linux-kernel - [PATCH 7/8] printk: Handle pre-enabled consoles directly in register

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Message-ID: <20260206165002.496724-8-pmladek@suse.com>
Date: Fri,  6 Feb 2026 17:50:01 +0100
From: Petr Mladek <pmladek@...e.com>
To: John Ogness <john.ogness@...utronix.de>
Cc: Sergey Senozhatsky <senozhatsky@...omium.org>,
	Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
	Marcos Paulo de Souza <mpdesouza@...e.com>,
	Chris Down <chris@...isdown.name>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Petr Mladek <pmladek@...e.com>
Subject: [PATCH 7/8] printk: Handle pre-enabled consoles directly in register_console()

The function try_enable_preferred_console() currently has the
non-obvious side effect of returning success for consoles that are
already pre-enabled. This obscures the logic flow during console
registration.

Move the check for pre-enabled consoles directly into
register_console(). This change makes the handling of pre-enabled
consoles explicit and easier to follow.

Furthermore, this separation lays the groundwork for future cleanups
where try_enable_preferred_console() can be restricted to cases where
an entry actually exists in the preferred_consoles[] array.

Possible behavior change:

try_enable_preferred_console() will newly be called also with
@user_specified parameter set to "false" when it failed with the "true"
variant. But it looks like the right way to do. It will allow to call
newcon->setup() when the console was preferred by some platform
specific code.

Signed-off-by: Petr Mladek <pmladek@...e.com>
---
 kernel/printk/printk.c | 19 ++++++++-----------
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/printk/printk.c b/kernel/printk/printk.c
index eb224eaace64..db91be780de9 100644
--- a/kernel/printk/printk.c
+++ b/kernel/printk/printk.c
@@ -3913,9 +3913,6 @@ static int console_call_setup(struct console *newcon, char *options)
  * the newly registered console with any of the ones selected
  * by either the command line or add_preferred_console() and
  * setup/enable it.
- *
- * Care need to be taken with consoles that are statically
- * enabled such as netconsole
  */
 static int __try_enable_preferred_console(struct console *newcon,
 					  bool user_specified,
@@ -3963,14 +3960,6 @@ static int __try_enable_preferred_console(struct console *newcon,
 		return 0;
 	}
 
-	/*
-	 * Some consoles, such as pstore and netconsole, can be enabled even
-	 * without matching. Accept the pre-enabled consoles only when match()
-	 * and setup() had a chance to be called.
-	 */
-	if (newcon->flags & CON_ENABLED && pc->user_specified == user_specified)
-		return 0;
-
 	return -ENOENT;
 }
 
@@ -4178,6 +4167,14 @@ void register_console(struct console *newcon)
 	if (err == -ENOENT)
 		err = try_enable_preferred_console(newcon, false);
 
+	/*
+	 * Some consoles, such as pstore and netconsole, can be enabled even
+	 * without matching. Accept them at this stage when they had a chance
+	 * to match() and call setup().
+	 */
+	if (err == -ENOENT && (newcon->flags & CON_ENABLED))
+		err = 0;
+
 	if (err)
 		goto unlock_free;
 
-- 
2.52.0