Tearing down DMA transfer setup after DMA client has finished

[Måns Rullgård]

Russell King - ARM Linux <linux at armlinux.org.uk> writes:

> On Fri, Nov 25, 2016 at 02:03:20PM +0000, Måns Rullgård wrote:
>> Russell King - ARM Linux <linux at armlinux.org.uk> writes:
>> 
>> > On Fri, Nov 25, 2016 at 01:50:35PM +0000, Måns Rullgård wrote:
>> >> Russell King - ARM Linux <linux at armlinux.org.uk> writes:
>> >> > It would be unfair to augment the API and add the burden on everyone
>> >> > for the new API when 99.999% of the world doesn't require it.
>> >> 
>> >> I don't think making this particular dma driver wait for the descriptor
>> >> callback to return before reusing a channel quite amounts to a horrid
>> >> hack.  It certainly wouldn't burden anyone other than the poor drivers
>> >> for devices connected to it, all of which are specific to Sigma AFAIK.
>> >
>> > Except when you stop to think that delaying in a tasklet is exactly
>> > the same as randomly delaying in an interrupt handler - the tasklet
>> > runs on the return path back to the parent context of an interrupt
>> > handler.  Even if you sleep in the tasklet, you're sleeping on behalf
>> > of the currently executing thread - if it's a RT thread, you effectively
>> > destroy the RT-ness of the thread.  Let's hope no one cares about RT
>> > performance on that hardware...
>> 
>> That's why I suggested to do this only if the needed delay is known to
>> be no more than a few bus cycles.  The completion callback is currently
>> the only post-transfer interaction we have between the dma and device
>> drivers.  To handle an arbitrarily long delay, some new interface will
>> be required.
>
> And now we're back at the point I made a few emails ago about undue
> burden which is just about quoted above...

So what do you suggest?  Stick our heads in the sand and pretend
everything is perfect?

-- 
Måns Rullgård