Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2017 15:09:54 +0200
From: Greg KH <gregkh@linux.com>
To: Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net>
Cc: Kalle Valo <kvalo@codeaurora.org>,
        linux-wireless <linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org>,
        Birming Chiu <birming@realtek.com>, Pkshih <pkshih@realtek.com>
Subject: Re: New Realtek driver
Message-ID: <20170722130954.GA9321@kroah.com> (sfid-20170722_152328_536246_D7798F63)
References: <50a63e7a-045a-3386-661a-5bfe077e5b0a@lwfinger.net>
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 <2cf70a42-6665-1da9-7c38-32751f2dc981@lwfinger.net>
 <20170722035119.GA31377@kroah.com>
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On Sat, Jul 22, 2017 at 07:51:20AM -0500, Larry Finger wrote:
> On 07/21/2017 10:51 PM, Greg KH wrote:
> > On Fri, Jul 21, 2017 at 07:36:41PM -0500, Larry Finger wrote:
> > > On 07/21/2017 10:08 AM, Greg KH wrote:
> > > > On Thu, Jul 20, 2017 at 08:18:13PM -0500, Larry Finger wrote:
> > > > > Kalle and Greg,
> > > > > 
> > > > > Once again I find myself in the awkward position of needing to submit code
> > > > > to two different trees, i.e. wireless and staging.
> > > > > 
> > > > > The code in question concerns a new Realtek device, the RTL8822BE. The
> > > > > device is already shipping, and Realtek would like it to be available in
> > > > > kernel 3.14. As it consists of ~120,000 new lines of code, I have assured
> > > > > Realtek that 3.14 would not be possible, at least in the wireless tree. What
> > > > > I plan to do is submit the changes in the existing drivers through wireless,
> > > > > and the three totally new drivers through staging. My expectation is that
> > > > > this code would live for a relatively short time there, but going that route
> > > > > would give time for the code to be reviewed properly, but still be available
> > > > > in a kernel driver. All of the new code will be available in a GitHub repo
> > > > > maintained by Realtek for those users whose distros do not configure
> > > > > anything in staging.
> > > > > 
> > > > > For my part, I will push the wireless tree material as fast as I can and
> > > > > hope there is time available near the end of the 4.13-rcX sequence for the
> > > > > material to reach 4.14-rc1.
> > > > 
> > > > Why do you need a staging driver to have changes in the wireless tree?
> > > > Staging drivers should be self-contained and not rely on anything
> > > > outside of it in order to work properly (i.e. don't add code to the real
> > > > kernel only for a staging driver.)
> > > 
> > > Greg,
> > > 
> > > To add the new driver to staging without any other changes, I will need to
> > > duplicate a lot of code. That is no problem, other than the duplicate entry
> > > points that will show up in a makeallyes configuration. If that is what you
> > > want, then that is what I will do.
> > 
> > What do you mean by "duplicate entry points"?  Duplicate global symbols?
> > Something else?
> 
> Of course, I meant duplicate global symbols.

Just make the staging driver only be built as a module then there should
not be the chance for any global symbols to occur.  We've done that many
times in the past, probably for these same drivers...

thanks,

greg k-h