Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932263AbXBSOGJ (ORCPT ); Mon, 19 Feb 2007 09:06:09 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932264AbXBSOGJ (ORCPT ); Mon, 19 Feb 2007 09:06:09 -0500 Received: from smtp.nokia.com ([131.228.20.170]:46116 "EHLO mgw-ext11.nokia.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932263AbXBSOGI convert rfc822-to-8bit (ORCPT ); Mon, 19 Feb 2007 09:06:08 -0500 Subject: Re: [PATCH 41/44 take 2] [UBI] gluebi unit header From: Artem Bityutskiy Reply-To: dedekind@infradead.org To: Arnd Bergmann Cc: Josh Boyer , Linux Kernel Mailing List , Christoph Hellwig , Frank Haverkamp , Thomas Gleixner , David Woodhouse In-Reply-To: <200702182337.53314.arnd@arndb.de> References: <20070217165424.5845.4390.sendpatchset@localhost.localdomain> <200702180315.25067.arnd@arndb.de> <20070218030217.GH1038@crusty.rchland.ibm.com> <200702182337.53314.arnd@arndb.de> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:52:15 +0200 Message-Id: <1171893135.13817.72.camel@sauron> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.8.3 (2.8.3-1.fc6) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8BIT X-OriginalArrivalTime: 19 Feb 2007 13:52:14.0941 (UTC) FILETIME=[297910D0:01C7542D] X-eXpurgate-Category: 1/0 X-eXpurgate-ID: 149371::070219154853-07F2EBB0-48397823/0-0/0-1 X-Nokia-AV: Clean Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1915 Lines: 44 On Sun, 2007-02-18 at 23:37 +0100, Arnd Bergmann wrote: > Which brings be back to my original point ;-) > > I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I'd still like to understand > what is so special with 'static UBI volumes' that they can't be used with > a slightly extended MTD interface. Let me provide a list of new things. * Two types of character devices: UBI devices and UBI volumes. MTD is aware only of one type of device - just MTD device. * Two types of volumes. * New volume update operation. * Write hints - you may inform UBI which kind of data you are writing - long term data, short-term data, or just unknown. Depending on the hint it will pick physical eraseblock with high erase counter low or medium. * Asynchronous eraseblock erasure operation * Atomic eraseblock change operation. * When you read static volume, you may select whether you want UBI to check CRC or not (CRCs are per-eraseblock, so often it is not reasonable to check it on any read operation). * Resizing of volume, and all the things related to their dynamic nature. * some other small new interfaces. The whole idea of MTD interface it to provide _uniform_ method to access _all_ flashes. It does not look reasonable for UBI software to use MTD interface, because it is _designed_ for UBI, not for MTD. So, having native interface for ubi-only software looks reasonable. But we also able to integrate UBI into MTD for MTD software, which looks a good design decision and a good compromise. P.S: Also, I'd ask you to look at the monster mtd_info data structure and be scared :-) Imagine we add more there. -- Best regards, Artem Bityutskiy (Битюцкий Артём) - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/