Re: [greybus-dev] [PATCH v4] staging: greybus: Convert uart.c from IDR to XArray

["Fabio M. De Francesco" <fmdefrancesco@gmail.com>]

On Wednesday, September 1, 2021 2:09:16 PM CEST Alex Elder wrote:
> On 8/31/21 6:50 AM, Fabio M. De Francesco wrote:
> > I was wrong in assuming that trivial patches to Greybus are welcome as 
they 
> > are for other drivers.
> 
> This is not a correct statement.

Yes, I agree: it's not a correct statement. Please let me explain what I was 
trying to convey with that consideration...

The Mutexes were there around idr_find() and I decided to leave the code as 
it was. Who am I to say that they are not necessary? I must stay on the safe 
side. First because I don't know how the drivers work (can that critical 
section really be entered by different threads that could possibly share the 
gb_tty that is retrieved by xa_load()? Even if xa_load() always give you back 
the right gb_tty, how do I know if in the while other threads change its 
fields or destroy the object? I guess I should stay on the safe side and 
leave the Mutexes there, exactly were they were.

These are the reason why v1 was indeed a trivial patch. But v2 *was not* 
because you wrote that you were pretty sure they were unneeded and you asked 
me to leave them or remove them and in either case I had to provide a reason 
why. 

I guess that in v1 I should not provide a reason why they are still there, as 
well as I don't have to provide any reason on why the greybus code (line by 
line) is as it is: it is out of the scope of my patch. Am I wrong?

Your note about the possibility that the mutexes could be removed pushed me 
beyond what I need to know to accomplish the intended task. 

Anyway I tried to reason about it. I perfectly know what is required to 
protect critical sections of code, but I don't know how drivers work; I mean 
I don't know whether or not different threads that run concurrently could 
really interfere in that specific section. This is because I simply reason in 
terms of general rules of protection of critical section but I really don't 
know how Greybus works or (more in general) how drivers work.

I still think that if I stayed within the bounds of my original purpose I 
didn't have to reason about this topic and that the v1 patch was trivial.
v2 was not!

I'm sorry because I'm still not sure if I was able to conveyed what I thought 
and still think.

> But as Johan pointed out, even for a trivial patch if you
> must understand the consequences of what the change does.
> If testing is not possible, you must work extra hard to
> ensure your patch is correct.

Again, I don't see any possible harm with the mutexes in place :)
 
> In the first (or an early) version of your patch I pointed
> out a bug.  Later, I suggested
>  the lock might not be necessary
> and asked you to either confirm
>  it was or explain why it was
> not, but you didn't do that.

This was beyond my knowledge and perhaps unnecessary (sorry if I insist on 
that :)).

> I agree that the change appeared trivial, and even sensible,
> but even trivial patches must result in correct code.  And
> all patches should have good and complete explanations.
>
>	- Alex

Is v2 correct with the mutexes restored where they were? I guess it is.

Thanks for you kind review and the time you spent for me. I appreciated it, 
seriously.

Fabio