Did PCI/IRQ allocation change significantly after 4.2 kernel?

[rgroner@rtd.com (Rob Groner)]

On Tue, 2016-03-29 at 11:38 -0700, Greg KH wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 02:27:01PM -0400, Rob Groner wrote:
> > On Tue, 2016-03-29 at 08:43 -0700, Greg KH wrote:
> > > On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 11:27:49AM -0400, Rob Groner wrote:
> > 
> > The driver appears to care about what the IRQ number because it uses it
> > in several other places in the driver: to compare to the incoming IRQ in
> > the interrupt handler, and to use when the "free_irq" call is required. 
> > If we shouldn't care what the IRQ is then that means we don't need it
> > for those things?  Or are you saying we should just keep a pointer to
> > the pci_dev and reference that IRQ value instead of saving our own?
> 
> Hm, maybe this is ok, it just seems odd that you check the irq number in
> the handler, that shouldn't be needed at all as the core will not call
> you unless the irq you have signed up for has been triggered.
> 

Has that always been true?  I'm pretty sure that code came from a driver
that was around the 2.6.35 era, or earlier.  I will happily remove that
IRQ check, though.  I'm always interested in less code to maintain.
Don't I still need to keep ahold of the IRQ number to call free_irq()
when the resources are released, though?

> > > Also, why not submit this for inclusion in the main kernel tree?  That
> > > will make your ongoing maintenance of the code much easier.
> > 
> > I had considered that since this driver currently supports 5 of our
> > boards (that's better than most of our drivers).  It would be a nice
> > thing to say it is supported in the kernel.  But I'm not sure how that
> > will make maintenance easier.  I had a small view into the patch
> > submitting process earlier this year, and it didn't seem easy...Is it
> > different if I'm patching my own driver?
> 
> You will get other people fixing your bugs and for any api changes, they
> will be made automatically.  And, odds are, your driver will get a lot
> smaller, there seems to be things in there that aren't needed.  And less
> code means less bugs and easier to maintain overtime.
> 
> It shouldn't be hard to merge patches for a driver you maintain, if so
> then the development process is at fault, and let me know what's going
> on and I'll work to help fix it.
> 
That is encouraging and persuasive.  I will make submitting the driver
one of my pet projects.  I need to put a new coat of paint on it before
I submit it for consideration, though.  Do I post to this mailing list
when I'm ready?  Or is there a more pertinent one?

Thanks

Rob