Re: [PATCH v4 1/2] eeprom: Add IDT 89HPESx EEPROM/CSR driver

[Serge Semin]

On Wed, Jan 11, 2017 at 09:21:19AM +0100, Greg KH <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 13, 2016 at 05:22:50PM +0300, Serge Semin wrote:
> > +struct idt_89hpesx_dev {
> > +	u32 eesize;
> > +	bool eero;
> > +	u8 eeaddr;
> > +
> > +	u8 inieecmd;
> > +	u8 inicsrcmd;
> > +	u8 iniccode;
> > +
> > +	atomic_t csr;
> 
> Why is this an atomic_t and not just a "normal" u32 or u64?  I don't see
> the need for an atomic variable at all here, do you?
> 

Of course, I did. Since it was shared resource before it was necessary to have
it atomically accessed. But since we moved "csr" sysfs node to DebugFS, it might not
be necessary of atomic_t type.
Ok, I'll make it unsigned int.

> 
> > +
> > +	int (*smb_write)(struct idt_89hpesx_dev *, const struct idt_smb_seq *);
> > +	int (*smb_read)(struct idt_89hpesx_dev *, struct idt_smb_seq *);
> > +	struct mutex smb_mtx;
> > +
> > +	struct i2c_client *client;
> > +
> > +	struct bin_attribute *ee_file;
> > +	struct dentry *csr_dir;
> > +	struct dentry *csr_file;
> > +};
> 
> <snip>
> 
> > +
> > +static int idt_create_dbgfs_files(struct idt_89hpesx_dev *pdev)
> > +{
> > +	struct device *dev = &pdev->client->dev;
> > +	struct i2c_client *cli = pdev->client;
> > +	char fname[CSRNAME_LEN];
> > +
> > +	/* Initialize basic value of CSR debugfs dentries */
> > +	pdev->csr_dir = NULL;
> > +	pdev->csr_file = NULL;
> > +
> > +	/* Return failure if root directory doesn't exist */
> > +	if (!csr_dbgdir) {
> > +		dev_dbg(dev, "No Debugfs root directory");
> > +		return -EINVAL;
> > +	}
> 
> If debugfs is not enabled, don't error out, just keep going, it should
> never stop kernel code from running properly.
> 
> Also, this test isn't really doing what you think it is doing...
> 

I see, it must be replaced with IS_ERR_OR_NULL() test. But I don't think,
it would be good to get rid of dev_dbg() completely here. In case if
debugging is enabled, user would understand why csr-node isn't created within
DebugFS directory. I don't see the reasoning why one shouldn't know a source
of possible problems.
(See the next comment as continue of the discussion)

> > +	/* Create Debugfs directory for CSR file */
> > +	snprintf(fname, CSRNAME_LEN, "%d-%04hx", cli->adapter->nr, cli->addr);
> > +	pdev->csr_dir = debugfs_create_dir(fname, csr_dbgdir);
> > +	if (IS_ERR_OR_NULL(pdev->csr_dir)) {
> > +		dev_err(dev, "Failed to create CSR node directory");
> > +		return -EINVAL;
> 
> Again, don't do this, you really don't care if debugfs worked or not.
> 

Actually the driver doesn't stop the kernel code from running, if it finds out
any problem with DebugFS CSR-node creation. The function just logs the error
and return error status. Take a look the place the method is called:
1489        /* Create debugfs files */
1490        (void)idt_create_dbgfs_files(pdev);
The initialization code doesn't check the return value at all, so the driver
will proceed with further code.
Why did I make the function with return value? Because it's a good style to
always return a status of function code execution if it may fail, but only
caller will decide whether to check the return value or not.

Regarding the error printing. In case if the code gets to this check, one can
be sure the DebugFS works properly, so in case if the driver failed to create
the corresponding sub-directory or node, it is really error to have any failure
at this point, and a user should be notified. But still the driver won't stop
functioning, since the caller doesn't check the return value.

Hopefully you'll understand my point.

> > +	}
> > +
> > +	/* Create Debugfs file for CSR read/write operations */
> > +	pdev->csr_file = debugfs_create_file(cli->name, 0600,
> > +		pdev->csr_dir, pdev, &csr_dbgfs_ops);
> > +	if (IS_ERR_OR_NULL(pdev->csr_file)) {
> > +		dev_err(dev, "Failed to create CSR dbgfs-node");
> > +		debugfs_remove_recursive(pdev->csr_dir);
> > +		return -EINVAL;
> 
> Same here, just create the file and move on.
> 
> > +	}
> > +
> > +	dev_dbg(dev, "Debugfs-files created");
> 
> You do know about ftrace, right?  Please remove all of these
> "trace-like" debugging lines, they aren't needed for anyone.
> 

Ok, I'll remove all these prints, even though I do find these prints being
handy to have initialization process printed on debugging stage.

> thanks,
> 
> greg k-h

thanks,
Sergey