Re: [PATCH v2 1/6] software node: Provide replacement for device_add_properties()

[Greg Kroah-Hartman]

On Thu, Feb 04, 2021 at 05:13:04PM +0100, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 04, 2021 at 05:06:53PM +0100, Rafael J. Wysocki wrote:
> > On Thu, Feb 4, 2021 at 3:17 PM Heikki Krogerus
> > <heikki.krogerus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >
> > > At the moment the function device_del() is calling
> > > device_remove_properties() unconditionally. That will result into the
> > > reference count of the software node attached to the device being
> > > decremented, and in most cases it will hit 0 at that point. So in
> > > practice device_del() will unregister the software node attached to
> > > the device, even if that was not the intention of the caller. Right
> > > now software nodes can not be reused or shared because of that.
> > >
> > > So device_del() can not unregister the software nodes unconditionally
> > > like that. Unfortunately some of the users of device_add_properties()
> > > are now relying on this behaviour. Because of that, and also in
> > > general, we do need a function that can offer similar behaviour where
> > > the lifetime of the software node is bound to the lifetime of the
> > > device. But it just has to be a separate function so the behaviour is
> > > optional. We can not remove the device_remove_properties() call from
> > > device_del() before we have that new function, and before we have
> > > replaced device_add_properties() calls with it in all the places that
> > > require that behaviour.
> > >
> > > This adds function device_create_managed_software_node() that can be
> > > used for exactly that purpose. Software nodes created with it are
> > > declared "managed", and separate handling for those nodes is added to
> > > the software node code. The reference count of the "managed" nodes is
> > > decremented when the device they are attached to is removed. This will
> > > not affect the other nodes that are not declared "managed".
> > >
> > > The function device_create_managed_software_node() has also one
> > > additional feature that device_add_properties() does not have. It
> > > allows the software nodes created with it to be part of a node
> > > hierarchy by taking also an optional parent node as parameter.
> > >
> > > Signed-off-by: Heikki Krogerus <heikki.krogerus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > 
> > The rationale is clear now, so
> > 
> > Reviewed-by: Rafael J. Wysocki <rafael.j.wysocki@xxxxxxxxx>
> > 
> > and I'm assuming that this will be routed via the USB tree.
> 
> Yes, I will do so, thanks.

Now queued up, thanks!

greg k-h