I see this alot on WP; overly broad info. I think folks edit it over time to water down the meaning to be more inclusive of variants of the topic (i.e. different kinds of WDT). But, eventually, the meaning mutates into gobbledygook.

First, the wording can be read to mean all timers used to detect and recover from a computer malfunction is a WDT. But, they are not. In this respect, the wording is ambiguous. Maybe it just means that one thing that describes a WDT is that it's a timer for detecting/recovering from malfunctions. Wording should be clearer. An article should start with info that is basically a definition; not something that just happens to be true.

Second, a WDT doesn't really detect a malfunction. If it's not restarted, it resets the CPU. That is hardly what I'd classify as detect. (honestly, watchdog is a bad term since it conjures detection (of danger/intruders), but it's watching for inactivity. Further, you kick it to prevent it taking action. A dog trained to take action if it doesn't get kicked for a while. That's hardly a normal watchdog gig!)

Third, saying malfunctions is a too broad. Not all malfunctions. It's for recovering from a hang (or lack of activity/comms).

How about this: WDT is a mechanism that takes action if a well-defined period of time elapses without external control to restart its counter. Commonly, a WDT is hardware (computer chip) and it resets the CPU when its timer elapses. A WDT can be implemented in software instead of hardware, and a WDT can be configured to take other actions than CPU reset. Stevebroshar (talk) 08:36, 18 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]