Re: [PATCHv2 3/3] Documentation: DT bindings: Tegra AHB: note base address change

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On 03/19/2015 11:55 AM, Paul Walmsley wrote:
On Thu, 19 Mar 2015, Stephen Warren wrote:

The binding document is supposed to say what value the reg property should
have.

If you look at other DT binding documentation in the kernel, this is
generally not the case.  Consider these examples:

https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/i2c/brcm,bcm2835-i2c.txt
https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/i2c/i2c-omap.txt
https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/i2c/i2c-exynos5.txt

That is because there are no special requirements for the reg values beyond the HW documentation.

However, if we need the reg value to contain something other than the base address that's in the HW documentation, we clearly need to document that exception. How else would anyone know about the exception?

The example doesn't count because (a) it's not normative (b) an example wouldn't explain why an exception needs to be made or how to calculate the exception value for cases other than the specific example given.

...
If we require some unusual offset in the reg property (i.e. something
other than what the HW documentation describes as the module base address),
that ought to be documented. We do have this situation for this module at
present, although the documentation unfortunately doesn't explicitly call this
out even though the example alludes to it.

I do think we should at least fix the example so it isn't confusing and
inconsistent with expected practice. We could either switch the example to
Tegra210 so we only provide the best example going forward, or have separate
examples for Tegra20/210 to highlight the difference.

We should also add documentation that Chips before Tegra210 (or
Tegra132?) *require* the extra offset. Any code or DT written to the
existing (admittedly slightly implicit) binding needs to continue to
work, so we should document this unusual requirement, even if we enhance
the Linux driver to accept either mode of operation.

After the two driver patches (after rmk's requested changes) are applied,
no unusual offset will be required, but if the legacy offset is specified,
it will be transparently handled.

As I see it, there are three possible cases:

1. the legacy, incorrect base address is used, in which case everything
will still work but there will be a warning;

2. the correct base address (from a hardware SoC integration point of
view) is used, in which case everything will work with no warnings,

3. a novel, completely incorrect base address is used, in which case the
IP block won't work at all and the driver will fail completely

After the patches, the driver now handles the first two cases.  If you
would like the DT binding documentation practice changed to attempt to
address the third case, by requiring DT binding documentation to contain
lists of the correct IP integration data for every possible chip that
contains that IP block, as you mention above, such a change would be a
major delta from existing kernel practice, so would certainly mandate
submitting a patch for the common DT binding documentation file at

That's not what I'm asking for. I want exceptions to standard practice documented, which is that reg contains whatever the HW documentation says it should. There's no need to enumerate all the valid values; the HW documentation does that. However, if the DT binding requires something other than what the HW documentation says, we must document that.

https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/submitting-patches.txt

Other OSs and old versions of Linux will still need the exception for
older SoCs.

How about this: I will send a patch for the DT binding documentation to
note that versions of Linux prior to v4.1 (unless Torvalds runs another
poll) require the four-byte-offset base address.  Is that sufficient to
address your concerns with this series?

Almost yes.

We should not document Linux 4.1 as the cut-off. DT bindings are supposed to be OS agnostic. While it's practically unlikely, it is entirely possible for some other OS to have already implemented support for this binding, and the current binding is an ABI. We have no control over if/when any non-Linux code is updated to add support for a 0-based offset for existing SoCs, and certainly no versions of Linux or any other OS can be updated retro-actively except perhaps a few linux-stable versions. We can however write the binding in such a way as support for new SoCs requires the new 0-based address, since there is no binding specification for those new chips yet, and the time when you add the new binding documentation is the first time any OS could possibly add conformant support for it.

In summary, I believe the binding document must state that T20/30/114/124 require the offset of 4 in reg value, and newer chips require no offset in the reg value. We can still always accept either in the Linux kernel going forward based on the principle of being lenient re: input data.
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