Re: Stopping watchdog in watchdog driver remove functions

[Wim Van Sebroeck]

Hi Guenter,

> I noticed that several watchdog drivers stop the watchdog in trhe driver 
> remove function.
> A non-exhaustive list of drivers doing that is
> 
> 	drivers/watchdog/bcm7038_wdt.c
> 	drivers/watchdog/cadence_wdt.c
> 	drivers/watchdog/imgpdc_wdt.c
> 	drivers/watchdog/jz4740_wdt.c
> 	drivers/watchdog/kempld_wdt.c
> 	drivers/watchdog/max77620_wdt.c
> 	drivers/watchdog/moxart_wdt.c
> 	drivers/watchdog/sama5d4_wdt.c
> 	drivers/watchdog/tangox_wdt.c
> 	drivers/watchdog/tegra_wdt.c
> 
> Since a watchdog has to be closed for its driver to be removable, one 
> situation
> where a watchdog is still running on unload is where the watchdog was 
> opened but
> not closed properly (eg by killing the watchdog application, or if the 
> 'nowayout'
> flag is set).
> 
> Given that, does it even make sense to stop the watchdog in the remove 
> function ?
> Should it even be permitted ?

>From an API point of view: if WDIOF_MAGICCLOSE is being used then the watchdog
_SHOULD_ continue to run when the watchdog was not properly closed (which
normally also results in a reboot of the system).
if WDIOF_MAGICCLOSE is not being used then closing the watchdog device means
that the driver needs to stop the watchdog.

Kind regards and happy new year to you all,
Wim.