Re: [RFC PATCH net-next 1/3] net: phy: add concept of shared storage for PHYs

[Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>]

On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 05:25:19PM +0200, Michael Walle wrote:
> Am 2020-04-21 01:26, schrieb Michael Walle:
> > +
> > +/* Represents a shared structure between different phydev's in the same
> > + * package, for example a quad PHY. See phy_package_join() and
> > + * phy_package_leave().
> > + */
> > +struct phy_package_shared {
> > +	int addr;
> > +	refcount_t refcnt;
> > +	unsigned long flags;
> > +
> > +	/* private data pointer */
> > +	/* note that this pointer is shared between different phydevs and
> > +	 * the user has to take care of appropriate locking.
> > +	 */
> > +	void *priv;
> 
> btw. how should a driver actually use this? I mean, it can allocate
> memory if its still NULL but when will it be freed again. Do we need
> a callback? Is there something better than a callback?

Good point. phy_package_join() should take a size_t and do the
allocation. phy_package_leave() would then free it.

But since we don't have a user at the moment, maybe leave it out.

    Andrew