linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2 2/4] pciehp: Use link change notifications for hot-plug and removal

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Message-ID: <20131216173907.GC1811@roeck-us.net>
Date:	Mon, 16 Dec 2013 09:39:07 -0800
From:	Guenter Roeck <linux@...ck-us.net>
To:	Bjorn Helgaas <bhelgaas@...gle.com>
Cc:	Rajat Jain <rajatjain@...iper.net>,
	Yinghai Lu <yinghai@...nel.org>,
	Rajat Jain <rajatjain.linux@...il.com>,
	"linux-pci@...r.kernel.org" <linux-pci@...r.kernel.org>,
	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Kenji Kaneshige <kaneshige.kenji@...fujitsu.com>,
	Alex Williamson <alex.williamson@...hat.com>,
	Yijing Wang <wangyijing@...wei.com>,
	Paul Bolle <pebolle@...cali.nl>,
	Rajat Jain <rajatxjain@...il.com>,
	Guenter Roeck <groeck@...iper.net>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 2/4] pciehp: Use link change notifications for
 hot-plug and removal

On Sun, Dec 15, 2013 at 05:18:26PM -0700, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 15, 2013 at 4:24 PM, Rajat Jain <rajatjain@...iper.net> wrote:
> >> > >
> >> > >> Once again: the way I interpret this is: * Always enable Link events.
> >> > >> * Disable presence events if attention button is present.
> >> > >
> >> > > That sounds like a good plan to me.
> >> >
> >> > How about Diag_Reset from MPT2SAS and others?  link could up and down
> >> >
> >
> > I am assuming you are referring to
> >
> > static int _base_diag_reset(struct MPT2SAS_ADAPTER *ioc, int sleep_flag)
> >
> > Which as far as I could understand would cause link to go down and come up
> > again without the kernel knowing anything about it?  ...
> 
> > In general, I guess the question is when a link goes down and back up,
> > whether or not we want to treat it as a hot unplug followed by a hotplug. I
> > think there may be cases such as AER (or the one Yinghai mentions) where we
> > don't want to treat it as a hotplug (see note below). And there may be cases
> > that we definitely want to treat it as hotplug (need link events!).
> > Situation gets more complex since there may be pciehp slots downstream of a
> > link getting reset.
> >
> > It seems to me that we are saying that a mechanism is needed so that a
> > voluntary Link flap is NOT treated like a hotplug temporarily?  ...
> 
> > Notes: * it may not OK, if the kernel thinks the device is accessible when
> > it is really not.  What if during this downtime, someone tries to access the
> > device (say userspace)?  * How do we know after the link up, that the device
> > is really the same.  If during this reset, the device changed its
> > "character", say a different class?  I think a rescan should be mandated
> > after every such event.  * Do we need to unload and reload the driver after
> > the link reset, since it can be a different device?
> 
> I am quite dubious about the idea of a voluntary link flap.  If the link goes
> down and comes back up, I don't see how we can make any assumptions about what
> device is there.
> 
> I let Alex talk me into pciehp_reset_slot(), which disables presence detect
> interrupts while resetting a device, so we already have a bit of precedent for
> the idea.  But even in that case, the device could easily come out of reset as
> a different device, e.g., if the reset caused it to load updated firmware.
> 
> I would feel much better if we treated link down as a remove and did a rescan
> on the link up.
> 
Agreed. Question is if we might need some means for a driver to tell the PCIe
core about an upcoming "planned" link flap. pciehp_reset_slot() doesn't seem
to address the condition where a driver resets a connected chip by other means
than by calling pciehp_reset_slot(). Still not sure what happens when the
mpt2sas driver issues its diagnostic reset, to take Yinghai's example (or if
there would be a cleaner way to implement such a reset).

Guenter
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