Re: [PATCH net v3 3/3] net: ti: icss-iep: Fix possible NULL pointer dereference for perout request

[Roger Quadros <rogerq@kernel.org>]

On 03/04/2025 14:25, Paolo Abeni wrote:
> On 4/2/25 2:37 PM, Malladi, Meghana wrote:
>> On 4/2/2025 5:58 PM, Roger Quadros wrote:
>>> On 28/03/2025 12:24, Meghana Malladi wrote:
>>>> ICSS IEP driver has flags to check if perout or pps has been enabled
>>>> at any given point of time. Whenever there is request to enable or
>>>> disable the signal, the driver first checks its enabled or disabled
>>>> and acts accordingly.
>>>>
>>>> After bringing the interface down and up, calling PPS/perout enable
>>>> doesn't work as the driver believes PPS is already enabled,
>>>
>>> How? aren't we calling icss_iep_pps_enable(iep, false)?
>>> wouldn't this disable the IEP and clear the iep->pps_enabled flag?
>>>
>>
>> The whole purpose of calling icss_iep_pps_enable(iep, false) is to clear 
>> iep->pps_enabled flag, because if this flag is not cleared it hinders 
>> generating new pps signal (with the newly loaded firmware) once any of 
>> the interfaces are up (check icss_iep_perout_enable()), so instead of 
>> calling icss_iep_pps_enable(iep, false) I am just clearing the 
>> iep->pps_enabled flag.
> 
> IDK what Roger thinks, but the above is not clear to me. I read it as
> you are stating that icss_iep_pps_enable() indeed clears the flag, so i
> don't see/follow the reasoning behind this change.
> 
> Skimmir over the code, icss_iep_pps_enable() could indeed avoid clearing
> the flag under some circumstances is that the reason?
> 
> Possibly a more describing commit message would help.

I would expect that modifying the xxx_enabled flag should be done only
in the icss_iep_xxx_enable() function. Doing it anywhere else will be difficult
to track/debug in the long term.

I don't see why the flag needs to be set anywhere else. Maye better to
improve logic inside icss_iep_pps_enable() like Paolo suggests.

> 
>>> And, what if you brought 2 interfaces of the same ICSS instances up
>>> but put only 1 interface down and up?
>>>
>>
>> Then the flag need not be disabled if only one interface is brought down 
>> because the IEP is still alive and all the IEP configuration (including 
>> pps/perout) is still valid.
> 
> I read the above as stating this fix is not correct in such scenario,
> leading to the wrong final state.
> 
> I think it would be better to either give a better reasoning about this
> change in the commit message or refactor it to handle even such scenario,
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Paolo
> 

-- 
cheers,
-roger