From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jeff Garzik Subject: Re: [PATCH] Create IP100A Driver Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 06:14:01 -0400 Message-ID: <44C9E369.7070703@pobox.com> References: <1154030065.5967.15.camel@localhost.localdomain> <20060727125421.GB22935@tuxdriver.com> <044901c6b1ec$d0f5b680$4964a8c0@icplus.com.tw> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: "John W. Linville" , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, netdev@vger.kernel.org, akpm@osdl.org Return-path: To: Jesse Huang In-Reply-To: <044901c6b1ec$d0f5b680$4964a8c0@icplus.com.tw> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: netdev.vger.kernel.org Jesse Huang wrote: > Hi John: > > I will try mutt or mail when i want to send next patch. Most different of > ip100a.c > and sundance.c are almost same only fix some bugs. The different of ip100a > and ip100 is in phy. We can use one driver to support those two device, I > want > to know what is better for kernel: > > 1. Only updata sundance.c to support IP100A > 2. Release ip100a.c which support ip100(sundance) to kernel 2.6.x and ask to > remove sundance.c. > 3. Release ip100a.c with sundance.c both to kernel 2.6.x > > We hope to use IP100a.c as our product driver, so 2. and 3. will better for > IC Plus. But we will still follow your suggestion, if you feel 1. was better > for kernel. Although it is occasionally OK to duplicate a driver, I do not see a compelling case with ip100a. The stronger case for a single codebase is won on the strengths of lower long-term maintenance costs, increased strength of review, doesn't break existing sundance driver uses, and re-use of existing testing benefits. If you feel strongly about not showing "sundance" to your users, you can always submit a one-line MODULE_ALIAS() change which permits users to load "ip100a" (really sundance.c). Using MODULE_ALIAS() seems quite reasonable, given that IC Plus appears to be taking the lead in future Sundance-like chip development. So, please resubmit as changes to the existing sundance.c. This is better for the standard Linux kernel engineering process. Thanks, Jeff