[PATCH] irq: Consider a negative return value of irq_startup() as an error

[Thomas Gleixner]

On Tue, 25 Feb 2014, Jean-Jacques Hiblot wrote:

> The irq_startup() function returns the return value of the
> irq_startup callback of the underlying irq_chip. Currently this
> value only tells if the interrupt is pending, but we can make it
> also return an error code when it fails.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Jean-Jacques Hiblot <jjhiblot at traphandler.com>
> ---
> 
> Hi Thomas,
> 
> This patch updates the semantic of the return value of the irq_startup()
> callback of an irq_chip : a negative value indicates an error. The purpose is
> to make __setup_irq() fail if the irq_chip can't startup the interrupt.

How does that work?

    unsigned int    (*irq_startup)(struct irq_data *data);

> I checked in the kernel for drivers impacted by this. It turns out that most
> of the implementation of irq_startup() return 0. The only drivers that return
> non-zero values are:
>  * arch/x86/kernel/apic/io_apic.c: returns 1 when an interrupt is pending
>  * drivers/pinctrl/pinctrl-adi2.c: may return -ENODEV.

   which is wrong to begin with.
 
> GPIO-based irq_chip could use this feature because an output gpio
> can't be used as an interrupt, and thus a call to irq_startup() is
> likely to fail. You can check out
> http://www.spinics.net/lists/arm-kernel/msg302713.html for a
> reference.

And that tells me that the design of the gpio stuff is just wrong.

The whole drviers/gpio directory is full of this gpio_lock_as_irq()
called from the guts of irq_chip callbacks braindamage.

The comment above gpiod_lock_as_irq() is so wrong it's not even funny
anymore.

"....or in the .irq_enable() from its irq_chip implementation ..."

	void            (*irq_enable)(struct irq_data *data);

So how does that help, if the gpio is not available as irq?

And no, you are not going to cure that design brainfart by adding a
negative return value to a function returning unsigned int. And I'm
not going to accept anything which is just a duct tape based
workaround for a complete braindamaged design.

Lets look at the usage sites:

The following irqchip callback implementations printk some blurb and
proceed:

 sirfsoc_gpio_irq_startup
 nmk_gpio_irq_startup
 msm_gpio_irq_startup
 u300_gpio_irq_enable
 byt_irq_startup
 mcp23s08_irq_startup
 lp_irq_startup
 intel_mid_irq_startup
 em_gio_irq_startup
 bcm_kona_gpio_irq_startup
 adnp_irq_startup

The following functions return an error code from the set_type
callback:

 tegra_gpio_irq_set_type
 gpio_irq_type

The whole idiocy starts with commit d468bf9e, which tells people to
call this from irq_startup/enable. But it fails to tell, that this is
pointless because it wont prevent the interrupt from starting up.

So 11 SoC lemmings followed and added this completely pointless
nonsense to their drivers.

Two lemmings added it to a function which can actually fail. Failure
as well, because there is no guarantee that this function gets invoked
before request_irq(). What's worse is that if request_irq() succeeds
then the following code which tries to set the type fails for no
obvious reason.

Now at least Jean-Jacques tried to make it actually fail, but that
turns out to be a failure on its own.

Dammit, I told you folks often enough that workarounds in some
subsystem do not actually cure a shortcoming in the core code. When
the core code was written, the GPIO case which might actually fail was
definitly not thought of. But that's not a reason for adding
tasteless and useless workarounds to the GPIO subsystem.

Of course you encouraged people to copy that nonsense all over the
place. All startup functions do the same thing:

    if (gpio_lock_as_irq() < 0)
       dev_err("BLA");
    unmask_irq();

Plus the shutdown functions having the gpio_unlock_as_irq() +
mask_irq() sequence. Sigh.

So the proper solution to the problem if we want to use irq_startup()
is:

  Change the return value of the irq_startup() callback to int and
  fixup all existing implementations. This wants to be done with a
  coccinelle script. If you hurry up, I might squeeze it into 3.14 as
  there is no risk at all. Otherwise this is going to happen after the
  3.15 merge window closes.

  After that's done, remove all the copies of startup/shutdown
  nonsense in drivers/gpio and force all gpio chips to call
  gpio_set_irq_chip*() instead of irq_set_irq_chip*() and add generic
  irq_startup/shutdown callbacks which are implemented in the gpiolib
  core code.

There is a less intrusive alternative solution:

  Mark the interrupt as GPIO based in the core and let the core call
  conditonally the gpio_[un]lock_as_irq functions.

And no, I'm not going to provide you the proper solution on the silver
tablet this time. Go and figure it out yourself and if you're
confident enough that it might be an acceptable solution, post it and
we'll see.

Thanks,

	tglx