Re: [PATCH RFC net-next 10/10] net: dsa: allow use of phylink managed EEE support

[Vladimir Oltean <olteanv@gmail.com>]

On Tue, Jan 14, 2025 at 08:02:55PM +0000, Russell King (Oracle) wrote:
> > What is the reason for including this patch with this set, where
> > it is of no use until at least one DSA driver provides the new API
> > implementations?
> 
> No criticism against you, but I guess you didn't read the cover
> message? I tend not to read cover messages. I've been wondering for a
> while now whether anyone actually does and thus whether they are worth
> the effort of writing anything beyond providing a message ID to tie a
> series together and a diffstat for the series.
> 
> Here's the relevant bit:
> 
> "The remainder of the patches convert mvneta, lan743x and stmmac, add
> support for mvneta, and add the basics that will be necessary into the
> DSA code for DSA drivers to make use of this.
> 
> "I would like to get patches 1 through 9 into net-next before the
> merge window, but we're running out of time for that."
> 
> So, it's included in this RFC series not because I'm intending it to
> be merged, but so that people can see what DSA requires to make it
> functional there, and provide review comments if they see fit - which
> you have done, thanks.
> 
> I'm sure if I'd said "I have patches for DSA" you'd have responded
> asking to see them!
> 
> Of course, I do have changes that will require this - mt753x - but
> that patch is not quite ready because this series I've posted has seen
> a few changes recently to remove stuff that was never settled (the
> LPI timer questions, whether it should be validated, clamped, should
> phylink provide a software timer if the LPI timer is out of range,
> etc.) That's more proof that text in cover messages is utterly
> useless!

Ok, for your information, I had read the cover letter in its entirety,
including the paragraph which you are highlighting here again.

I still find it of limited usefulness for me to see and not be able to
leave meaningful feedback on a DSA conversion broken down into sets
which offer an incomplete image, especially when the API itself is still
subject to change. I wanted to leave an Acked-by but I didn't fully
understand where the conversion is going, so I asked the question instead.
I wonder what you would have done in my position.

I wish you a beautiful evening.