Re: [PATCH] rtc: Set wakeup capability for I2C and SPI RTC drivers

[David Brownell <david-b@pacbell.net>]

NAK; see details below

On Thursday 27 August 2009, Anton Vorontsov wrote:
> RTC core won't allow wakeup alarms to be set if RTC devices' parent
> (i.e. i2c_client or spi_device) isn't wakeup capable.

Quite rightly so ... being wakeup-capable is config-specific.


> For I2C devices there is I2C_CLIENT_WAKE flag exists that we can pass
> via board info, and if set, I2C core will initialize wakeup capability.
> For SPI devices there is no such flag at all.

So why not add it for SPI?  If it's an issue, it's not
unique to RTC devices.

 
> I believe that it's not platform code responsibility to allow or
> disallow wakeups, instead, drivers themselves should set the capability
> if a device can trigger wakeups.

Drivers can't generally know if that's possible though.
They need to be told that it is, by platform code.

Most devices can't issue wakeup events.

 
> That's what drivers/base/power/sysfs.c says:
> 
>  * It is the responsibility of device drivers to enable (or disable)
>  * wakeup signaling as part of changing device power states, respecting
>  * the policy choices provided through the driver model.
> 
> I2C and SPI RTC devices send wakeup events via interrupt lines, so we
> should set the wakeup capability if IRQ is routed.

Re-read the quoted sentence.  You're saying that policy
choices should be hard-wired into the driver; contrary
to that quote.  (In this case the choice is one that
platform code must report, and which the hardware
designer made:  if the device can issue wakeup events.)  


> Ideally we should also check irq for wakeup capability before setting
> device's capability, i.e.
> 
> 	if (can_irq_wake(irq))
> 		device_set_wakeup_capable(&client->dev, 1);
> 
> But there is no can_irq_wake() call exist, and it is not that trivial
> to implement it for all interrupts controllers and complex/cascaded
> setups.

That is why platform code should device_init_wakeup() and
drivers should check device_can_wakeup(dev) ...


> drivers/base/power/sysfs.c also covers these cases:
> 
>  * Devices may not be able to generate wakeup events from all power
>  * states.  Also, the events may be ignored in some configurations;
>  * for example, they might need help from other devices that aren't
>  * active
> 
> So there is no guarantee that wakeup will actually work, 

Yes there is ... it's only **exceptional** cases where it can't
work.  Your patch would make it routine that those flags be
unreliable; pretty nasty.