Re: [PATCH] net: ethernet: Add missing depends on MDIO_DEVRES

[Simon Horman <simon.horman@corigine.com>]

On Mon, Apr 10, 2023 at 02:11:39PM +0200, Andrew Lunn wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 10, 2023 at 11:07:58AM +0200, Simon Horman wrote:
> > On Sun, Apr 09, 2023 at 05:02:04PM +0200, Andrew Lunn wrote:
> > > A number of MDIO drivers make use of devm_mdiobus_alloc_size(). This
> > > is only available when CONFIG_MDIO_DEVRES is enabled. Add missing
> > > depends or selects, depending on if there are circular dependencies or
> > > not. This avoids linker errors, especially for randconfig builds.
> > > 
> > > Signed-off-by: Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>
> > > ---
> > >  drivers/net/ethernet/freescale/Kconfig       | 1 +
> > >  drivers/net/ethernet/freescale/enetc/Kconfig | 1 +
> > >  drivers/net/ethernet/marvell/Kconfig         | 1 +
> > >  drivers/net/ethernet/qualcomm/Kconfig        | 1 +
> > >  drivers/net/mdio/Kconfig                     | 3 +++
> > >  5 files changed, 7 insertions(+)
> > > 
> > > diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/freescale/Kconfig b/drivers/net/ethernet/freescale/Kconfig
> > > index f1e80d6996ef..1c78f66a89da 100644
> > > --- a/drivers/net/ethernet/freescale/Kconfig
> > > +++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/freescale/Kconfig
> > > @@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ config FSL_XGMAC_MDIO
> > >  	tristate "Freescale XGMAC MDIO"
> > >  	select PHYLIB
> > >  	depends on OF
> > > +	select MDIO_DEVRES
> > >  	select OF_MDIO
> > >  	help
> > >  	  This driver supports the MDIO bus on the Fman 10G Ethernet MACs, and
> > 
> > Perhaps this is a good idea, but I'd like to mention that I don't think
> > it is strictly necessary as:
> > 
> > 1. FSL_XGMAC_MDIO selects PHYLIB.
> > 2. And PHYLIB selects MDIO_DEVRES.
> > 
> > Likewise for FSL_ENETC, MV643XX_ETH, QCOM_EMAC.
> > 
> > Is there some combination of N/y/m that defeats my logic here?
> > I feel like I am missing something obvious.
> 
> I keep getting 0-day randconfig build warning about kernel
> configuration which don't link. It seems to get worse when we add in
> support of MAC and PHY LEDs. My guess is, the additional dependencies
> for LEDs upsets the conflict resolution engine, and it comes out with
> a different solution. `select` is a soft dependency. It is more a
> hint, and can be ignored. And when a randconfig kernel fails to build,
> MDIO_DEVRES is disabled.
> 
> Where possible, i've added a `depends on`, which is a much stronger
> dependency. But that can lead to circular dependencies, which kconfig
> cannot handle. In such cases, i've added selects. Maybe having more
> selects for a config option will influence it to find a solution which
> has MDIO_DEVRES enabled?
> 
> I've had this patch in a github tree for a week or more, and 0-day has
> not yet returned any randconfig build errors. But i've not combined it
> with the LED code.

Thanks Andrew,

I'm certainly not opposed to this patch.
More curious as to what situations (configs) the problems arise in.