Re: Driver core change request

[Greg KH <greg@kroah.com>]

On Thu, Oct 07, 2004 at 09:59:10PM -0500, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
> On Thursday 07 October 2004 04:40 pm, Greg KH wrote:
> > On Wed, Oct 06, 2004 at 11:54:18PM -0500, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > I am reworking my sysfs serio patches (trying to get dynamic psmouse
> > > protocol switching) and I am wondering if we could export device_attach
> > > function. Serio system allows user to request device rescan - force current
> > > driver to let go off the device and find another suitable driver. Also user
> > > can manually request device to be disconnected/connected to a driver. By
> > > having device_attach exported I could get rid of some duplicated code.
> > 
> > driver_attach() is global, so I don't have a problem with making
> > device_attach() global either.  Just send me a patch :)
> > 
> 
> OK. BTW, while driver_attach is global it is not exported. Should I mark both
> of them EXPORT_GPL_ONLY? 

No, pci can not be a module.  Can your serio core be a module?  If not,
just make it global.  But if so, yes, EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL() is the proper
marking.

> > > I.e driver_probe_device is exported. Does it have a chance to be accepted?
> > 
> > What's wrong with doing what the pci core does in this situation and
> > call driver_attach()?
> > 
> 
> Well, I need to be able to work with a specific port so when I am doing
> 
> 	echo -n "serio_raw" > /sys/bus/serio/devices/serio1/driver
> 
> I want only serio1 be affected, not every disconnected port that can work
> with serio_raw. driver_attach() will claim all of them. 
> 
> The difference is that serio system allows you to have several drivers
> that can drive the same hardware and user gets to chose which driver gets
> the honors. I.e given 4 PS/2 ports in the system user might want to have
> raw access to port #2 (via serio_raw) while using standard psmouse driver
> for the rest of them. With PCI if you have 2 drivers and 2 exactly same
> cards you do not have ability to bind first driver to one of the cards and
> second driver to the other.

Nice.  We want to make this kind of functionality avaiable to all
busses, and not have it be a bus only type feature.  So if you can see
any way it could be moved into the core, I'd be all for it.

thanks,

greg k-h