Re: [PATCH v2 02/16] fpga: bridge: support getting bridge from device

Alan Tull
2017-05-08T21:21:03Z

On Mon, May 8, 2017 at 4:11 PM, Moritz Fischer <mdf@kernel.org> wrote:
> Hi Alan,
>
> On Mon, May 8, 2017 at 2:02 PM, Alan Tull <atull@kernel.org> wrote:
>> On Mon, May 8, 2017 at 3:52 PM, Moritz Fischer <mdf@kernel.org> wrote:
>>> On Mon, May 8, 2017 at 1:44 PM, Alan Tull <atull@kernel.org> wrote:
>>>> On Mon, May 8, 2017 at 3:44 AM, Wu, Hao <hao.wu@intel.com> wrote:
>>>>>> On Wed, May 3, 2017 at 3:07 PM, Alan Tull <atull@kernel.org> wrote:
>>>>>> > On Wed, May 3, 2017 at 6:58 AM, Wu Hao <hao.wu@intel.com> wrote:
>>>>>> >> On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 09:09:47AM -0500, Alan Tull wrote:
>>>>>> >>> Add two functions for getting the FPGA bridge from the device
>>>>>> >>> rather than device tree node. This is to enable writing code
>>>>>> >>> that will support using FPGA bridges without device tree.
>>>>>> >>> Rename one old function to make it clear that it is device
>>>>>> >>> tree-ish. This leaves us with 3 functions for getting a bridge:
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> * fpga_bridge_get
>>>>>> >>> Get the bridge given the device.
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> * fpga_bridges_get_to_list
>>>>>> >>> Given the device, get the bridge and add it to a list.
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> * of_fpga_bridges_get_to_list
>>>>>> >>> Renamed from priviously existing fpga_bridges_get_to_list.
>>>>>> >>> Given the device node, get the bridge and add it to a list.
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>
>>>>>> >> Hi Alan
>>>>>> >>
>>>>>> >> Thanks a lot for providing this patch set for non device tree support. :)
>>>>>> >> Actually I am reworking the Intel FPGA device drivers based on this patch
>>>>>> >> set, and I find some problems with the existing APIs including fpga bridge
>>>>>> >> and manager. My idea is to create all fpga bridges/regions/manager under
>>>>>> >> the same platform device (FME), it allows FME driver to establish the
>>>>>> >> relationship for the bridges/regions/managers it creates in an easy way.
>>>>>> >> But I found current fpga class API doesn't support this very well.
>>>>>> >> e.g fpga_bridge_get/get_to_list only accept parent device as the input
>>>>>> >> parameter, but it doesn't work if we have multiple bridges (and
>>>>>> >> regions/manager) under the same platform device. fpga_mgr has similar
>>>>>> >> issue, but fpga_region APIs work better, as they accept fpga_region as
>>>>>> >> parameter not the shared parent device.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > That's good feedback. I can post a couple patches that apply on top
>>>>>> > of that patchset to add the APIs you need.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > Probably what I'll do is add
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > struct fpga_manager *fpga_mgr_get(struct fpga_manager *mgr);
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > And rename fpga_bridge_get() to fpga_bridge_dev_get() and add the
>>>>>> following:
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > struct fpga_bridge *fpga_bridge_get(struct fpga_bridge *br,
>>>>>> > struct fpga_image_info *info);
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > int of_fpga_bridge_get_to_list(struct fpga_bridge *br,
>>>>>> > struct fpga_image_info *info,
>>>>>> > struct list_head *bridge_list);
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > Working on it now.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> >>
>>>>>> >> Do you think if having multiple fpga-* under one parent device is in the
>>>>>> >> right direction?
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > That should be fine as long as it's coded with an eye on making things
>>>>>> > reusable and seeing beyond the current project. Just thinking of the
>>>>>> > future and of what can be of general usefulness for others. And there
>>>>>> > will be others interested in reusing this.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > Alan
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Actually, I don't think you will need the additional APIs we were
>>>>>> just discussing after all. What you have is a multifunction device
>>>>>> (single piece of hardware, multi functions such as in drivers/mfd).
>>>>>> It will have child devices for the mgr, bridges, and regions. When
>>>>>> registering the mgr and bridges you will need to allocate child
>>>>>> devices and use them to create the mgr and bridges.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Alan
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi Alan
>>>>>
>>>>> I tried to create child devices as the parent device for the mgr and
