the watchdog timer driver core does: to send a keepalive ping to the watchdog
timer hardware it will either use the ping operation (when available) or the
start operation (when the ping operation is not available).
+ (Note: the WDIOC_KEEPALIVE ioctl call will only be active when the
+ WDIOF_KEEPALIVEPING bit has been set in the option field on the watchdog's
+ info structure).
* status: this routine checks the status of the watchdog timer device. The
status of the device is reported with watchdog WDIOF_* status flags/bits.