On Sat, 11 Jun 2022 12:46:04 +0200 Dario Binacchi <dario.binacchi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > As written before I would like to discuss this change out of your > > patch series "can: slcan: extend supported features" as it is no > > slcan feature extension AND has to be synchronized with the > > drivers/net/slip/slip.c implementation. > > Why do you need to synchronize it with drivers/net/slip/slip.c > implementation ? Because slcan.c is a derivative of slip.c and the code still looks *very* similar, so improvements in one file should be ported to the other and vice versa. This has happened several times now. > > When it has not real benefit and introduces more code and may create > > side effects, this beautification should probably be omitted at all. > > > > I totally agree with you. I would have already dropped it if this > patch didn't make sense. But since I seem to have understood that > this is not the case, I do not understand why it cannot be improved > in this series. This series is mostly about adding netlink support. If there is a point of contention about a beautification, it may be easier to discuss that separately, so the netlink code can be merged while the beautification is still being discussed. On another note, the global array of slcan_devs is really unnecessary and maintaining it is a mess - as seen in some of your patches, that have to account for it in tons of places and get complicated because of it. slcan_devs is probably grandfathered from a very old kernel, since slip.c is about 30 years old, so I suggest to remove it entirely. In fact, it may be easier to patch slcan_devs away first, and that will simplify your open/close patches - your decision :) If you wish to implement the slcan_devs removal, here are some hints: The private struct can just be allocated as part of struct can_priv in slcan_open(), like so: struct net_device *dev; dev = alloc_candev(sizeof(struct slcan), 0); And then accessed like so: struct slcan *sl = netdev_priv(dev); Make sure to add struct can_priv as the first member of struct slcan: /* This must be the first member when using alloc_candev() */ struct can_priv can; > The cover letter highlighted positive reactions to the series because > the module had been requiring these kinds of changes for quite > some time. So, why not take the opportunity to finalize this patch in > this series even if it doesn't extend the supported features ? Because... I can only speak for myself, but I'd merge all the unambiguous stuff first and discuss the difficult stuff later, if there are no interdependencies :) Max
