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-rw-r--r--drivers/gpio/TODO58
1 files changed, 50 insertions, 8 deletions
diff --git a/drivers/gpio/TODO b/drivers/gpio/TODO
index b5f0a7a2e1bf..7a09a4f58551 100644
--- a/drivers/gpio/TODO
+++ b/drivers/gpio/TODO
@@ -44,6 +44,13 @@ Work items:
to a machine description such as device tree, ACPI or fwnode that
implicitly does not use global GPIO numbers.
+- Fix drivers to not read back struct gpio_chip::base. Some drivers do
+ that and would be broken by attempts to poison it or make it dynamic.
+ Example in AT91 pinctrl driver:
+ https://lore.kernel.org/all/1d00c056-3d61-4c22-bedd-3bae0bf1ddc4@pengutronix.de/
+ This particular driver is also DT-only, so with the above fixed, the
+ base can be made dynamic (set to -1) if CONFIG_GPIO_SYSFS is disabled.
+
- When this work is complete (will require some of the items in the
following ongoing work as well) we can delete the old global
numberspace accessors from <linux/gpio.h> and eventually delete
@@ -124,6 +131,11 @@ Work items:
helpers (x86 inb()/outb()) and convert port-mapped I/O drivers to use
this with dry-coding and sending to maintainers to test
+- Move the MMIO GPIO specific fields out of struct gpio_chip into a
+ dedicated structure. Currently every GPIO chip has them if gpio-mmio is
+ enabled in Kconfig even if it itself doesn't register with the helper
+ library.
+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generic regmap GPIO
@@ -176,13 +188,43 @@ remove the old ones and finally rename the new ones back to the old names.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Extend the sysfs ABI to allow exporting lines by their HW offsets
+Remove legacy sysfs features
+
+We have two parallel per-chip class devices and per-exported-line attribute
+groups in sysfs. One is using the obsolete global GPIO numberspace and the
+second relies on hardware offsets of pins within the chip. Remove the former
+once user-space has switched to using the latter.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Remove GPIOD_FLAGS_BIT_NONEXCLUSIVE
+
+GPIOs in the linux kernel are meant to be an exclusive resource. This means
+that the GPIO descriptors (the software representation of the hardware concept)
+are not reference counted and - in general - only one user at a time can
+request a GPIO line and control its settings. The consumer API is designed
+around full control of the line's state as evidenced by the fact that, for
+instance, gpiod_set_value() does indeed drive the line as requested, instead
+of bumping an enable counter of some sort.
+
+A problematic use-case for GPIOs is when two consumers want to use the same
+descriptor independently. An example of such a user is the regulator subsystem
+which may instantiate several struct regulator_dev instances containing
+a struct device but using the same enable GPIO line.
+
+A workaround was introduced in the form of the GPIOD_FLAGS_BIT_NONEXCLUSIVE
+flag but its implementation is problematic: it does not provide any
+synchronization of usage nor did it introduce any enable count meaning the
+non-exclusive users of the same descriptor will in fact "fight" for the
+control over it. This flag should be removed and replaced with a better
+solution, possibly based on the new power sequencing subsystem.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-The need to support the sysfs GPIO class is one of the main obstacles to
-removing the global GPIO numberspace from the kernel. In order to wean users
-off using global numbers from user-space, extend the existing interface with
-new per-gpiochip export/unexport attributes that allow to refer to GPIOs using
-their hardware offsets within the chip.
+Remove devm_gpiod_unhinge()
-Encourage users to switch to using them and eventually remove the existing
-global export/unexport attribues.
+devm_gpiod_unhinge() is provided as a way to transfer the ownership of managed
+enable GPIOs to the regulator core. Rather than doing that however, we should
+make it possible for the regulator subsystem to deal with GPIO resources the
+lifetime of which it doesn't control as logically, a GPIO obtained by a caller
+should also be freed by it.