Plans to obsolete register_chrdev()?

Plans to obsolete register_chrdev()?

[Michael Opdenacker]

Hello,

In Linux 2.6, character device driver developers are supposed to use 
alloc_chrdev_region() and cdev_add() instead of register_chrdev(). See 
http://lwn.net/images/pdf/LDD3/ch03.pdf or http://lwn.net/Articles/126808/ .

However, in 2.6.16, there are still *very few* uses of cdev_add(). 
Compare http://lxr.free-electrons.com/ident?i=cdev_add to 
http://lxr.free-electrons.com/ident?i=register_chrdev .

Are there plans to officially obsolete register_chrdev() (in particular 
through Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt)?

Unless register_chrdev() is supposed to stay, I'll be glad to 
participate in converting character driver code. In particular, would 
updateds to drivers/chars/mem.c file be welcome?

Cheers,

    Michael.

-- 
Michael Opdenacker, Free Electrons
Free Embedded Linux Training Materials
on http://free-electrons.com/training
(More than 1000 pages!)

Re: Plans to obsolete register_chrdev()?

[Michael Opdenacker]

Hello,
> In Linux 2.6, character device driver developers are supposed to use 
> alloc_chrdev_region() and cdev_add() instead of register_chrdev(). See 
> http://lwn.net/images/pdf/LDD3/ch03.pdf or 
> http://lwn.net/Articles/126808/ .
>
> However, in 2.6.16, there are still *very few* uses of cdev_add(). 
> Compare http://lxr.free-electrons.com/ident?i=cdev_add to 
> http://lxr.free-electrons.com/ident?i=register_chrdev .
>
> Are there plans to officially obsolete register_chrdev() (in 
> particular through Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt)?
>
> Unless register_chrdev() is supposed to stay, I'll be glad to 
> participate in converting character driver code. In particular, would 
> updates to the drivers/chars/mem.c file be welcome?
No answer in 3 days... Does anyone know whether register_chrdev is 
really supposed to go?

If register_chrdev is obsolete, it would be nice to start migrating 
existing character drivers to alloc_chrdev_region() and cdev_add(), and 
I will be glad to help.

TIA,

    Michael.

-- 
Michael Opdenacker, Free Electrons
Free Embedded Linux Training Materials
on http://free-electrons.com/training
(More than 1000 pages!)