From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Timur Tabi Subject: Re: ARM,SoC: About the use DT-defined properties by 3rd-party drivers Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2016 08:23:59 -0500 Message-ID: <57D6AC6F.5040504@tabi.org> References: <57BDAF2E.10502@laposte.net> <57D69FB1.2020801@laposte.net> <20160912123809.GB13741@leverpostej> <57D6AA54.6000208@laposte.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: In-Reply-To: <57D6AA54.6000208@laposte.net> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org To: Sebastian Frias , Mark Rutland Cc: devicetree , LKML , Linux ARM , Mason List-Id: devicetree@vger.kernel.org Sebastian Frias wrote: > 3rd parties could choose to write a driver (as opposed to use say, a user-mode > library) if it fits their programming model better, if they think they would > have better performance, or other reasons. > > The main idea is to make DT the authoritative source of HW description. Do you really expect the open-source community to make a serious effort to support out-of-tree drivers written by developers who have no intention of upstreaming? There's a process for writing a Linux kernel driver with a DT binding. That process is not broken. >> >Putting smoething together that's only sufficient to support some >> >out-of-tree driver with implicit assumptions that we are not aware of is >> >far from fantastic. > That does not seem very positive and it is not the case anyway, otherwise we > would not be consulting here:-) Mark is correct. Trying to create a device tree binding, and getting it correct 100% the first time, without an actual drivers is just impossible. To even attempt that is folly. > Agreed, right now this whole thing seems like a really hypothetical question, Yes, it is. > but the intention is good. I'm not sure I agree with that. > Actually, I think it would encourage more SoC manufacturers to use DT as a way > to document their HW, which is a good thing. No it isn't. SOC manufacturers should just release the documentation they have. > But if I understood correctly your comment, you are basically saying that > without an example is hard to say. > Since the question seems understood, do you have an example of other SoC's > doing something similar? Similar to what? Every upstream driver today is written the way we're talking about -- submit the driver with the binding, and both are reviewed together. > I've seen some big DT descriptions, but it is difficult to know if we are the > first ones trying to use the DT in this way. Hopefully, you'll be the last.