Re: [PATCH v9 1/3] dmaengine: ptdma: Initial driver for the AMD PTDMA

From: Vinod Koul
Date: Wed Jun 16 2021 - 05:56:28 EST


On 16-06-21, 15:16, Sanjay R Mehta wrote:
>
>
> On 6/16/2021 1:29 PM, Greg KH wrote:
> > [CAUTION: External Email]
> >
> > On Wed, Jun 16, 2021 at 01:22:54PM +0530, Vinod Koul wrote:
> >> On 16-06-21, 12:27, Sanjay R Mehta wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On 6/16/2021 11:46 AM, Greg KH wrote:
> >>>> [CAUTION: External Email]
> >>>>
> >>>> On Wed, Jun 16, 2021 at 10:24:52AM +0530, Sanjay R Mehta wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On 6/16/2021 9:45 AM, Vinod Koul wrote:
> >>>>>> [CAUTION: External Email]
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> On 15-06-21, 16:50, Sanjay R Mehta wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> +static struct pt_device *pt_alloc_struct(struct device *dev)
> >
> > In looking at this, why are you dealing with a "raw" struct device?
> > Shouldn't this be a parent pointer? Why not pass in the real type that
> > this can be made a child of?
> >
> >
> >>>>>>>>> +{
> >>>>>>>>> + struct pt_device *pt;
> >>>>>>>>> +
> >>>>>>>>> + pt = devm_kzalloc(dev, sizeof(*pt), GFP_KERNEL);
> >>>>>>>>> +
> >>>>>>>>> + if (!pt)
> >>>>>>>>> + return NULL;
> >>>>>>>>> + pt->dev = dev;
> >>>>>>>>> + pt->ord = atomic_inc_return(&pt_ordinal);
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> What is the use of this number?
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> There are eight similar instances of this DMA engine on AMD SOC.
> >>>>>>> It is to differentiate each of these instances.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Are they individual device objects?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Yes, they are individual device objects.
> >>>>
> >>>> Then what is "ord" for? Why are you using an atomic variable for this?
> >>>> What does this field do? Why doesn't the normal way of naming a device
> >>>> come into play here instead?
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> Hi Greg,
> >>>
> >>> The value of "ord" is incremented for each device instance and then it
> >>> is used to store different name for each device as shown in below snippet.
> >>>
> >>> pt->ord = atomic_inc_return(&pt_ordinal);
> >>> snprintf(pt->name, MAX_PT_NAME_LEN, "pt-%u", pt->ord);
> >>
> >> Okay why not use device->name ?
> >
> > Ah, I missed this. Yes, do not have 2 names for the same structure,
> > that is wasteful and confusing.
> >
>
> Thanks, Greg & Vinod. I just verified with "dev_name(dev)" and this is
> serving the purpose :).
>
> I will send this change in the next version.

Great, but there are few more questions I had, like who creates the
device etc, can you please respond to those questions as well, so that
we understand properly how this device works

Thanks
--
~Vinod