Re: [RFC/RFT][PATCH v3 0/5] Functional dependencies between devices

["Rafael J. Wysocki" <rjw@rjwysocki.net>]

On Tuesday, September 27, 2016 02:34:29 PM Lukas Wunner wrote:
> [+cc corbet]
> 
> To whom it may concern,
> 
> I made some notes while reviewing the state machine in patch 2 of this
> series and thought, why not rework it into something that could eventually
> go into the Documentation/ tree?
> 
> So here's an initial draft.  There's some introductory text plus
> a description of the state machine.  Just putting this out there now
> to ease reviewers' lives, despite the obvious WIP status.  I'll try to
> amend it as the series converges.
> 
> This is already rst-formatted but I haven't actually run it through
> sphinx yet.

Thanks a lot for doing this!

It looks good to me in general.  I think it would be good to add it to the
series at one point (if you don't mind).

I'm only a bit reluctant about advertising the usage of links between children
and parents, because that doesn't look like the right tool for the purpose
(as I said before, I'd prefer to add a device flag causing the parent driver
to be probed before the child one if needed).

Thanks,
Rafael


> -- >8 --
> 
> Subject: [PATCH] Documentation: device links: Add initial documentation
> 
> Signed-off-by: Lukas Wunner <lukas@wunner.de>
> ---
>  Documentation/driver-model/device_link.rst | 95 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 95 insertions(+)
>  create mode 100644 Documentation/driver-model/device_link.rst
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/driver-model/device_link.rst b/Documentation/driver-model/device_link.rst
> new file mode 100644
> index 0000000..ba911b4
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/Documentation/driver-model/device_link.rst
> @@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
> +============
> +Device links
> +============
> +
> +By default, the driver core only enforces dependencies between devices
> +that are borne out of a parent/child relationship within the device
> +hierarchy: When suspending, resuming or shutting down the system, devices
> +are ordered based on this relationship, i.e. children are always suspended
> +before their parent, and the parent is always resumed before its children.
> +
> +Sometimes there is a need to represent device dependencies beyond the
> +mere parent/child relationship, e.g. between siblings, and have the
> +driver core automatically take care of them.
> +
> +Secondly, the driver core by default does not enforce any driver presence
> +dependencies, i.e. that one device must be bound to a driver before
> +another one can probe or function correctly.
> +
> +Often these two dependency types come together, so a device depends on
> +another one both with regards to driver presence *and* with regards to
> +suspend/resume and shutdown ordering.
> +
> +Device links allow representation of such dependencies in the driver core.
> +
> +In its standard form, a device link combines *both* dependency types:
> +It guarantees correct suspend/resume and shutdown ordering between a
> +"supplier" device and its "consumer" devices, and it guarantees driver
> +presence on the supplier:  The consumer devices are not probed before the
> +supplier is bound to a driver, and they're unbound before the supplier
> +is unbound.
> +
> +When driver presence on the supplier is irrelevant and only correct
> +suspend/resume and shutdown ordering is needed, the device link may
> +simply be set up with the DEVICE_LINK_STATELESS flag.
> +
> +A driver presence dependency between parent and child, i.e. within the
> +regular device hierarchy, could in principle also be represented in the
> +driver core using a device link.
> +
> +If a device link is set up with the DEVICE_LINK_AUTOREMOVE flag, it is
> +automatically purged when the consumer fails to probe or later unbinds.
> +This is handy when adding a device link from the consumer's ->probe hook,
> +as it obviates the need to delete the link in the ->remove hook or in
> +the error path of the ->probe hook.
> +
> +
> +State machine
> +=============
> +
> +"""
> +                .=============================.
> +                |                             |
> +                v                             |
> +DORMANT <=> AVAILABLE <=> CONSUMER_PROBE => ACTIVE
> +   ^                                          |
> +   |                                          |
> +   '============ SUPPLIER_UNBIND <============'
> +"""
> +
> +* The initial state of a device link is passed in to device_link_add().
> +  If the link is created before any devices are probed, it must be set to
> +  DEVICE_LINK_DORMANT.
> +
> +* When a supplier device is bound to a driver, links to its consumers
> +  progress to DEVICE_LINK_AVAILABLE.
> +  (Call to device_links_driver_bound() from driver_bound().)
> +
> +* Before a consumer device is probed, presence of supplier drivers is
> +  verified by checking that links to suppliers are in DEVICE_LINK_AVAILABLE
> +  state.  The state of the links is updated to DEVICE_LINK_CONSUMER_PROBE.
> +  (Call to device_links_check_suppliers() from driver_probe_device().)
> +  This prevents the supplier from unbinding.
> +  (Call to wait_for_device_probe() in device_links_unbind_consumers().)
> +
> +* If the probe fails, links to suppliers revert back to DEVICE_LINK_AVAILABLE.
> +  (Call to device_links_no_driver() from really_probe().)
> +
> +* If the probe succeeds, links to suppliers progress to DEVICE_LINK_ACTIVE.
> +  (Call of device_links_driver_bound() from driver_bound().)
> +
> +* When the consumer's driver is later on removed, links to suppliers revert
> +  back to DEVICE_LINK_AVAILABLE.
> +  (Call to device_links_no_driver() from __device_release_driver().)
> +
> +* Before a supplier's driver is removed, links to consumers that are not
> +  bound to a driver are updated to DEVICE_LINK_SUPPLIER_UNBIND.
> +  (Call to device_links_busy() from __device_release_driver().)
> +  This prevents the consumers from binding.
> +  (Call to device_links_check_suppliers() from driver_probe_device().)
> +  Consumers that are bound are freed from their driver; consumers that are
> +  probing are waited for until they are done.
> +  (Call to device_links_unbind_consumers() from __device_release_driver().)
> +  Once all links to consumers are in DEVICE_LINK_SUPPLIER_UNBIND state,
> +  the supplier driver is released and the links revert to DEVICE_LINK_DORMANT.
> +  (Call to device_links_driver_gone() from __device_release_driver().)