Re: [PATCH RFC RFT 0/3] clk: detect per-user enable imbalances and implement hand-off

From: Maxime Ripard
Date: Fri Aug 28 2015 - 23:56:32 EST


Hi Mike,

On Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 02:50:51PM -0700, Michael Turquette wrote:
> Quoting Maxime Ripard (2015-08-20 08:15:10)
> > On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 09:43:56AM -0700, Michael Turquette wrote:
> > > Quoting Maxime Ripard (2015-08-18 08:45:52)
> > > > Hi Mike,
> > > >
> > > > On Fri, Aug 07, 2015 at 12:09:27PM -0700, Michael Turquette wrote:
> > > > > All of the other kitchen sink stuff (DT binding, passing the flag back
> > > > > to the framework when the clock consumer driver calls clk_put) was left
> > > > > out because I do not see a real use case for it. If one can demonstrate
> > > > > a real use case (and not a hypothetical one) then this patch series can
> > > > > be expanded further.
> > > >
> > > > I think there is a very trivial use case for passing back the
> > > > reference to the framework, if during the probed, we have something
> > > > like:
> > > >
> > > > clk = clk_get()
> > > > clk_prepare_enable(clk)
> > > > foo_framework_register()
> > > >
> > > > if foo_framework_register fails, the sensible thing to do would be to
> > > > call clk_disable_unprepare. If the clock was a critical clock, you
> > > > just gated it.
> > >
> > > Hmm, a good point. Creating the "pass the reference back" call is not
> > > hard technically. But how to keep from abusing it? E.g. I do not want
> > > that call to become an alternative to correct use of clk_enable.
> > >
> > > Maybe I'll need a Coccinelle script or just some regular sed to
> > > occasionally search for new users of this api and audit them?
> > >
> > > I was hoping to not add any new consumer api at all :-/
> >
> > I don't think there's any abuse that can be done with the current API,
> > nor do I think you need to have new functions either.
> >
> > If the clock is critical, when the customer calls
> > clk_unprepare_disable on it, simply take back the reference you gave
> > in the framework, and you're done. Or am I missing something?
>
> Maybe I am the one missing something? My goal was to allow the consumer
> driver to gate the critical clock. So we need clk_disable_unused to
> actually disable the clock for that to work.

Yeah, but I guess the consumer driver clock gating is not the default
mode of operations.

Under normal circumstances, it should just always leave the clock
enabled, all the time.

> I think you are suggesting that clk_disable_unused should *not* disable
> the clock if it is critical. Can you confirm that?

By default, yes.

Now, we also have the knowledgeable driver case wanting to force the
clock gating. I think it's an orthogonal issue, we might have the same
use case for non-critical clocks, and since it's hard to get that done
with the current API, and that we don't really know what a
knowledgeable driver will look like at this point, maybe we can just
delay this entirely until we actually have one in front of us?

Maxime

--
Maxime Ripard, Free Electrons
Embedded Linux, Kernel and Android engineering
http://free-electrons.com

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