Re: [PATCH] rtc: spacemit: handle regmap_test_bits() error return
From: Alexandre Belloni
Date: Fri Jul 24 2026 - 09:44:52 EST
On 24/07/2026 08:32:13-0500, Alex Elder wrote:
> On 7/23/26 9:42 PM, kr494167@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> > From: Surendra Singh Chouhan <kr494167@xxxxxxxxx>
> >
> > p1_rtc_read_time() called if (!regmap_test_bits(regmap, RTC_CTRL, RTC_EN))
> > to check if the RTC was enabled.
> >
> > regmap_test_bits() returns 1 if the bit is set, 0 if not set, and a
> > negative error code (e.g. -EIO) if reading the control register fails.
> > Using !regmap_test_bits(...) evaluates a negative error code as boolean
> > false, causing I2C/regmap read failures to be ignored and incorrectly
> > proceeding to read time registers from a failing device.
> >
> > Fix this by capturing the return value of regmap_test_bits() and returning
> > the error code if negative, or -EINVAL if the RTC is disabled.
> >
> > Fixes: a6de182daa2b ("rtc: spacemit: support the SpacemiT P1 RTC")
> > Signed-off-by: Surendra Singh Chouhan <kr494167@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> This is an I2C-based regmap, so yes, we do need to test
> for errors when reading or writing registers.
>
> I think this is a good fix. I have a minor suggestion or
> two below but either way:
>
> Reviewed-by: Alex Elder <elder@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> > ---
> > drivers/rtc/rtc-spacemit-p1.c | 5 +++--
> > 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/drivers/rtc/rtc-spacemit-p1.c b/drivers/rtc/rtc-spacemit-p1.c
> > index 43ab62494bb4..c1820c920ba3 100644
> > --- a/drivers/rtc/rtc-spacemit-p1.c
> > +++ b/drivers/rtc/rtc-spacemit-p1.c
> > @@ -57,8 +57,9 @@ static int p1_rtc_read_time(struct device *dev, struct rtc_time *t)
> > u8 time[6];
> > int ret;
> > - if (!regmap_test_bits(regmap, RTC_CTRL, RTC_EN))
> > - return -EINVAL; /* RTC is disabled */
> > + ret = regmap_test_bits(regmap, RTC_CTRL, RTC_EN);
> > + if (ret <= 0)
> > + return ret ? ret : -EINVAL; /* RTC is disabled or error */
>
> Since regmap_test_bits() can return -EINVAL, I wonder if a
> different error code would be better to indicate "disabled".
> It can return -EBUSY and -EIO too, as well as anything any
> regmap->reg_read() can return. Scanning through the list of
> basic error codes I don't have a good suggestion, unfortunately.
>
No, EINVAL is standard across all the drivers. I considered changing
this to ETIME or ENODATA but that would break userspace too much.
> Otherwise, perhaps just:
>
> return ret ? : -EINVAL; /* comment if you like */
>
> > ret = regmap_bulk_read(regmap, RTC_TIME, time, sizeof(time));
> > if (ret)
>
--
Alexandre Belloni, co-owner and COO, Bootlin
Embedded Linux and Kernel engineering
https://bootlin.com