Re: [PATCH v2 1/4] software node: return -ENXIO when referenced swnode is not registered yet

[Dmitry Torokhov <dmitry.torokhov@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Apr 02, 2026 at 04:35:34PM +0300, Andy Shevchenko wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 02, 2026 at 02:54:26PM +0200, Bartosz Golaszewski wrote:
> > It's possible that at the time of resolving a reference to a remote
> > software node, the node we know exists is not yet registered as a full
> > firmware node. We currently return -ENOENT in this case but the same
> > error code is also returned in some other cases, like the reference
> > property with given name not existing in the property list of the local
> > software node.
> > 
> > It makes sense to let users know that we're dealing with an unregistered
> > software node so that they can defer probe - the situation is somewhat
> > similar to there existing a firmware node to which no device is bound
> > yet - which is valid grounds for probe deferral. To that end: use -ENXIO
> > which stands for "No such device or address".
> 
> This error code is also too generic to my taste. What about alternative(s)?
> EADDRNOTAVAIL
> ENOTCONN
> 
> (The brief grep shows that the second one might suit slightly better than the
>  first one by existing use cases.)

We are in the core of the driver core. Why not simply use -EPROBE_DEFER
to which all users will resolve this error to and call it a day?

Thanks.

-- 
Dmitry