From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Nikolai Kondrashov Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/1] HID: add have_special_driver hid module parameter Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:23:36 +0200 Message-ID: <4F4E9758.9020908@gmail.com> References: <1329773340-14066-1-git-send-email-spbnick@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from mail-ee0-f46.google.com ([74.125.83.46]:63176 "EHLO mail-ee0-f46.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1756341Ab2B2VXn (ORCPT ); Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:23:43 -0500 Received: by eekc41 with SMTP id c41so1774940eek.19 for ; Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:23:42 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: Sender: linux-input-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-input@vger.kernel.org To: Jiri Kosina Cc: linux-input On 02/28/2012 04:30 PM, Jiri Kosina wrote: > well, I am not really sure what value does it provide to have such > functionality in the kernel. > > I can understand that it helps you when developing out-of-tree (yet) > drivers ... but as you are patching the kernel anyway with those drivers, > you can easily run a kernel that has hid_have_special_driver[] array > adjusted accordingly. And once you are submitting the driver for > inclusion, you are of course submitting it together with > hid_have_special_driver[] addition. > > So it doesn't seem to be a debugging facility to me, and neither does it > provide any added value for users of vanilla kernel. Maybe I did too extensive an explanation. Here is a shorter one. This is not needed for development, but only for end users to be able to load an out-of-tree driver before it becomes available in their distribution. Without this, they will need to build their own kernel with my patches every time it is updated. With this, they will even be able to use DKMS to have drivers built and installed automatically with each kernel update. My rationalization for this specific solution: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.usb.general/58661/focus=58869 Sincerely, Nick