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Message-ID: <20100817083216.GA3330@riccoc20.at.omicron.at>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 10:32:16 +0200
From: Richard Cochran <richardcochran@...il.com>
To: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>
Cc: linuxppc-dev@...ts.ozlabs.org,
Rodolfo Giometti <giometti@...ux.it>, netdev@...r.kernel.org,
devicetree-discuss@...ts.ozlabs.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org,
Krzysztof Halasa <khc@...waw.pl>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/5] ptp: Added a brand new class driver for ptp clocks.
On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 09:59:39PM +0200, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
> Why does it matter how long it takes to read the clock? I wasn't thinking
> of replacing the system clock with this, just exposing the additional
> clock as a new clockid_t value that can be accessed using the existing
> syscalls.
Okay, now I see. You are suggesting this:
clock_gettime(CLOCK_PTP, &ts);
clock_settime(CLOCK_PTP, &ts);
I like this. If there is agreement about it, I am happy to implement
the PTP stuff that way.
> Why did you not want to add syscalls? Adding ioctls instead of syscalls
> does not make the interface better, just less visible.
I bet that, had I posted patch set with new syscalls, someone would
have said, "You are adding new syscalls. Can't you just use a char
device instead!"
If you add syscalls and introduce CLOCK_PTP, then you add it to
everyone's kernel, even those people who never heard of PTP. A char
device has the advantage that can it be simply ignored. Also, a
syscall has got to have the right form from the very beginning. If the
next generation of PTP hardware looks very different, then it is not
that much of a crime to change an ioctl interface, provided it has
versioning.
Richard
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