On Wed, Dec 26, 2018 at 1:43 AM Finn Thain <fthain@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This allows for removal of drivers/char/generic_nvram.c as well as some
duplicated code in arch/powerpc/kernel/nvram_64.c. By reducing the number
of /dev/nvram char misc device implementations, the number of bugs and
inconsistencies is also reduced.
This patch series reduces inconsistencies between PPC32 and PPC64, and
between PPC_PMAC and MAC. A uniform API has benefits for userspace.
For example, some error codes for some ioctl calls become consistent
across PowerPC platforms. The uniform API can potentially benefit
bootloaders that work across different platforms which all have XPRAM
(e.g. Emile).
I think there are two reasonable merge strategies for this patch series.
The char misc maintainer could take the entire series. Alternatively the
m68k maintainer could take patches 1 thru 14, and after those patches
reach mainline the powerpc maintainer could take 15 thru 25 (even though
patch 21 is not powerpc-related).
I had a look at the complete series now, and I think this is a great cleanup.
I replied with a couple of minor comments that you may or may not want
to address first.
The one thing I would like to see resolved (I hope this doesn't bring
back an old discussion you had already concluded) is regarding
the use of a global exported structure of function pointers, as opposed
to using either directly exported functions (with a consistent interface)
or a boot-time selectable structure like dma_map_ops or ppc_md.
Arnd
