On 11/5/14 12:59, Rafael J. Wysocki wrote: > On Tuesday, November 04, 2014 03:42:38 PM Darren Hart wrote: >> >> On 11/4/14 14:54, Rafael J. Wysocki wrote: >> >>> From: Rafael J. Wysocki <rafael.j.wysocki@xxxxxxxxx> >>> Subject: ACPI / property: Drop size_prop from acpi_dev_get_property_reference() >>> >>> The size_prop argument of the recently added function >>> acpi_dev_get_property_reference() is not used by the only current >>> caller of that function and is very unlikely to be used at any time >>> going forward. >>> >>> Namely, for a property whose value is a list of items each containing >>> a references to a device object possibly accompanied by some integers, >>> the number of items in the list can always be computed as the number >>> of elements of type ACPI_TYPE_LOCAL_REFERENCE in the property package. >>> Thus it should never be necessary to provide an additional "cells" >>> property with a value equal to the number of items in that list. >> >> In this case, do we never expect a property to contain more than one >> ACPI_TYPE_LOCAL_REFERENCE? >> >> Package () { "foobar", >> Package () { >> "PCI0.FOO", "PCI0.BAR", 0, 1, 0, >> "PCI0.FOO", "PCI0.BAR2", 0, 1, 1 >> } >> } >> >> This seems like it could be useful for connecting various types of >> devices together, but I confess not to have a specific exmaple in mind. >> It does concern me to limit the data format in this way. > > We don't support this even with size_prop, so it doesn't seem to be relevant here. > > Now, if we were to support this, I'd rather not use acpi_dev_get_property_reference() > for that, but add a new function specifically for it. Moreover, I would extend the > format definition then so that we could do > > Package () { > "foobar", Package () { > Package () {"PCI0.FOO", "PCI0.BAR", 0, 1, 0}, > Package () {"PCI0.FOO", "PCI0.BAR2", 0, 1, 1} > } > } > > in which case adding a special "size" property could be avoided. > > That said, I have no idea why it might be necessary. One reference in a property > value means that we're connecting the current node (the owner of the _DSD > containing that property) with some other node in the namespace. Two references > in there would mean that the current node is to be connected with *two* other > nodes in the namespace at the same time. That raises some questions that I'd > rather not consider in detail here, unless you insist. ;-) > >> I suppose should such a case become necessary, we can deal with the >> issue then - and still avoid having a potential abuse point in the API >> from the start. > > What we have today is sufficient for all of the cases we've considered so far. > If we find a case where it is not sufficient, we'll need to consider extending > the data format as well as the API. > > Rafael Agreed on all points. Thanks Rafael. -- Darren Hart Intel Open Source Technology Center -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-acpi" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html