RE: [PATCH] ACPICA: make acpi_load_table() return table index

[Nikolaus Voss]

Bob,

On Thu, 12 Sep 2019, Moore, Robert wrote:
> The ability to unload an ACPI table (especially AML tables such as 
> SSDTs) is in the process of being deprecated in ACPICA -- since it is 
> also deprecated in the current ACPI specification. This is being done 
> because of the difficulty of deleting the namespace entries for the 
> table.  FYI, Windows does not properly support this function either.

ok, I see it can be a problem to unload an AML table with all it's 
consequences e.g. with respect to driver unregistering in setups with 
complex dependencies. It will only work properly under certain conditions 
- nevertheless acpi_tb_unload_table() is still exported in ACPICA and we 
should get this working as it worked before.

The API change I request is not directly related to table unloading, it's 
just that the index of the loaded table is returned for future reference:

[...]

> > diff --git a/include/acpi/acpixf.h b/include/acpi/acpixf.h index 3845c8fcc94e5..c90bbdc4146a6 100644
> > --- a/include/acpi/acpixf.h
> > +++ b/include/acpi/acpixf.h
> > @@ -452,7 +452,8 @@ ACPI_EXTERNAL_RETURN_STATUS(acpi_status ACPI_INIT_FUNCTION
> > 					       u8 physical))
> >
> > ACPI_EXTERNAL_RETURN_STATUS(acpi_status
> > -			    acpi_load_table(struct acpi_table_header *table))
> > +			    acpi_load_table(struct acpi_table_header *table,
> > +					    u32 *table_idx))
> >
> > ACPI_EXTERNAL_RETURN_STATUS(acpi_status
> > 			    acpi_unload_parent_table(acpi_handle object))
> > --
> > 2.17.1

This allows for a simple fix of the regression and doesn't imply future 
support for table unloading. Would this be acceptable?

Niko