Re: [PATCH] [net-next] ARM: orion: fix PHYLIB dependency

Andrew Lunn
2017-02-09T17:23:28Z

> Adding a 'select' statement to something as broad as NETDEVICES sounds
> really bad, it has a significant risk of introducing dependency loops
> and may be confusing if you want to build a multiplatform config without
> networking support (note that NETDEVICES in turn depends on NET, which
> can also be disabled).

O.K, so overall it is not simple. So lets drop my idea.

> One possibility would be to have a special Kconfig symbol that controls
> mdiobus_register_board_info() being present and have that symbol
> force PHYLIB to never be "=m". Then we can either have no networking
> support and no phylib, turning mdiobus_register_board_info() into a
> stub, or we have the function built-in and reachable from the board
> code.

FYI: Florian is working on splitting MDIO out of PHYLIB. There will be
two separate symbols, so it will be possible to have MDIO without
PHYLIB. When this happens, i expect mdiobus_register_board_info() will
be in the MDIO part, not PHYLIB.

Andrew