Just a thought: Kconfig & architecture command

Just a thought: Kconfig & architecture command

[Wim Van Sebroeck]

Hi All,

while working on some of the watchdog-drivers (that are only valid for certain architectures), I just wondered if we cannot have a simpler indication of the architecture the driver is working on. A possible solution would be to have an extra keyword/command 'architecture' in the Kconfig file. It works like a dependancy, but you have a clear distinction between the real dependancy and the actual hardware/architecture it runs on.

Lett me give a simple example: the sa1100 watchdog driver only works for the sa1100 architecture. In Kconfig this could then look like:
-Kconfig------------------------------------------------------------------
config SA1100_WATCHDOG
        tristate "SA1100 watchdog"
        architecture ARCH_SA1100
        depends on WATCHDOG
        help
          Watchdog timer embedded into SA11x0 chips. This will reboot your
          system when timeout is reached.
          NOTE, that once enabled, this timer cannot be disabled.
                                                                                                 
          To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
          module will be called sa1100_wdt.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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The advantage is that you could source driver directory's more easily in a lott of architectures (without having to copy general pieces in every seperate architecture-dependant Kconfig file, like we do know for sun, sh, ...).

Greetings,
Wim.

Re: Just a thought: Kconfig & architecture command

[Roman Zippel]

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Hi,

On Sat, 3 Jan 2004, Wim Van Sebroeck wrote:

> Lett me give a simple example: the sa1100 watchdog driver only works for
> the sa1100 architecture. In Kconfig this could then look like:
> -Kconfig------------------------------------------------------------------
> config SA1100_WATCHDOG
>         tristate "SA1100 watchdog"
>         architecture ARCH_SA1100
>         depends on WATCHDOG
>         help
>           Watchdog timer embedded into SA11x0 chips. This will reboot your
>           system when timeout is reached.
>           NOTE, that once enabled, this timer cannot be disabled.
>
>           To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
>           module will be called sa1100_wdt.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Â
> The advantage is that you could source driver directory's more easily in
> a lott of architectures (without having to copy general pieces in every
> seperate architecture-dependant Kconfig file, like we do know for sun,
> sh, ...).

I don't really see the need for another keyword, which is basically only
an alias. The ARCH_ prefix already says that it's an arch symbol and you
can already have multiple depends lines (which are connected via '&&'), so
you don't need to mix the arch dependecies with the other dependencies.

bye, Roman