Re: [PATCH net] net: macb: Move macb_{alloc,free}_tieoff() out of CONFIG_OF block

[Nathan Chancellor <nathan@kernel.org>]

Hi Théo,

On Wed, Aug 19, 2026 at 08:06:48PM +0200, Théo Lebrun wrote:
> On Wed Aug 19, 2026 at 3:14 AM CEST, Nathan Chancellor wrote:
> > Commit 5262eab9462a ("net: macb: allocate tieoff descriptor once across
> > device lifetime") moved macb_alloc_tieoff() and macb_free_tieoff() into
> > a CONFIG_OF block, breaking the build when it is disabled:
> 
> That commit message is somewhat off: the commit created the two
> functions, it didn't move them around. But indeed I was wrong in the

Oh correct, I misread macb_init_tieoff() as macb_alloc_tieoff() so
considered it a "move" but "placed" would definitely be more accurate.

> location where I created them (argh I hate #if/ifdef blocks, especially
> long ones).

Yeah, I had to grep for the pairs because this one was so big.

> Can reproduce using my host toolchain easily:
> 
>    ⟩ unset ARCH CROSS_COMPILE
>    ⟩ make mrproper
>    ⟩ make defconfig
>    ⟩ ./scripts/config -e COMMON_CLK -e MACB
>    ⟩ make olddefconfig
>    ⟩ make drivers/net/ethernet/cadence/
>    ⟩ echo $?
>    2

Yup, same exact reproducer I used.

> Here is an alternative fix proposal: let's drop the #ifdef. It will
> avoid any future error. Almost all drivers have no #ifdef as such:
> 
> ⟩ git grep -l MODULE_DEVICE_TABLE drivers/ | wc -l
> 7458
> ⟩ git grep -l MODULE_DEVICE_TABLE drivers/ | xargs git grep -l CONFIG_OF | wc -l
> 391
> 
> Yes, I know this means the match table land in the module in !OF case.
> Almost everyone on the ML I've seen seem to consider that it's trivial.
> Apparently it's even useful because some ACPI can match on compatible,
> somehow.
> 
> Opinions?

I am always in favor of dropping #ifdefs to make it easier to avoid
compile issues like this. If that is the route we want to go, please
feel free to send a patch for it (or I can if you prefer).

-- 
Cheers,
Nathan