linux-kernel - RE: [RFC PATCH] Rework gpio cansleep (was Re: gpiolib and sleepinggpios)

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Date:	Thu, 24 Jun 2010 05:33:56 +0100
From:	Jon Povey <Jon.Povey@...elogic.co.uk>
To:	Jamie Lokier <jamie@...reable.org>,
	Ryan Mallon <ryan@...ewatersys.com>
CC:	David Brownell <dbrownell@...rs.sourceforge.net>,
	linux kernel <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	David Brownell <david-b@...bell.net>,
	linux-arm-kernel <linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org>
Subject: RE: [RFC PATCH] Rework gpio cansleep (was Re: gpiolib and
 sleepinggpios)

Jamie Lokier wrote:
> Ryan Mallon wrote:
>> On 06/24/2010 10:53 AM, Jamie Lokier wrote:

>>> It has an I2C driven GPIO expander, with a watchdog reset chip
>>> hanging off the expander.
>>>
>>> The watchdog is kept alive off the back end of a timer BH, which
>>> means the I2C GPIO routines are written to be safe in BH context
>>> (which
>>> isn't sleepable), but they can't be used in IRQ context because the
>>> necessary spin_lock_irqsave() would turn off interrupts for too long
>>> for other subsystems to function properly.
>>
>> Do the implementations of the get/set calls for the io expander gpios
>> sleep at all?
>
> No, because sleeping isn't allowed in BH context.  (Note that this is
> 2.4.26 code - things have changed a bit for 2.6, but the hardware is
> the same, and still needs the I2C watchdog to be driven from a BH-like
> context).

Could you use a workqueue instead to prod the watchdog?
Then the GPIOs could sleep, you could rewrite them as such, and other things could use them safely.

Disabling IRQs while you talk to an I2C peripheral sounds like a hack that will impact performance.

Although, if it does that then I think your GPIOs qualify as non-sleeping.. so "safe" to use from a can't-sleep context but probably unacceptably slow as you say.

--
Jon Povey
jon.povey@...elogic.co.uk

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