Re: [PATCH net 4/7] net: dsa: mt7530: set both CPU port interfaces to PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_NA

From: Arınç ÜNAL
Date: Mon Mar 27 2023 - 17:59:17 EST


On 27.03.2023 22:12, Vladimir Oltean wrote:
On Sun, Mar 26, 2023 at 05:08:15PM +0300, arinc9.unal@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
From: Arınç ÜNAL <arinc.unal@xxxxxxxxxx>

Set interfaces of both CPU ports to PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_NA. Either phylink
or mt7530_setup_port5() on mt7530_setup() will handle the rest.

This is already being done for port 6, do it for port 5 as well.

Fixes: 38f790a80560 ("net: dsa: mt7530: Add support for port 5")

This is getting comical.. I think I'm putting too much energy in
trying to understand the hidden meaning of this patch set.

In include/linux/phy.h we have:

typedef enum {
PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_NA,

In lack of other initializer, the first element of an enum gets the
value 0 in C.

Then, "priv" is allocated by this driver with devm_kzalloc(), which
means that its entire memory is zero-filled. So priv->p5_interface and
priv->p6_interface are already set to 0, or PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_NA.

There is no code path between the devm_kzalloc() and the position in
mt7530_setup() that would change the value of priv->p5_interface or
priv->p6_interface from their value of 0 (PHY_INTERFACE_MODE_NA).
For example, mt753x_phylink_mac_config() can only be called from
phylink, after dsa_port_phylink_create() was called. But
dsa_port_phylink_create() comes later than ds->ops->setup() - one comes
from dsa_tree_setup_ports(), and the other from dsa_tree_setup_switches().

The movement of the priv->p6_interface assignment with a few lines
earlier does not change anything relative to the other call sites which
assign different values to priv->p6_interface, so there isn't any
functional change there, either.

So this patch is putting 0 into a variable containing 0, and claiming,
through the presence of the Fixes: tag and the submission to the "net"
tree, that it is a bug fix which should be backported to "stable".

Can it be that you are abusing the meaning of a "bug fix", and that I'm
trying too hard to take this patch set seriously?

I don't appreciate your consistent use of the word "abuse" on my patches. I'm by no means a senior C programmer. I'm doing my best to correct the driver.

Thank you for explaining the process of phylink with DSA, I will adjust my patches accordingly.

I suggest you don't take my patches seriously for a while, until I know better.

Arınç