Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: [PATCH] watchdog: Add watchdog timer support for the WinSystems EBC-C384 | From | Guenter Roeck <> | Date | Sat, 23 Jan 2016 12:01:38 -0800 |
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On 01/23/2016 07:29 AM, William Breathitt Gray wrote: > On 01/21/2016 10:42 PM, Guenter Roeck wrote: >> This implies that setting the timeout would start the watchdog, >> which is inappropriate (the timeout can be set while the watchdog >> is stopped). >> >> Also, setting the timeout sets both the resolution _and_ the timeout, >> which is probably unnecessary when starting or pinging the watchdog. > > Help me understand the functionality of the watchdog operations briefly > since I'm relatively new to the interface. Is it proper to say that the > start callback starts (and in my case also pings) the watchdog based on > the value of the previously configured timeout member, while the > set_timeout callback merely sets the timeout member itself to the > correct value in seconds accordingly to the watchdog timer's resolution? > Correct. In your case it may be sufficient to just set the 'timeout' variable to a valid timeout (ie one supported by the hardware).
>>> + const unsigned base = 0x564; >>> + const unsigned extent = 5; >>> + const char *const name = dev_name(dev); >> >> What is the value of those const variables ? Why not just use dev_name() and defines ? >> >>> + int err; >>> + >> >> Is there a means to detect if this is the correct system ? DMI, maybe ? >> Blindly instantiating the driver seems to be a bit risky and should be avoided >> if possible. > > Unfortunately, the watchdog timer hardware lacks probing capabilities; > the documentation for the motherboard indicates that the watchdog timer > is exposed over an ISA-style I/O-mapped port address. In other words, > the watchdog timer is non-hotpluggable. > So how about DMI ? This is a PC, after all, so it should be possible to identify the hardware with DMI. We should have _something_ available to identify the hardware.
> I agree that carrying around the constant values in the private data > structure is somewhat unnecessary, so I'll give them global scope over > the file. I'm hesitant to lose the type-safety of C variables; is there > a reason to prefer preprocessor defines over const-qualified variables? > It is the common and established approach to use defines (you use a define for WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT as well). The type-safety argument doesn't really apply; to me it is similar to the argument for Yoda programming. The compiler will happily complain if you use an integer define as pointer, or a string as integer.
Defines are used all over the kernel, and work perfectly fine. I don't see a need to change that. Worse, it makes life more difficult for reviewers.
>>> + err = watchdog_init_timeout(&wdt->wdd, timeout, dev); >>> + if (err) >>> + goto err_init_timeout; >> >> A more tolerant implementation would set the default timeout. > > Should I remove the timeout module parameter entirely, and simply > initialize the watchdog_device timeout member to the default timeout I > want (e.g. wdt->wdd.timeout = 60)? Would I still need to call > watchdog_init_timeout in that case? > I didn't want to suggest that. One option would be to set wdt->wdd.timeout = 60 and ignore the return value from watchdog_init_timeout, like most watchdog drivers. Another would be something like
wdt->wdd.timeout = WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT; if (watchdog_init_timeout(&wdt->wdd, timeout, dev)) dev_warn(dev, "Invalid timeout %d, using default\n", timeout);
You can also abort, as you currently do, I just think it is a bit strict.
>> Have you considered using module_platform_driver_probe() ? > > For some reason, I was under the impression that I must allocate a > platform_device before calling platform_driver_probe. I'll try > module_platform_driver_probe since that would indeed be far simpler if > the platform_device setup code is unnecessary. > Ah yes, my mistake. The idea is that another driver (usually a platform driver, or architecture initialization code) would instantiate the device. Sorry for the noise.
>> No MODULE_ALIAS ? > > Since the watchdog timer hardware is non-hotpluggable, I'm not sure I > should add a MODULE_ALIAS for autoloading the module. > Not sure I understand what that has to do with hotplug. Almost all of the 39 watchdog drivers defining MODULE_ALIAS are not hot-pluggable. Ok, let's see if it comes back to bite us ;-).
Guenter
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