[RFC] Moving codec drivers out of staging

[RFC] Moving codec drivers out of staging

[Hans Verkuil]

Hi all,

I just posted the pull request to move the MPEG-2 stateless codec API out of staging,
so after that only the HEVC stateless codec API is still in staging.

I think it is time to move the stateless codec drivers out of staging, and use a
kernel config option to enable/disable the staging HEVC API:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/drivers/staging/media/Kconfig b/drivers/staging/media/Kconfig
index ca59986b20f8..faa2fbeb29f0 100644
--- a/drivers/staging/media/Kconfig
+++ b/drivers/staging/media/Kconfig
@@ -22,6 +22,15 @@ if STAGING_MEDIA && MEDIA_SUPPORT
 # Please keep them in alphabetic order
 source "drivers/staging/media/atomisp/Kconfig"

+menuconfig STAGING_MEDIA_HEVC
+	bool "Support HEVC in stateless codec drivers"
+	default n
+	help
+	  This option allows you to enable support for the HEVC codec in
+	  stateless codec drivers. The public API for HEVC is still under
+	  development and is guaranteed to change in the future, so this
+	  option should not be enabled unless you know what you are doing!
+
 source "drivers/staging/media/hantro/Kconfig"

 source "drivers/staging/media/imx/Kconfig"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is there any reason why hantro cannot be moved to mainline? It doesn't
support HEVC, so it can just be moved. Ezequiel, can you check the TODO?
I don't think there is anything there that prevents moving it.

Same question for rkvdec, that too looks ready to move over to mainline.

Same question for the cedrus driver, that too should be ready to move.
It only needs to be patched so that it depends on the suggested kernel option
above. Everything in the TODO is done, so there is no reason to keep it
in staging.

Regards,

	Hans

Re: [RFC] Moving codec drivers out of staging

[Jernej Škrabec]

Hi¨

Dne petek, 30. april 2021 ob 08:48:45 CEST je Hans Verkuil napisal(a):
> Hi all,
> 
> I just posted the pull request to move the MPEG-2 stateless codec API out of
> staging, so after that only the HEVC stateless codec API is still in
> staging.
> 
> I think it is time to move the stateless codec drivers out of staging, and
> use a kernel config option to enable/disable the staging HEVC API:
> 

I agree with that.

> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> diff --git a/drivers/staging/media/Kconfig b/drivers/staging/media/Kconfig
> index ca59986b20f8..faa2fbeb29f0 100644
> --- a/drivers/staging/media/Kconfig
> +++ b/drivers/staging/media/Kconfig
> @@ -22,6 +22,15 @@ if STAGING_MEDIA && MEDIA_SUPPORT
>  # Please keep them in alphabetic order
>  source "drivers/staging/media/atomisp/Kconfig"
> 
> +menuconfig STAGING_MEDIA_HEVC
> +	bool "Support HEVC in stateless codec drivers"
> +	default n
> +	help
> +	  This option allows you to enable support for the HEVC codec in
> +	  stateless codec drivers. The public API for HEVC is still under
> +	  development and is guaranteed to change in the future, so this
> +	  option should not be enabled unless you know what you are doing!
> +
>  source "drivers/staging/media/hantro/Kconfig"
> 
>  source "drivers/staging/media/imx/Kconfig"
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Is there any reason why hantro cannot be moved to mainline? It doesn't
> support HEVC, so it can just be moved. Ezequiel, can you check the TODO?
> I don't think there is anything there that prevents moving it.
> 
> Same question for rkvdec, that too looks ready to move over to mainline.
> 
> Same question for the cedrus driver, that too should be ready to move.
> It only needs to be patched so that it depends on the suggested kernel
> option above. Everything in the TODO is done, so there is no reason to keep
> it in staging.

There is one note about encoder, but in my opinion that's not really a 
problem. I vote for moving it out of staging.

Best regards,
Jernej

Re: [RFC] Moving codec drivers out of staging

[Ezequiel Garcia]

On Friday, April 30, 2021 03:48 -03, Hans Verkuil <hverkuil@xs4all.nl> wrote: 
 
> Hi all,
> 
> I just posted the pull request to move the MPEG-2 stateless codec API out of staging,
> so after that only the HEVC stateless codec API is still in staging.
> 
> I think it is time to move the stateless codec drivers out of staging, and use a
> kernel config option to enable/disable the staging HEVC API:
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> diff --git a/drivers/staging/media/Kconfig b/drivers/staging/media/Kconfig
> index ca59986b20f8..faa2fbeb29f0 100644
> --- a/drivers/staging/media/Kconfig
> +++ b/drivers/staging/media/Kconfig
> @@ -22,6 +22,15 @@ if STAGING_MEDIA && MEDIA_SUPPORT
>  # Please keep them in alphabetic order
>  source "drivers/staging/media/atomisp/Kconfig"
> 
> +menuconfig STAGING_MEDIA_HEVC
> +	bool "Support HEVC in stateless codec drivers"
> +	default n
> +	help
> +	  This option allows you to enable support for the HEVC codec in
> +	  stateless codec drivers. The public API for HEVC is still under
> +	  development and is guaranteed to change in the future, so this
> +	  option should not be enabled unless you know what you are doing!
> +
>  source "drivers/staging/media/hantro/Kconfig"
> 
>  source "drivers/staging/media/imx/Kconfig"
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Is there any reason why hantro cannot be moved to mainline? It doesn't
> support HEVC, so it can just be moved. Ezequiel, can you check the TODO?
> I don't think there is anything there that prevents moving it.
> 

Hantro HEVC patches are posted :-)

> Same question for rkvdec, that too looks ready to move over to mainline.
> 

These drivers are used in production, so moving out of staging sounds great.  

Note that we have some patches for Hantro (SAMA5 support and HEVC support). I wouldn't want to ask a rebase for these, so can we first merge them and then move? It all sounds doable in the next cycle.

Thanks a lot!
Ezequiel