Re: [PATCH 3/5] toshiba_acpi: Add accelerometer input polled device

[Jonathan Cameron <jic23@kernel.org>]

On September 9, 2014 1:04:30 AM GMT+01:00, Darren Hart <dvhart@infradead.org> wrote:
>On Fri, Sep 05, 2014 at 11:04:18PM -0600, Azael Avalos wrote:
>> Hi there,
>> 
>> 2014-09-05 20:42 GMT-06:00 Darren Hart <dvhart@infradead.org>:
>> > On Fri, Sep 05, 2014 at 11:14:05AM -0600, Azael Avalos wrote:
>> >> The accelerometer sensor is very sensitive, and having userspace
>> >> poll the sysfs position entry is not very battery friendly.
>> >>
>> >> This patch removes the sysfs entry and instead, it creates an
>> >> input polled device (joystick) for the built-in accelerometer.
>> >
>> > Hrm, while sysfs details can change across kernel versions, usually
>due to
>> > driver core changes, we try to keep them as consistent as possible
>so as not to
>> > break userspace.
>> >
>> > That said, if we are going to try and come up with a better model
>for
>> > representing an accelerometer, wouldn't treating it as an IIO
>device be the more
>> > logical approach?
>> 
>> Yes of course, but the actual accelerometer device (sensor?) is not
>> really exposed,
>> only certain "functions" it provides, and they are divided across two
>> different ACPI devices,
>> TOS620A exposes the protection, and the TOS1900 (and et. al.) only
>> exposes the axes.
>
>As I understand it, IIO defines an interface to a device, a standard
>sysfs set
>of properties. I should think we could provide the appropriate
>callbacks even
>for a partially implemented (or a pair of) accelerometer.
>
>Jonathan, what are your thoughts here. Is such a "device" (ACPI
>accessors to
>axis and threshold) a candidate for IIO, or is this input polled device
>more
>appropriate?
Absolutely fine in IIO.

Sorry I took so long to reply. Read the title and expected more detailed issue so queued
 it up for when I had more time. Oops.

Only slight gotcha is that there is some debate over the iio timer trigger
 configuration interface which would be equivalent of a polled input device.

Hence it hasn't merged yet.
Comes down to how these are instantiated. Lars-Peter Clausen is planning a configfs
 proposal rather than how we do the user space trigger creation currently.

A user space trigger would work but then you loose lack of hitting sysfs files.

>
>> 
>> I see your point in breaking userspace, but given the fact that it
>was
>> recently introduced,
>> I didn't thought it was already "adopted", that's why I decided to
>> remove the sysfs entry.
>
>Looks like since 3.15 if I read the log correctly. That is fairly
>recent and
>this is not one of the "defined interfaces" in the sysfs documentation.
>
>Greg, can you weigh in here - does this change count as "breaking
>userspace", or
>is this more inline with the scheduler knobs in /proc/sched_debug which
>can
>change from version to version.
>
>> 
>> Then we might as well keep the sysfs entry and have the input polled
>> device as well.
>
>Let's see what Greg has to say. If he isn't bothered by the change, I
>won't push
>the issue.

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