Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2024 07:32:04 -0700
From: Rob Herring <robh@...nel.org>
To: Saravana Kannan <saravanak@...gle.com>
Cc: Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzysztof.kozlowski+dt@...aro.org>,
	Conor Dooley <conor+dt@...nel.org>,
	Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
	"Rafael J. Wysocki" <rafael@...nel.org>,
	Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@...nel.org>,
	Frank Rowand <frowand.list@...il.com>, Len Brown <lenb@...nel.org>,
	Andy Shevchenko <andriy.shevchenko@...ux.intel.com>,
	Daniel Scally <djrscally@...il.com>,
	Heikki Krogerus <heikki.krogerus@...ux.intel.com>,
	Sakari Ailus <sakari.ailus@...ux.intel.com>,
	kernel-team@...roid.com, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	devicetree@...r.kernel.org, linux-efi@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-acpi@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 3/4] dt-bindings: Add post-init-supplier property

On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 01:31:44PM -0800, Saravana Kannan wrote:
> The post-init-supplier property can be used to break a dependency cycle by
> marking some supplier(s) as a post device initialization supplier(s). This
> allows an OS to do a better job at ordering initialization and
> suspend/resume of the devices in a dependency cycle.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Saravana Kannan <saravanak@...gle.com>
> ---
>  .../bindings/post-init-supplier.yaml          | 101 ++++++++++++++++++
>  MAINTAINERS                                   |  13 +--
>  2 files changed, 108 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
>  create mode 100644 Documentation/devicetree/bindings/post-init-supplier.yaml
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/post-init-supplier.yaml b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/post-init-supplier.yaml
> new file mode 100644
> index 000000000000..aab75b667259
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/post-init-supplier.yaml
> @@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
> +# SPDX-License-Identifier: (GPL-2.0-only OR BSD-2-Clause)
> +# Copyright (c) 2020, Google LLC. All rights reserved.
> +%YAML 1.2
> +---
> +$id: http://devicetree.org/schemas/post-init-supplier.yaml#
> +$schema: http://devicetree.org/meta-schemas/core.yaml#
> +
> +title: Post device initialization supplier
> +
> +maintainers:
> +  - Saravana Kannan <saravanak@...gle.com>
> +
> +description: |
> +  This property is used to indicate that the device(s) pointed to by the
> +  property are not needed for the initialization of the device that lists this
> +  property. This property is meaningful only when pointing to direct suppliers
> +  of a device that are pointed to by other properties in the device.
> +
> +  A device can list its suppliers in devicetree using one or more of the
> +  standard devicetree bindings. By default, it would be safe to assume the
> +  supplier device can be initialized before the consumer device is initialized.
> +
> +  However, that assumption cannot be made when there are cyclic dependencies
> +  between devices. Since each device is a supplier (directly or indirectly) of
> +  the others in the cycle, there is no guaranteed safe order for initializing
> +  the devices in a cycle. We can try to initialize them in an arbitrary order
> +  and eventually successfully initialize all of them, but that doesn't always
> +  work well.
> +
> +  For example, say,
> +  * The device tree has the following cyclic dependency X -> Y -> Z -> X (where
> +    -> denotes "depends on").
> +  * But X is not needed to fully initialize Z (X might be needed only when a
> +    specific functionality is requested post initialization).
> +
> +  If all the other -> are mandatory initialization dependencies, then trying to
> +  initialize the devices in a loop (or arbitrarily) will always eventually end
> +  up with the devices being initialized in the order Z, Y and X.
> +
> +  However, if Y is an optional supplier for X (where X provides limited
> +  functionality when Y is not initialized and providing its services), then
> +  trying to initialize the devices in a loop (or arbitrarily) could end up with
> +  the devices being initialized in the following order:
> +
> +  * Z, Y and X - All devices provide full functionality
> +  * Z, X and Y - X provides partial functionality
> +  * X, Z and Y - X provides partial functionality
> +
> +  However, we always want to initialize the devices in the order Z, Y and X
> +  since that provides the full functionality without interruptions.
> +
> +  One alternate option that might be suggested is to have the driver for X
> +  notice that Y became available at a later point and adjust the functionality
> +  it provides. However, other userspace applications could have started using X
> +  with the limited functionality before Y was available and it might not be
> +  possible to transparently transition X or the users of X to full
> +  functionality while X is in use.
> +
> +  Similarly, when it comes to suspend (resume) ordering, it's unclear which
> +  device in a dependency cycle needs to be suspended/resumed first and trying
> +  arbitrary orders can result in system crashes or instability.
> +
> +  Explicitly calling out which link in a cycle needs to be broken when
> +  determining the order, simplifies things a lot, improves efficiency, makes
> +  the behavior more deterministic and maximizes the functionality that can be
> +  provided without interruption.
> +
> +  This property is used to provide this additional information between devices
> +  in a cycle by telling which supplier(s) is not needed for initializing the
> +  device that lists this property.
> +
> +  In the example above, Z would list X as a post-init-supplier and the
> +  initialization dependency would become X -> Y -> Z -/-> X. So the best order
> +  to initialize them become clear: Z, Y and then X.
> +
> +select: true

blank line

> +properties:
> +  post-init-supplier:

'supply' is already used for regulators. Let's make it 
'post-init-providers'.

Rob

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