Re: [RFC] simple_char: New infrastructure to simplify chardev management

[Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>]

On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 03:44:05PM -0800, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> This isn't adequately tested, and I don't have a demonstration (yet).
> It's here for review for whether it's a good idea in the first place
> and for weather the fully_dynamic mechanism is a good idea.
> 
> The current character device interfaces are IMO awful.

That's a total understatement.  Redoing the char interface has been in
my todo list for a decade now.  It's the complexity that happens to be
used by just a handful of drivers that have prevented me from doing the
rework in the past.  Creating a "new" interface that we then port code
to is a very good idea, as it can happen over time in a much more
orderly way.

And we can throw the kernel-janitors people at it once it's working, to
convert the rest of the tree, providing them a useful outlet for their
need for patch cleanups :)

So yes, I'm all for this, thanks so much for looking into this.  I'm at
a conference this week, but will go over it on the plane home and give
you some review comments.

greg k-h