Re: [PATCH] gpio: sim: don't fiddle with GPIOLIB private members

[Andy Shevchenko]

On Mon, Sep 04, 2023 at 11:22:32AM +0200, Bartosz Golaszewski wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 4, 2023 at 10:59 AM Andy Shevchenko
> <andriy.shevchenko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > On Sat, Sep 02, 2023 at 04:40:05PM +0200, Bartosz Golaszewski wrote:
> > > On Fri, Sep 1, 2023 at 11:10 PM Andy Shevchenko
> > > <andriy.shevchenko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > On Fri, Sep 01, 2023 at 08:32:40PM +0200, Bartosz Golaszewski wrote:

...

> > > > > -     /* Used by sysfs and configfs callbacks. */
> > > > > -     dev_set_drvdata(&gc->gpiodev->dev, chip);
> > > > > +     /* Used by sysfs callbacks. */
> > > > > +     dev_set_drvdata(swnode->dev, chip);
> > > >
> > > > dev pointer of firmware node is solely for dev links. Is it the case here?
> > > > Seems to me you luckily abuse it.
> > >
> > > I don't think so. If anything we have a helper in the form of
> > > get_dev_from_fwnode() but it takes reference to the device while we
> > > don't need it - we know it'll be there because we created it.
> > >
> > > This information (struct device of the GPIO device) can also be
> > > retrieved by iterating over the device children of the top platform
> > > device and comparing their fwnodes against the one we got passed down
> > > from probe() but it's just so many extra steps.
> > >
> > > Or we can have a getter in gpio/driver.h for that but I don't want to
> > > expose another interface is we can simply use the fwnode.
> >
> > dev pointer in the fwnode strictly speaking is optional. No-one, except
> > its solely user, should rely on it (its presence and lifetime).
> 
> Where is this documented? Because just by a quick glance into
> drivers/base/core.c I can tell that if a device has an fwnode then
> fwnode->dev gets assigned when the device is created and cleared when
> it's removed (note: note even attached to driver, just
> created/removed). Seems like pretty reliable behavior to me.

Yes, and even that member in fwnode is a hack in my opinion. We should not mix
layers and the idea in the future to get rid of the fwnode_handle to be
_embedded_ into struct device. It should be separate entity, and device
instance may use it as a linked list. Currently we have a few problems because
of the this design mistake.

The get_dev_from_fwnode() is used only in devlink and I want to keep it that way.
Nobody else should use it, really.

We can discuss with Saravana, but I don't believe he can convince me otherwise.

-- 
With Best Regards,
Andy Shevchenko