Re: [PATCH V3 2/3] regulator: dt: regulator match by regulator-compatible

[Stephen Warren <swarren@wwwdotorg.org>]

On 06/20/2012 01:46 PM, Mark Brown wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 20, 2012 at 07:24:09PM +0000, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
> 
>> 1. What is it that the new property can express that cannot
>> already be expressed by using the phandle.
> 
> As well as being able to refer to the object from within the device
> tree we also need to be able to tell what the object represents -
> we have a bunch of regulators in an array under a node for a PMIC
> and we want to know which regulator on the physical device each
> array entry corresponds to.  Previously this was being done by
> parsing the phandle name but that

s/phandle name/node name/ in that line I think.

At least, I don't think it's common to refer to nodes as phandles;
phandles are usually the values used at "client" sites to refer to
nodes IIUC.

> means we can't have more than one device with the same set of
> names.
> 
>> 2. Why is it called "regulator-compatible"? If it's similar to
>> the "compatible" property, don't you have to have a binding for
>> each possible string? If it's not related to the "compatible"
>> property, why is it named in a similar way?
> 
> Yes, there are bindings defined already for all the relevant
> devices. Elsewhere in the binding document you'll see a list of all
> the regulators on the PMIC and the names by which the device tree
> binding knows them.