>>>>> bridges in fme platform driver module. If only creates the device without
>>>>> driver, it doesn't work as try_module_get(dev->parent->driver->owner)
>>>>> always failed in mgr_get and bridge_get functions.
>>>>
>>>> I tried it and it wasn't hard.
>>>>
>>>> Each mgr or bridge driver should be a separate file which registers
>>>> its driver using 'module_platform_driver". That way the drivers are
>>>> registered with the kernel in a normal fashion. The thing we want
>>>> here is to not bypass the kernel driver model.
>>>>
>>>> You'll need to keep the platform_device pointers in private data somewhere.
>>>>
>>>> For each child platform device, do a platform_device_alloc and
>>>> platform_device_add.
>>>>
>>>> Then to get the manager, you can do
>>>>
>>>> mgr = fpga_mgr_get(&priv->mgr_pdev->dev);
>>>>
>>>> If this is in your probe function, you can use -EPROBE_DEFER if
>>>> platform_device_alloc or fpga_mgr_get fail. Then you could destroy
>>>> whatever you've created and return -EPROBE_DEFER to wait for the
>>>> drivers you need to be registered and ready for devices to be added.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> If it creates platform devices as child devices, and introduce new platform
>>>>> device drivers for bridge and mgr, then it will be difficult to establish the
>>>>> relationship for region/mgr/bridges (e.g when should region->mgr be
>>>>> configured and cleared, as mgr is created/destroyed when mgr parent
>>>>> device platform driver module is loaded/unload), and it maybe not really
>>>>> necessary to introduce more different driver modules here.
>>>>
>>>> It should be pretty easy to create/destroy child devices as shown
>>>> above. The kernel does this all the time.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> But if it allows multiple fpga-* created under one device in one device
>>>>> driver, it will be much easier to avoid above problems. So I asked if it
>>>>> is possible to create multiple fpga-* under one parent device,
>>>>
>>>> I think it's fine for your FME to create child platform devices. It's
>>>> similar to a mfd, but the mfd framework hides the platform devices
>>>> from the module that creates them, unfortunately.
>>>>
>>>>> I feel
>>>>> this will not impact to current fpga drivers a lot, but provide more
>>>>> flexibility for drivers to use fpga-region/bridge/manager to create
>>>>> the topology in a device specific way, especially for non device
>>>>> tree case.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I would like to see most of this code as FME enumeration code + a mgr
>>>> driver + a bridge driver + a region driver. If the FME and the
>>>> enumeration code can be separate files, so much the better for general
>>>> usability.
>>>>
>>>> The enumeration code can build a set of regions by doing something like this:
>>>> 1. figure out what type of mgr and bridges your hardware FME has.
>>>> 2. do platform_device_alloc and platform_device_add to create the mgr
>>>> device, save a pointer to its platform_device in your FME driver's
>>>> private data.
>>>> 2. For each port, create a region and a bridge device. Save the
>>>> region's platform device or struct in a list in your FME driver's
>>>> priv.
>>>> 3. then you can create the sub function devices.
>>>
>>> The above sounds like a poster-child application for MFD. If you do it
>>> in a clever
>>> way (i.e. write your platform drivers in a reusable way) you might be able to
>>> just reuse them on your next generation.
>>
>> Yes, I played with that with some test code. I wrote some test code
>> that allocates dummy mgr and bridge devices using mfd_add_devices().
>> I didn't see any way of getting access to the devices after creating
>> them. Maybe I'm missing something. Neither the dev nor the
>> platform_device is saved in the cell struct.
>
> Currently working on some MFD stuff for an RTC, which device are you
> trying to get to?
>
> The parent from subdevice (fpga mgr?) you can get by something like:
>
> foo_fpga_mgr_probe(struct platform_device *pdev)
> {
> struct foo_parent *parent = dev_get_drvdata(dev->parent);
> }
>
> Or are you talking about the other way round (i.e. get access to children from
> parent device) ?

That's it.

> Which functionality would that achieve?

Suppose someone (non-DT case) is enumerating some hardware in the FPGA
that includes a mgr and some bridges. So they create the mgr device.
Then for each bridge and they want to create a bridge device and a
region device and let the region know what mgr and bridge to use. The
main enumerating device keeps track of all these regions so if stuff
gets unloaded, it can destroy it all properly.

Alan

>
> Cheers,
>
> Moritz