[RFC PATCH v2 27/35] ACPICA: Add new MADT GICC flags fields [code first?]

[Russell King (Oracle)]

On Fri, Sep 15, 2023 at 02:49:41PM +0000, Salil Mehta wrote:
> I am not aware of any on x86. Maybe we can do it on ARM first and
> let other Arch pitch-in their objection later? Afterall, there is
> a legitimate use-case in case of ARM. Having mutually exclusive
> bits breaks certain use-cases and we have to do the tradeoffs. 

... but let's not use that as an argument to delay the forward
progress of getting aarch64 vCPU hotplug patches merged.

If we want to later propose that Enabled=1 Online-Capable=1 means
that the CPU can be hot-unplugged, then that's something that can
be added to the spec later, and added to the kernel later. There
is no need to go through more iterations of patch sets to add this
feature before considering that aarch64 vCPU hotplug is ready to
be merged.

Like I said in my other email, it's time to stop this "well, if we
do this, then we can do that" cycle - stop playing games with what
can be done.

Delaying merging this code means not only does the maintenance
burden keep increasing (because more and more patches accumulate
which have to be constantly forward ported) but those who *want*
this feature are deprived for what, another year? two years?
decades? before it gets merged.

So please, stop dreaming up new features. Let's get aarch64 vCPU
hotplug that is compliant with the current ACPI spec, merged into
upstream. If we _then_ want to consider additional features, that's
the time to do it.

If you're not prepared to do that, do not be surprised if someone
else (such as myself) decides to fork James' work in order to get
it merged upstream - and yes, I _will_ do that if these games
carry on. I have already started to do that by proposing a patch
that is different from what James has to at least get some of
James' desired changes upstream - and I will continue doing that
all the time that (a) I see that there's a better way to address
something in James' patch and (b) I think in the longer term it
will reduce the maintenance burden of this patch set.

People are getting sick and tired of waiting for this feature.

-- 
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