Re: [PATCH V8] kbuild: create a rule to run the pre-processor on *.dts files

Stephen Warren
2013-02-08T22:42:51Z

On 02/08/2013 03:04 PM, Grant Likely wrote:
> On Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:24:25 -0600, Rob Herring <robherring2@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 02/08/2013 08:45 AM, Grant Likely wrote:
>>> On Tue, 5 Feb 2013 12:06:28 -0700, Stephen Warren <swarren@wwwdotorg.org> wrote:
>>>> From: Stephen Warren <swarren@nvidia.com>
>>>>
>>>> Create cmd_dtc_cpp to run the C pre-processor on *.dts file before
>>>> passing them to dtc for final compilation. This allows the use of #define
>>>> and #include within the .dts file.
>>>>
>>>> Acked-by: Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
>>>> Acked-by: Jean-Christophe PLAGNIOL-VILLARD <plagnioj@jcrosoft.com>
>>>> Acked-by: Michal Marek <mmarek@suse.cz>
>>>> Acked-by: Srinivas Kandagatla <srinivas.kandagatla@st.com>
>>>> Signed-off-by: Stephen Warren <swarren@nvidia.com>
>>>
>>> I've applied this and was going to push it out, but I've just thought of
>>> a problem that could be a show stopper. Once a dtsp file includes a C
>>> header, the contents of that header become part of the Device Tree ABI.
>>> If someone changes that file (ie. to renumber a series of #defines) then
>>> that will break the binding. We need a way to protect against that.
>>> Someone changing a .h file may make the assumption that it is only
>>> kernel internal and won't realize that it has external implications.
>>>
>>> I'm thinking that any dts includes need to be treated in the same way as
>>> userspace headers. We could put them into include/uapi and piggy back on
>>> the protection already afforded by that directory, or come up with
>>> something new. Any thoughts?
>>
>> Also, we would never be able to separate the dts files from the kernel
>> tree without some separation.
>
> Good point. They better be in a completely separate directory then.

How about arch/*/include/dts/.

Both *.dts and kernel code will need to include those headers (so that
the kernel can parse the DTB using the same values), so putting the
headers right into arch/*/boot/dts/ or arch/*/boot/dts/include/ might
not make sense, since then that directory would still have to exist even
if/when the .dts files are separated from the kernel.