Re: [PATCH 2/5] drivercore: Add driver probe deferral mechanism

Greg KH
2011-10-07T21:24:20Z

On Fri, Oct 07, 2011 at 01:57:15PM -0700, Josh Triplett wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 06, 2011 at 11:49:28PM -0700, Greg KH wrote:
> > On Fri, Oct 07, 2011 at 10:33:07AM +0500, G, Manjunath Kondaiah wrote:
> > > +config PROBE_DEFER
> > > + bool "Deferred Driver Probe"
> > > + default y
> > > + help
> > > + This option provides deferring driver probe if it has dependency on
> > > + other driver. Without this feature, initcall ordering should be done
> > > + manually to resolve driver dependencies. This feature completely side
> > > + steps the issues by allowing driver registration to occur in any
> > > + order, and any driver can request to be retried after a few more other
> > > + drivers get probed.
> >
> > Why is this even an option? Why would you ever want it disabled? Why
> > does it need to be selected?
> >
> > If you are going to default something to 'y' then just make it so it
> > can't be turned off any other way by just not making it an option at
> > all.
>
> Given that the drivers which use this mechanism will not necessarily get
> built into the kernel, I'd suggest that it should remain optional and
> default to n. Those drivers can then add a dependency on PROBE_DEFER.
> Let's try to avoid adding more infrastructure to the kernel that takes
> up space even when unused; certainly embedded will appreciate not having
> this feature unless a driver needs it.

How much extra space is this "feature" really? I don't see it being
anything larger than the amount of memory increase that just happened as
I typed this email as part of the ongoing memory density changes.

greg k-h