[PATCH v3 03/10] of: Add PWM support.
Arnd Bergmann
arnd at arndb.de
Thu Feb 23 09:03:01 EST 2012
On Thursday 23 February 2012, Thierry Reding wrote:
> * Arnd Bergmann wrote:
> > On Wednesday 22 February 2012, Thierry Reding wrote:
> > > This patch adds helpers to support device tree bindings for the generic
> > > PWM API. Device tree binding documentation for PWM controllers is also
> > > provided.
> > >
> > > Signed-off-by: Thierry Reding <thierry.reding at avionic-design.de>
> > >
> > > Documentation/devicetree/bindings/pwm/pwm.txt | 48 +++++++++
> > > drivers/of/Kconfig | 6 +
> > > drivers/of/Makefile | 1 +
> > > drivers/of/pwm.c | 130 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
> > > include/linux/of_pwm.h | 51 ++++++++++
> > > include/linux/pwm.h | 17 +++
> >
> > I think it would make more sense to stick the device tree specific parts
> > into drivers/pwm/of.c instead of drivers/of/pwm.c, but it's not a strong
> > preference on my part.
>
> I was just following what everybody else seemed to be doing. drivers/of/
> already has support code for GPIO, IRQ, I2C, PCI and whatnot.
Yes, as I said, it's not entirely clear what's best here, and it would
be nice if other people could weigh in when they have a strong opinion
one way or another.
> > > +/**
> > > + * of_get_named_pwm() - get a PWM number and period to use with the PWM API
> > > + * @np: device node to get the PWM from
> > > + * @propname: property name containing PWM specifier(s)
> > > + * @index: index of the PWM
> > > + * @spec: a pointer to a struct pwm_spec to fill in
> > > + *
> > > + * Returns PWM number to use with the Linux generic PWM API or a negative
> > > + * error code on failure. If @spec is not NULL the function fills in the
> > > + * values parsed from the device tree.
> > > + */
> > > +int of_get_named_pwm(struct device_node *np, const char *propname,
> > > + int index, struct pwm_spec *spec)
> > > +{
> >
> > This interface does not feel right to me, in multiple ways:
> >
> > * I would expect to pass a struct device in, not a device_node.
>
> I was following the GPIO DT support code here. The corresponding
> of_get_named_gpio_flags() takes a struct device_node. I guess that makes it
> more generic since you can potentially have a struct device_node without a
> corresponding struct device, right?
Yes, but I don't see that as important here.
> > * Why not include the pwm_request() call in this and return the
> > pwm_device directly? You said that you want to get rid of the
> > pwm_id eventually, which is a good idea, but this interface still
> > forces one to use it.
>
> Okay, that sounds sensible. I propose to rename the function to something like
> of_request_pwm().
Sounds good.
> It would of course need an additional parameter (name) to
> forward to pwm_request().
Not necessarily, it could use the dev_name(device) or the name
of the property, or a combination of the two.
> > * It is not clear what a pwm_spec is used for, or why a device
> > driver would need to be bothered by this. Maybe it just needs
> > more explanation, but it seems to me that if you do the previous
> > change, the pwm_spec would not be needed either.
>
> pwm_spec is pretty much what the of_xlate() callback parses out of the data
> provided by the device tree. Currently, of_pwm_simple_xlate() only parses the
> period (in ns) but the idea was that if at some point in the future it was
> decided to provide more than the period via the device tree it could be
> extended without changing every call to of_get_named_pwm(). As I said, it also
> plays quite nicely with the concept of the of_xlate() callback and sort of
> serves as interface between the lower layer that retrieves PWM parameters and
> the upper layers that use it.
>
> Thinking about it, perhaps renaming it to pwm_params may be more descriptive.
> Also to avoid breakage or confusion if fields get added it may be good to
> provide a bitmask of valid fields filled in by the of_xlate() callback.
>
> enum {
> PWM_PARAMS_PERIOD,
> ...
> };
>
> struct pwm_params {
> unsigned long fields;
> unsigned int period;
> };
>
> Then again, maybe that's just over-engineering and directly returning via an
> unsigned int *period_ns parameter would be better?
It certainly sounds like over-engineering to me. Why not keep all that
information hidden inside the struct pwm_device and provide accessor
functions like this?
unsigned int pwm_get_period(struct pwm_device *pwm);
> > > +EXPORT_SYMBOL(of_get_named_pwm);
> >
> > EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL?
>
> It was brought up at some point that it might be nice to allow non-GPL
> drivers to use the PWM framework as well. I don't remember any discussion
> resulting from the comment. Perhaps we should have that discussion now and
> decide whether or not we want to keep it GPL-only or not.
I would definitely use EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL for all new code unless it
replaces an earlier interface that was available as EXPORT_SYMBOL.
Arnd
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