[U-Boot] [PATCH 2/4] net: tweak eth_device layout to simplify enetaddr use

Wolfgang Denk wd at denx.de
Fri Nov 11 12:55:45 CET 2011


Dear Mike Frysinger,

In message <1320970267-22297-2-git-send-email-vapier at gentoo.org> you wrote:
> The current eth_device leaves a 2 byte hole after "enetaddr" and before
> "iobase".  Since the enetaddr member has to be 6 bytes, we might as well
> fill that 2 byte hole with something useful.
> 
> Further, most device drivers want to load enetaddr from memory into the
> hardware as 1 32bit value and 1 16bit value.
> 
> So re-arrange the structure slightly, and add an anonymous union to make
> eth_device even better:
>  - expand the name field to fill the 2 byte hole
>  - make sure enetaddr is aligned, and provides 32bit/16bit members

I'm OK with expanding the name[] field, but as Thomas pointed out,
providing "convenient" u32 / u16 variables for the MAC address is
actually a faux ami that misleads people into using these variables
without thinking about endianess and such.

Please omit this part.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

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