[PATCH v2 00/16] Cleanup chardev instances with helper function

Logan Gunthorpe
2017-02-26T06:38:01Z

Hi Everyone,

Here's v2 of my chardev cleanup patch-set. I've incorporated some
feedback and decided to extend the concept a little further. The new
helper function now includes both cdev_add and device_add which
significantly simplifies every instance that called it.

Jason's also expressed an interest in creating a general solution to
the problem that occurs if a user tries to utilize a newly created
cdev right before device_add fails. This series doesn't address that
specifically but will make it much easier to do so in future work.

I've also added cdev_set_parent for the cases in IB that set
the kobject parent without using device_add. This is just to ensure
the parent setting code is private within char_dev.c and removes the
lines that appear suspect but are in fact correct. Dan's suggested
WARN_ON is included in this function.

Seeing the new helper function takes in a bit more than before,
the instance patches are a bit heavier. Thus, I've refrained from
collecting the acks and reviews I've already received. In a couple
of cases (mtd and scsi) the cleanup required was a bit more involved
than I would have liked and thus these patches probably need more
attention, review and testing. (Unfortunately, I don't have hardware
to actually test them.) Hopefully that process doesn't throw too big
a wrench in the overall series moving forward.

I've included Dan's cdev_leak patch in this series to avoid a merge
conflict between the two of us.

While the diff stats for the series are much heavier than in v1, we now
have a net loss of more than 100 lines! So this feels much more like a
successful cleanup.

Thanks,

Logan

--

v1 story:

Our story for this patch-set begins with a new driver I wrote and am in
the process of submitting upstream. That driver creates a fairly
standard char device and the code for it was copied from a similar
instance in device-dax. However, upon review, Greg Kroah-Hartman
noticed [1] a suspicious line that assigned to the parent field of
the underlying kobject for the char device.

I removed that from my code and endeavoured to remove it from the
code I copied as well. However, Dan Williams pointed out [2] that this
code is necessary for correct reference counting of the underlying
structures. This prompted me to do a fair bit more research and
investigation into whats going on and I found it to be a common pattern.
(Although misleading and though required to be correct, frequently
forgotten.) This pattern is used in at least 15 places in the kernel
and probably should have been used in at least 5 more.

This patch-set aims to correct this and hopefully prevent future
developers from wasting their time on it. The first patch introduces
a new helper API as originally proposed by Dan Williams [3]. Please
see the commit message for that patch for a longer description of the
problem and history.

The subsequent patches either update correct instances to use the
new API or fix incorrect usages to ensure the cdev correctly takes
a reference count using the new API (this is noted in those patches).

This moves all except four of the cdev.kobj.parent usages into the one
cdev function, the remaining four are in the infiniband subsystem and
I've left alone because that subsystem seems to make use of kobjects
directly (instead of struct devices). These are noted in patch 7 of
this series.

This series is based on v4.10 with the exception of the last patch
which is for my new driver which, as yet, has not been accepted
upstream.

[1] https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/2/10/370
[2] https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/2/10/607
[3] https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/2/13/700

Dan Williams (1):
device-dax: fix cdev leak

Jason Gunthorpe (1):
IB/ucm: utilize new cdev_device_add helper function

Logan Gunthorpe (14):
chardev: add helper function to register char devs with a struct
device
device-dax: utilize new cdev_device_add helper function
input: utilize new cdev_device_add helper function
gpiolib: utilize new cdev_device_add helper function
tpm-chip: utilize new cdev_device_add helper function
platform/chrome: cros_ec_dev - utilize new cdev_device_add helper
function
infiniband: utilize the new cdev_set_parent function
iio:core: utilize new cdev_device_add helper function
media: utilize new cdev_device_add helper function
mtd: utilize new cdev_device_add helper function
rapidio: utilize new cdev_device_add helper function
rtc: utilize new cdev_device_add helper function
scsi: utilize new cdev_device_add helper function
switchtec: utilize new device_add_cdev helper function

drivers/char/tpm/tpm-chip.c | 19 ++-----
drivers/dax/dax.c | 33 ++++++------
drivers/gpio/gpiolib.c | 23 +++-----
drivers/iio/industrialio-core.c | 15 ++----
drivers/infiniband/core/ucm.c | 36 +++++++------
drivers/infiniband/core/user_mad.c | 4 +-
drivers/infiniband/core/uverbs_main.c | 2 +-
drivers/infiniband/hw/hfi1/device.c | 2 +-
drivers/input/evdev.c | 11 +---
drivers/input/joydev.c | 11 +---
drivers/input/mousedev.c | 11 +---
drivers/media/cec/cec-core.c | 16 ++----
drivers/media/media-devnode.c | 20 ++-----
drivers/mtd/ubi/build.c | 91 ++++++--------------------------
drivers/mtd/ubi/vmt.c | 49 ++++++-----------
drivers/pci/switch/switchtec.c | 15 ++----
drivers/platform/chrome/cros_ec_dev.c | 31 +++--------
drivers/rapidio/devices/rio_mport_cdev.c | 24 +++------
drivers/rtc/class.c | 14 +++--
drivers/rtc/rtc-dev.c | 17 ------
drivers/scsi/osd/osd_uld.c | 56 +++++++-------------
fs/char_dev.c | 67 +++++++++++++++++++++++
include/linux/cdev.h | 4 ++
23 files changed, 222 insertions(+), 349 deletions(-)

--
2.1.4