Re: [PATCH v5] gpiolib: Bind gpio_device to a driver to enable fw_devlink=on by default

[Saravana Kannan <saravanak@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, Jan 23, 2021 at 2:52 PM Linus Walleij <linus.walleij@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Jan 22, 2021 at 8:36 PM Saravana Kannan <saravanak@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > There are multiple instances of GPIO device tree nodes of the form:
> >
> > foo {
> >         compatible = "acme,foo";
> >         ...
> >
> >         gpio0: gpio0@xxxxxxxx {
> >                 compatible = "acme,bar";
> >                 ...
> >                 gpio-controller;
> >         };
> >
> >         gpio1: gpio1@xxxxxxxx {
> >                 compatible = "acme,bar";
> >                 ...
> >                 gpio-controller;
> >         };
> >
> >         ...
> > }
> >
> > bazz {
> >         my-gpios = <&gpio0 ...>;
> > }
> >
> > Case 1: The driver for "foo" populates struct device for these gpio*
> > nodes and then probes them using a driver that binds with "acme,bar".
> > This driver for "acme,bar" then registers the gpio* nodes with gpiolib.
> > This lines up with how DT nodes with the "compatible" property are
> > typically converted to struct devices and then registered with driver
> > core to probe them. This also allows the gpio* devices to hook into all
> > the driver core capabilities like runtime PM, probe deferral,
> > suspend/resume ordering, device links, etc.
> >
> > Case 2: The driver for "foo" doesn't populate struct devices for these
> > gpio* nodes before registering them with gpiolib. Instead it just loops
> > through its child nodes and directly registers the gpio* nodes with
> > gpiolib.
> >
> > Drivers that follow case 2 cause problems with fw_devlink=on. This is
> > because fw_devlink will prevent bazz from probing until there's a struct
> > device that has gpio0 as its fwnode (because bazz lists gpio0 as a GPIO
> > supplier). Once the struct device is available, fw_devlink will create a
> > device link with gpio0 device as the supplier and bazz device as the
> > consumer. After this point, since the gpio0 device will never bind to a
> > driver, the device link will prevent bazz device from ever probing.
> >
> > Finding and refactoring all the instances of drivers that follow case 2
> > will cause a lot of code churn and it is not something that can be done
> > in one shot. In some instances it might not even be possible to refactor
> > them cleanly. Examples of such instances are [1] [2].
> >
> > This patch works around this problem and avoids all the code churn by
> > simply setting the fwnode of the gpio_device and creating a stub driver
> > to bind to the gpio_device. This allows all the consumers to continue
> > probing when the driver follows case 2.
> >
> > [1] - https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20201014191235.7f71fcb4@xhacker.debian/
> > [2] - https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/e28e1f38d87c12a3c714a6573beba6e1@xxxxxxxxxx/
> > Cc: Marc Zyngier <maz@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > Cc: Jisheng Zhang <Jisheng.Zhang@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Cc: Kever Yang <kever.yang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Fixes: e590474768f1 ("driver core: Set fw_devlink=on by default")
> > Signed-off-by: Saravana Kannan <saravanak@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> This v5 version is a beauty!

Lol, thanks.

> Reviewed-by: Linus Walleij <linus.walleij@xxxxxxxxxx>

 Considering the "Fixes" is only in driver-core-next, should this go
through driver-core?

-Saravana