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Sender: Guenter Roeck <groeck7@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2024 07:16:22 -0700
From: Guenter Roeck <linux@roeck-us.net>
To: Andrew Davis <afd@ti.com>
Cc: Jean Delvare <jdelvare@suse.com>, Juerg Haefliger <juergh@proton.me>,
	Riku Voipio <riku.voipio@iki.fi>, linux-hwmon@vger.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 00/31] Remove use of i2c_match_id in HWMON
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On Mon, Apr 08, 2024 at 04:49:43AM -0700, Guenter Roeck wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 03, 2024 at 05:06:43PM -0500, Andrew Davis wrote:
> > On 4/3/24 4:30 PM, Guenter Roeck wrote:
> > > On Wed, Apr 03, 2024 at 03:36:02PM -0500, Andrew Davis wrote:
> > > > Hello all,
> > > > 
> > > > Goal here is to remove the i2c_match_id() function from all drivers.
> > > > Using i2c_get_match_data() can simplify code and has some other
> > > > benefits described in the patches.
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > The return value from i2c_match_id() is typically an integer (chip ID)
> > > starting with 0. Previously it has been claimed that this would be
> > > unacceptable for i2c_get_match_data(), and chip IDs were changed to start
> > > with 1. Commit ac0c26bae662 ("hwmon: (lm25066) Use i2c_get_match_data()")
> > > is an example. Either this series is wrong, or the previous claim that
> > > chip IDs (i.e., the content of .driver_data or .data) must not be 0 was
> > > wrong. Which one is it ? I find it very confusing that the chip type for
> > > some drivers now starts with 1 and for others with 0. Given that, I am not
> > > inclined to accept this series unless it is explained in detail why the
> > > chip type enum in, for example, drivers/hwmon/pmbus/lm25066.c has to start
> > > with one but is ok to start with 0 for all drivers affected by this
> > > series. Quite frankly, even if there is some kind of explanation, I am not
> > > sure if I am going to accept it because future driver developers won't
> > > know if they have to start chip types with 0 or 1.
> > > 
> > 
> > i2c_get_match_data() has no issue with returning 0 when the driver_data
> > for the match is also 0 (as it will be when the chip type is 0 here).
> > 
> > The confusion might be that returning 0 is also considered a failure code.
> > This is a problem in general with returning errors in-band with data, and
> > that is nothing new as i2c_match_id() does the same thing.
> > 
> > Actually, i2c_match_id() is worse as most of these drivers take the result
> > from that and immediately dereference it. Meaning if i2c_match_id() ever did
> > failed to find a match, they would crash before this series. Luckily i2c_match_id()
> > can't fail to find a match as far as I can tell, and so for the same reason
> > neither can i2c_get_match_data(), which means if 0 is returned it is always
> > because the chip ID was actually 0.
> > 
> > At some point we should switch all the *_get_match_data() functions to
> > return an error code and put the match if found as a argument pointer.
> > Forcing everyone to changing the chip type to avoid 0 as done in
> > ac0c26bae662 is the wrong way to fix an issue like that.
> > 
> 
> That doesn't really answer my question. It does not explain why it was
> necessary to change the chip ID base for other drivers from 0 to 1,
> but not for the drivers in this series. I fail to see the difference,
> and I have to assume that others looking into the code will have the
> same problem.
> 

Just to follow up: I am not going to apply this series until I understand
why the chip ID range had to be changed from 0.. to 1.. for other hardware
monitoring drivers (lm25066, nct6775) but not for the drivers changed
in this series. I have been telling people that chip IDs need to start
with 1 if i2c_get_match_data() is used. I'll need understand when and 
why this is needed to be able to provide guidance to other developers.

Guenter