Re: [PATCH net-next v4 0/4] net: mdio: support dynamic OF device changes

[James Hilliard]

On Fri, Aug 7, 2026 at 2:26 PM Andrew Lunn <andrew@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > So should I just drop the final "net: mdio: support dynamic OF device
> > changes" patch and keep the MDIO hardening patches?
>
> If you can provide suitable commit messages which indicate you are
> fixing real problems.

I guess I'm just trying to figure out if mdio map hotplug safety is something
that's considered to be a real issue or not when most existing drivers tend
to sidestep the safety issues.

If OF_DYNAMIC is something that will eventually be supported for mdio
then this is something that will be needed eventually anyways.

> We get way too many AI generated patches which
> fix theoretical issues which nobody ever encounters.

I did hit it in practice with my original series so I used that for validating
the fixes, however my later revisions use a different design that uses
phy_package instead of a separate ctrl driver which avoids the need
for OF_DYNAMIC support for mdio.

> That is wasting a
> lot of Reviewer time, preventing me and other reviewers from helping
> developers doing real work adding new hardware support, or fixing bugs
> which both them.

So to me it seems like hotplug safety for the mdio api is mostly an API
footgun at the moment if anything for existing drivers, so I figured since
I already had done a lot of the work refactoring it to be safer that I should
then submit that upstream anyways.

Most of my embedded Linux designs heavily incorporate different
hardware autodetection/autoconfiguration techniques which is probably
one reason I like the idea of making more use of the OF_DYNAMIC
feature where feasible for the kernel.

> Those are the people which i prefer to help, not the
> newbies using AI and have never taken Operating Systems 101.

I'm certainly not a newbie[0] but I have been using AI workflows quite
extensively as AI greatly increases the speed at which I can iterate on
patches as well as significantly increasing code quality.

In general I run all my patches through many rounds of AI review before
submitting as well to try and reduce the amount of bugs and such in
addition to my own manual review.

Whether or not to preemptively refactor code like this mdio code is kind
of a personal preference however so it's not always clear to me whether
or not it's something I should be submitting fixes for upstream.

Maybe incorporating AI tools more in your own workflows can help with
keeping maintainer workload manageable? I certainly use AI a lot when
reviewing code from other developers.

[0] https://lore.kernel.org/all/?q=james.hilliard1@xxxxxxxxx

>
>        Andrew
>