Re: [PATCH net-next v2] ethtool: doc: clarify what drivers can implement in their get_drvinfo()

From: Leon Romanovsky
Date: Sun Nov 13 2022 - 02:58:52 EST


On Fri, Nov 11, 2022 at 03:40:54PM +0900, Vincent Mailhol wrote:
> Many of the drivers which implement ethtool_ops::get_drvinfo() will
> prints the .driver, .version or .bus_info of struct ethtool_drvinfo.
> To have a glance of current state, do:
>
> $ git grep -W "get_drvinfo(struct"
>
> Printing in those three fields is useless because:
>
> - since [1], the driver version should be the kernel version (at
> least for upstream drivers). Arguably, out of tree drivers might
> still want to set a custom version, but out of tree is not our
> focus.
>
> - since [2], the core is able to provide default values for .driver
> and .bus_info.
>
> In summary, drivers may provide @fw_version and @erom_version, the
> rest is expected to be done by the core. Update the doc to reflect the
> facts.
>
> Also update the dummy driver and simply remove the callback in order
> not to confuse the newcomers: most of the drivers will not need this
> callback function any more.
>
> [1] commit 6a7e25c7fb48 ("net/core: Replace driver version to be
> kernel version")
> Link: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=6a7e25c7fb482dba3e80fec953f1907bcb24d52c
>
> [2] commit edaf5df22cb8 ("ethtool: ethtool_get_drvinfo: populate
> drvinfo fields even if callback exits")
> Link: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/netdev/net-next.git/commit/?id=edaf5df22cb8e7e849773ce69fcc9bc20ca92160
>
> CC: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Vincent Mailhol <mailhol.vincent@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> Arguably, dummy.c is code and not documentation, but for me, it makes
> sense to treat it as documentation, thus I am putting everything in
> one single patch.

If to judge by newcomers submissions, many of them don't read documentation.

Thanks,
Reviewed-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@xxxxxxxxxx>