netdev - Re: [PATCH] drivers: misc: Remove MISC

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Message-Id: <201201061200.44183.arnd@arndb.de>
Date:	Fri, 6 Jan 2012 12:00:43 +0000
From:	Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>
To:	Greg KH <greg@...ah.com>
Cc:	Fabio Estevam <festevam@...il.com>, netdev@...r.kernel.org,
	gwingerde@...il.com, larry.finger@...inger.net,
	davem@...emloft.net, bhutchings@...arflare.com,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Fabio Estevam <fabio.estevam@...escale.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] drivers: misc: Remove MISC_DEVICES config option

On Friday 06 January 2012, Greg KH wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 05, 2012 at 11:18:28PM -0200, Fabio Estevam wrote:
> > On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 8:39 PM, Greg KH <greg@...ah.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > Are you sure that this isn't getting confused with the
> > > drivers/char/misc.c interface instead of the "throw a bunch of randome
> > > drivers into drivers/misc/" issue?
> > 
> > Sorry, I am not aware of this issue.
> > 
> > > Why would anything ever want to select MISC_DEVICES?  What happens if
> > > you just remove that select line from the Kconfig?
> > 
> > Yes, I don´t understand the point of allowing the selection MISC_DEVICES.
> > 
> > IMHO it is potential for causing dependency issues.
> 
> Then remove that selection.  Nothing should be depending on a misc
> driver, if it is, then that implies that this is more than just a "misc"
> driver, and it should be moved elsewhere.

I think that is true for the majority of stuff we have under drivers/misc
anyway. I had done the same patch that Fabio sent a couple of months ago
but then forgot about it, so here is a wholehearted

Acked-by: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>

for the new patch. It fixes a real problem, and we applied a similar patch
in drivers/mfd as 8a0a8e8e already. We probably still want to find a better
home for drivers that frequently get selected by other subsystems as you
said, but that is an independent issue. I don't see why anyone would
need a way to disable all MISC drivers at once, when the only thing that
(in theory) connects them is that they are all different from everything
else.

	Arnd
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