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| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/driver-model/platform.txt | 40 |
1 files changed, 40 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/driver-model/platform.txt b/Documentation/driver-model/platform.txt index 19c4a6e1367..2a97320ee17 100644 --- a/Documentation/driver-model/platform.txt +++ b/Documentation/driver-model/platform.txt @@ -96,6 +96,46 @@ System setup also associates those clocks with the device, so that that calls to clk_get(&pdev->dev, clock_name) return them as needed. +Legacy Drivers: Device Probing +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +Some drivers are not fully converted to the driver model, because they take +on a non-driver role: the driver registers its platform device, rather than +leaving that for system infrastructure. Such drivers can't be hotplugged +or coldplugged, since those mechanisms require device creation to be in a +different system component than the driver. + +The only "good" reason for this is to handle older system designs which, like +original IBM PCs, rely on error-prone "probe-the-hardware" models for hardware +configuration. Newer systems have largely abandoned that model, in favor of +bus-level support for dynamic configuration (PCI, USB), or device tables +provided by the boot firmware (e.g. PNPACPI on x86). There are too many +conflicting options about what might be where, and even educated guesses by +an operating system will be wrong often enough to make trouble. + +This style of driver is discouraged. If you're updating such a driver, +please try to move the device enumeration to a more appropriate location, +outside the driver. This will usually be cleanup, since such drivers +tend to already have "normal" modes, such as ones using device nodes that +were created by PNP or by platform device setup. + +None the less, there are some APIs to support such legacy drivers. Avoid +using these calls except with such hotplug-deficient drivers. + + struct platform_device *platform_device_alloc( + char *name, unsigned id); + +You can use platform_device_alloc() to dynamically allocate a device, which +you will then initialize with resources and platform_device_register(). +A better solution is usually: + + struct platform_device *platform_device_register_simple( + char *name, unsigned id, + struct resource *res, unsigned nres); + +You can use platform_device_register_simple() as a one-step call to allocate +and register a device. + + Device Naming and Driver Binding ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The platform_device.dev.bus_id is the canonical name for the devices. |