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Date:   Tue, 13 Nov 2018 09:20:13 +0000
From:   Russell King - ARM Linux <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
To:     Finn Thain <fthain@telegraphics.com.au>
Cc:     Christoph Hellwig <hch@infradead.org>,
        Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org>,
        Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>,
        Stephen N Chivers <schivers@csc.com.au>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>,
        Daniel Lezcano <daniel.lezcano@linaro.org>,
        John Stultz <john.stultz@linaro.org>,
        linux-m68k@lists.linux-m68k.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
        linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH 01/13] arm: Fix mutual exclusion in arch_gettimeoffset
Message-ID: <20181113092012.GI30658@n2100.armlinux.org.uk>
References: <cover.1541995959.git.fthain@telegraphics.com.au>
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 <20181112083422.GA19695@infradead.org>
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On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 02:39:00PM +1100, Finn Thain wrote:
> On Mon, 12 Nov 2018, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, Nov 12, 2018 at 03:12:39PM +1100, Finn Thain wrote:
> > > Implementations of arch_gettimeoffset are generally not re-entrant and 
> > > assume that interrupts have been disabled. Unfortunately this 
> > > pre-condition got broken in v2.6.32.
> > > 
> > > Fixes: 5cfc8ee0bb51 ("ARM: convert arm to arch_gettimeoffset()")
> > > Signed-off-by: Finn Thain <fthain@telegraphics.com.au>
> > 
> > This looks like a sensible fix for -stable backporting.  But with m68k
> > converted over it might be time for these two arm platforms to either
> > be converted to the clocksource API or to be dropped..
> > 
> 
> You could remove the old arch_gettimeoffset API without dropping any 
> platforms.
> 
> If no-one converts a given platform to the clocksource API it would mean 
> that the default 'jiffies' clocksource will get used on that platform.
> 
> Clock resolution and timer precision would be degraded, but that might not 
> matter.
> 
> Anyway, if someone who has this hardware is willing to test a clocksource 
> API conversion, they can let me know and I'll attempt that patch.

There's reasons why that's not appropriate - such as not having two
separate timers in order to supply a clocksource and separate clock
event.

Not all hardware is suited to the clocksource + clockevent idea.

-- 
RMK's Patch system: http://www.armlinux.org.uk/developer/patches/
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