4.0.1 versus DEBUG/DIAGNOSTIC

[der Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost>]

I've been running 4.0.1 on a few of my i386 boxen for quite a while
now, and I've had it on a Tadpole SPARCbook 3GX for a bit less time but
still some months.  Now, I've finally found motivation and lesiure
together for trying it on other SPARCs.  Specifically, my guinea-pig
machine is an LX.

I routinely use kernels with DEBUG and DIAGNOSTIC enabled.  On the
Tadpole, I started with the TADPOLE3GX kernel, and I find that I did
not turn on DEBUG and DIAGNOSTIC.  However, the kernel I'm using on the
LX *does* have DEBUG and DIAGNOSTIC turned on, and I'm seeing the
printf at pmap.c line 4207 (pmap.c,v 1.307) tripping:

pmap_chk: wired count 472

The number varies; I've also seen 575.  Oddly, once it starts
happening, every process fork or exit appears to provoke another such
message - but the numbers, while they vary, do not seem to exhibit an
upward trend; they just bounce around among a relatively few values.
This started after I ran a program that calls mmap() and then fork() to
get memory shared between two processes, in case that's relevant - I
have trouble seeing how it could be, but it's the only thing I can
think of that might be tickling something unusual in pmap.

Does this indicate a real problem with the 4.0.1 SPARC pmap?  Or is it
a case of DEBUG reporting a condition that is not actually a problem
but was of interest to someone at some point?  Or what?

I'm basically wondering what to do: comment out the message? backport a
patch? stop trying to use 4.0.1 on sparc? file a PR and hope someone
with SPARC pmap clue is motivated to look at an issue with a moderately
old, even if nominally still supported, version?

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