From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: David Miller Subject: Re: [PATCH net-next 1/8] dsa: mv88e6xxx: Prepare for turning this into a library module Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2016 17:49:51 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <20160414.174951.1036895874300851739.davem@davemloft.net> References: <1460591998-20598-2-git-send-email-andrew@lunn.ch> <874mb454b3.fsf@ketchup.mtl.sfl> <57100B0F.4040909@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: vivien.didelot@savoirfairelinux.com, andrew@lunn.ch, netdev@vger.kernel.org To: f.fainelli@gmail.com Return-path: Received: from shards.monkeyblade.net ([149.20.54.216]:41358 "EHLO shards.monkeyblade.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751544AbcDNVtz (ORCPT ); Thu, 14 Apr 2016 17:49:55 -0400 In-Reply-To: <57100B0F.4040909@gmail.com> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: From: Florian Fainelli Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2016 14:26:39 -0700 > On 14/04/16 13:22, Vivien Didelot wrote: >> Hi Andrew, >> >> Andrew Lunn writes: >> >>> Export all the functions so that we can later turn the module into a >>> library module. >>> >>> Signed-off-by: Andrew Lunn >> >> Sorry but I don't like this. We don't want one module per 88E6xxx switch >> model. We need one driver supporting them all, like any other driver. > > Are you sure this is a good model moving forward? This means the library > needs to know about every new switch added and all its little gory > details, whereas the point is that it represents *most* of what is > needed, defines a good enough, generic model, but does not have to deal > (too much) with HW-specifics, see below. I also think all of the mv88e6xxx drivers are insanely similar, and could be driven by one monolithic driver. It's not going to be that big at all. Symbol exporting from a library and having several small similar drivers reference those symbols, on the other hand, tends to be messy in my opinion.