netdev - Re: [PATCH net-next] net: phy: remove Kconfig symbol MDIO

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Message-ID: <aBtYdq2NurrTIcJi@shell.armlinux.org.uk>
Date: Wed, 7 May 2025 13:56:22 +0100
From: "Russell King (Oracle)" <linux@...linux.org.uk>
To: Andrew Lunn <andrew@...n.ch>
Cc: Heiner Kallweit <hkallweit1@...il.com>, Paolo Abeni <pabeni@...hat.com>,
	Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>,
	David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>,
	Eric Dumazet <edumazet@...gle.com>,
	Claudiu Manoil <claudiu.manoil@....com>,
	Vladimir Oltean <vladimir.oltean@....com>,
	Wei Fang <wei.fang@....com>, Clark Wang <xiaoning.wang@....com>,
	"netdev@...r.kernel.org" <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
	imx@...ts.linux.dev
Subject: Re: [PATCH net-next] net: phy: remove Kconfig symbol MDIO_DEVRES

On Wed, May 07, 2025 at 02:49:05PM +0200, Andrew Lunn wrote:
> On Wed, May 07, 2025 at 11:46:08AM +0100, Russell King (Oracle) wrote:
> > On Wed, May 07, 2025 at 08:17:17AM +0200, Heiner Kallweit wrote:
> > > MDIO_DEVRES is only set where PHYLIB/PHYLINK are set which
> > > select MDIO_DEVRES. So we can remove this symbol.
> > 
> > Does it make sense for mdio_devres to be a separate module from libphy?
> 
> I _think_ Broadcom have one MDIO bus master which is not used for
> PHYs/Switches but regulators or GPIOs or something. In theory, you
> could build a kernel without networking, but still use those
> regulators or GPIOs. But given that Broadcom SoCs are all about
> networking, it does seem like a very unlikely situation.

I'm pointing out that:

libphy-y                        := phy.o phy-c45.o phy-core.o phy_device.o \
                                   linkmode.o phy_link_topology.o \
                                   phy_package.o phy_caps.o mdio_bus_provider.o

mdio_bus_provider.o provides at least some of the functions used by
mdio_devres.

obj-$(CONFIG_PHYLIB)            += mdio_devres.o
obj-$(CONFIG_PHYLIB)            += libphy.o

So, when PHYLIB=m, we end up with mdio_devres and libphy as two separate
loadable modules. I'm questioning whether this makes any sense, or
whether making mdio_devres part of libphy would be more sensible.

Maybe the only case is if mdio_devres adds dependencies we don't want
libphy to have, but I think that needs to be spelt out in the commit.


-- 
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