Driver Core: early platform driver

V3 of the early platform driver implementation.

Platform drivers are great for embedded platforms because we can separate
driver configuration from the actual driver.  So base addresses,
interrupts and other configuration can be kept with the processor or board
code, and the platform driver can be reused by many different platforms.

For early devices we have nothing today.  For instance, to configure early
timers and early serial ports we cannot use platform devices.  This
because the setup order during boot.  Timers are needed before the
platform driver core code is available.  The same goes for early printk
support.  Early in this case means before initcalls.

These early drivers today have their configuration either hard coded or
they receive it using some special configuration method.  This is working
quite well, but if we want to support both regular kernel modules and
early devices then we need to have two ways of configuring the same
driver.  A single way would be better.

The early platform driver patch is basically a set of functions that allow
drivers to register themselves and architecture code to locate them and
probe.  Registration happens through early_param().  The time for the
probe is decided by the architecture code.

See Documentation/driver-model/platform.txt for more details.

[akpm@linux-foundation.org: coding-style fixes]
Signed-off-by: Magnus Damm <damm@igel.co.jp>
Cc: Paul Mundt <lethal@linux-sh.org>
Cc: Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@vrfy.org>
Cc: David Brownell <david-b@pacbell.net>
Cc: Tejun Heo <htejun@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>

1 files changed, 59 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/driver-model/platform.txt b/Documentation/driver-model/platform.txt
index 83009fdcbbc..2e2c2ea90ce 100644
--- a/Documentation/driver-model/platform.txt
+++ b/Documentation/driver-model/platform.txt
@@ -169,3 +169,62 @@ three different ways to find such a match:
       be probed later if another device registers.  (Which is OK, since
       this interface is only for use with non-hotpluggable devices.)
 
+
+Early Platform Devices and Drivers
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+The early platform interfaces provide platform data to platform device
+drivers early on during the system boot. The code is built on top of the
+early_param() command line parsing and can be executed very early on.
+
+Example: "earlyprintk" class early serial console in 6 steps
+
+1. Registering early platform device data
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+The architecture code registers platform device data using the function
+early_platform_add_devices(). In the case of early serial console this
+should be hardware configuration for the serial port. Devices registered
+at this point will later on be matched against early platform drivers.
+
+2. Parsing kernel command line
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+The architecture code calls parse_early_param() to parse the kernel
+command line. This will execute all matching early_param() callbacks.
+User specified early platform devices will be registered at this point.
+For the early serial console case the user can specify port on the
+kernel command line as "earlyprintk=serial.0" where "earlyprintk" is
+the class string, "serial" is the name of the platfrom driver and
+0 is the platform device id. If the id is -1 then the dot and the
+id can be omitted.
+
+3. Installing early platform drivers belonging to a certain class
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+The architecture code may optionally force registration of all early
+platform drivers belonging to a certain class using the function
+early_platform_driver_register_all(). User specified devices from
+step 2 have priority over these. This step is omitted by the serial
+driver example since the early serial driver code should be disabled
+unless the user has specified port on the kernel command line.
+
+4. Early platform driver registration
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+Compiled-in platform drivers making use of early_platform_init() are
+automatically registered during step 2 or 3. The serial driver example
+should use early_platform_init("earlyprintk", &platform_driver).
+
+5. Probing of early platform drivers belonging to a certain class
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+The architecture code calls early_platform_driver_probe() to match
+registered early platform devices associated with a certain class with
+registered early platform drivers. Matched devices will get probed().
+This step can be executed at any point during the early boot. As soon
+as possible may be good for the serial port case.
+
+6. Inside the early platform driver probe()
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+The driver code needs to take special care during early boot, especially
+when it comes to memory allocation and interrupt registration. The code
+in the probe() function can use is_early_platform_device() to check if
+it is called at early platform device or at the regular platform device
+time. The early serial driver performs register_console() at this point.
+
+For further information, see <linux/platform_device.h>.