[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]
Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.1.10.0804231914270.2779@woody.linux-foundation.org>
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:19:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
To: Jeff Garzik <jeff@...zik.org>
cc: Rene Herman <rene.herman@...access.nl>,
Adrian Bunk <bunk@...nel.org>,
Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, rmk@....linux.org.uk,
"Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>,
Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>
Subject: Re: [git patch] free_irq() fixes
On Wed, 23 Apr 2008, Jeff Garzik wrote:
>
> When drivers make assumptions about system irq numbering, particularly on x86,
> IMO the situation is fragile.
And when people make changes to long-standing and stable infrastructure,
the situation also gets fragile.
The fact is, stability of interfaces is a really worthy goal in itself.
Making a change for its own sake is not a good thing. This fixes
*nothing*, and the driver changes I objected to I objected to because they
were ugly as sin.
And I want to point out that your patches made it *much* uglier.
So "cleanup" it sure as hell wasn't. That irq number may not be worth all
that much in itself, but it has no subtle implementation problems (we
_need_ that irq number for registration and irq handler lookup anyway, so
it is meaningful from a driver perspective, and is well-defined from a irq
core standpoint as well).
I don't mind cleanups, but this is "churn". Change for its own sake. If it
doesn't lead to any _improvement_, it's pointless.
If drivers don't need it, let them ignore it. But let them ignore it in
ways that work across versions, and in ways that don't cause ridiculous
and ugly work-arounds for when they do want it (even if it's just for a
printk() or similar).
Linus
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
Powered by blists - more mailing lists