[PATCH v1 1/1] serial: 8250_dw: Comment possible corner cases in serial_out() implementation

From: Andy Shevchenko
Date: Mon Mar 17 2025 - 05:40:35 EST


8250 DesignWare driver uses a few custom implementations of the serial_out().
These implementations are carefully made to avoid infinite loops. But this is
not obvious from looking at the code. Comment the possible corner cases in
the respective functions.

Signed-off-by: Andy Shevchenko <andriy.shevchenko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/tty/serial/8250/8250_dw.c | 17 +++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 17 insertions(+)

diff --git a/drivers/tty/serial/8250/8250_dw.c b/drivers/tty/serial/8250/8250_dw.c
index af24ec25d976..49eda7f1fd0e 100644
--- a/drivers/tty/serial/8250/8250_dw.c
+++ b/drivers/tty/serial/8250/8250_dw.c
@@ -107,11 +107,23 @@ static inline int dw8250_modify_msr(struct uart_port *p, int offset, int value)
return value;
}

+/*
+ * This function is being called as part of the uart_port::serial_out()
+ * routine. Hence, it must not call serial_port_out() or serial_out()
+ * against the modified registers here, i.e. LCR.
+ */
static void dw8250_force_idle(struct uart_port *p)
{
struct uart_8250_port *up = up_to_u8250p(p);
unsigned int lsr;

+ /*
+ * The following call currently performs serial_out()
+ * against the FCR register. Because it differs to LCR
+ * there will be no infinite loop, but if it ever gets
+ * modified, we might need a new custom version of it
+ * that avoids infinite recursion.
+ */
serial8250_clear_and_reinit_fifos(up);

/*
@@ -128,6 +140,11 @@ static void dw8250_force_idle(struct uart_port *p)
(void)p->serial_in(p, UART_RX);
}

+/*
+ * This function is being called as part of the uart_port::serial_out()
+ * routine. Hence, it must not call serial_port_out() or serial_out()
+ * against the modified registers here, i.e. LCR.
+ */
static void dw8250_check_lcr(struct uart_port *p, int offset, int value)
{
struct dw8250_data *d = to_dw8250_data(p->private_data);
--
2.47.2