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Sender: Guenter Roeck <groeck7@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v1 0/2] Watchdog Core Global Parameters
To:     Flavio Suligoi <f.suligoi@asem.it>
Cc:     "linux-watchdog@vger.kernel.org" <linux-watchdog@vger.kernel.org>,
        "linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
        Wim Van Sebroeck <wim@linux-watchdog.org>,
        Mika Westerberg <mika.westerberg@linux.intel.com>
References: <20210308112151.716315-1-f.suligoi@asem.it>
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From:   Guenter Roeck <linux@roeck-us.net>
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Message-ID: <1500d5fe-5228-1671-2008-4b7e30e856ea@roeck-us.net>
Date:   Tue, 9 Mar 2021 07:22:28 -0800
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On 3/9/21 2:26 AM, Flavio Suligoi wrote:
> Hi Guenter,
> 
>>> Instead of adding this kind of module parameters independently to each
>>> driver, the best solution is declaring each feature only once, in the
>>> watchdog core.
>>>
>>
>> I agree to and like the idea, but I don't see the point of letting drivers opt in
>> or opt out. This adds a lot of complexity for little if any gain.
> 
> Do you mean that all the support for this "global parameters" should be done
> in the watchdog-core only, without write any code in each single
> "hardware" driver?

Correct. It should not be up to the driver author to decide if they
want to opt out from global parameters or not. It should be up to
users, and users can opt out by not providing the parameters.

Guenter

>>
>> Guenter
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Flavio
> 
>>
>>> Additionally, I added a implementation example of this "global"
>>> parameters using the module "wdat_wdt"
>>>
>>> In details:
>>>
>>> ===============================
>>> Watchdog Core Global Parameters
>>> ===============================
>>>
>>> Information for watchdog kernel modules developers.
>>>
>>> Introduction
>>> ============
>>>
>>> Different watchdog modules frequently require the same type of
>>> parameters (for example: *timeout*, *nowayout* feature,
>>> *start_enabled* to start the watchdog on module insertion, etc.).
>>> Instead of adding this kind of module parameters independently to each
>>> driver, the best solution is declaring each feature only once, in the
>>> watchdog core.
>>>
>>> In this way, each driver can read these "global" parameters and then,
>>> if needed, can implement them, according to the particular hw watchdog
>>> characteristic.
>>>
>>> Using this approach, it is possible reduce some duplicate code in the
>>> *new* watchdog drivers and simplify the code maintenance.  Moreover,
>>> the code will be clearer, since the same kind of parameters are often
>>> called with different names (see Documentation/watchdog/watchdog-
>> parameters.rst).
>>> Obviously, for compatibility reasons, we cannot remove the already
>>> existing parameters from the code of the various watchdog modules, but
>>> we can use this "global" approach for the new watchdog drivers.
>>>
>>>
>>> Global parameters declaration
>>> ==============================
>>>
>>> The global parameters data structure is declared in
>>> include/linux/watchdog.h, as::
>>>
>>> 	struct watchdog_global_parameters_struct {
>>> 		int timeout;
>>> 		int ioport;
>>> 		int irq;
>>> 		unsigned long features;
>>> 		/* Bit numbers for features flags */
>>> 		#define WDOG_GLOBAL_PARAM_VERBOSE	0
>>> 		#define WDOG_GLOBAL_PARAM_TEST_MODE	1
>>> 		#define WDOG_GLOBAL_PARAM_START_ENABLED	2
>>> 		#define WDOG_GLOBAL_PARAM_NOWAYOUT	3
>>> 	};
>>>
>>> The variable "feature" is a bitwise flags container, to store boolean
>>> features, such as:
>>>
>>> * nowayout
>>> * start_enable
>>> * etc...
>>>
>>> Other variables can be added, to store some numerical values and other
>>> data required.
>>>
>>> The global parameters are declared (as usual for the module
>>> parameters) in the first part of drivers/watchdog/watchdog_core.c file.
>>> The above global data structure is then managed by the function *void
>>> global_parameters_init()*, in the same file.
>>>
>>> Global parameters use
>>> =====================
>>>
>>> Each watchdog driver, to check if one of the global parameters is
>>> enabled, can use the corresponding in-line function declared in
>>> include/linux/watchdog.h.
>>> At the moment the following functions are ready to use:
>>>
>>> * watchdog_global_param_verbose_enabled()
>>> * watchdog_global_param_test_mode_enabled()
>>> * watchdog_global_param_start_enabled()
>>> * watchdog_global_param_nowayout_enabled()
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Flavio Suligoi (2):
>>>   watchdog: add global watchdog kernel module parameters structure
>>>   watchdog: wdat: add start_enable global parameter
>>>
>>>  Documentation/watchdog/index.rst              |  1 +
>>>  .../watchdog-core-global-parameters.rst       | 74 +++++++++++++++++++
>>>  drivers/watchdog/watchdog_core.c              | 74 +++++++++++++++++++
>>>  drivers/watchdog/wdat_wdt.c                   |  2 +
>>>  include/linux/watchdog.h                      | 42 +++++++++++
>>>  5 files changed, 193 insertions(+)
>>>  create mode 100644
>>> Documentation/watchdog/watchdog-core-global-parameters.rst
>>>
>