[U-Boot] [PATCH 2/2] serial: Make nulldev a serial device

[Joe Hershberger]

Hi Marek,

On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 6:47 PM, Marek Vasut <marex at denx.de> wrote:
> Dear Joe Hershberger,
>
>> Hi Marek.
>>
>> On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 5:10 PM, Marek Vasut <marex at denx.de> wrote:
>> > Dear Joe Hershberger,
>> >
>> >> Hi Marek,
>> >>
>> >> On Fri, Nov 2, 2012 at 8:37 PM, Marek Vasut <marex at denx.de> wrote:
>> >> > Dear Joe Hershberger,
>> >> >
>> >> >> This allows the default console to be specified as the nulldev.  This
>> >> >> is specifically helpful when the real serial console's init() cannot
>> >> >> run early in the boot process.  When the init can be run, then the
>> >> >> console can be switched to the real device using the std* env vars.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Signed-off-by: Joe Hershberger <joe.hershberger at ni.com>
>> >> >
>> >> > Isn't it actually better to have null stdio device? Some systems might
>> >> > not even use serial port (and so null serial will be useless on these
>> >> > systems)!
>> >>
>> >> As I described in my commit log, this is for the case where the serial
>> >> and console init must not touch the hardware, (since it doesn't exist
>> >> yet if it's in an FPGA or on a PCI or USB connection).  Making the
>> >> default serial port be the nulldev avoids this issue.
>> >
>> > So add nulldev serial device for this stupid case. Even though fixing
>> > iomux such that it'd not send anything to serial port at all if nulldev
>> > is selected would be even better idea.
>>
>> It's not a problem of something being sent to the serial port.  It's
>> the call to serial_init() in arch/*/lib/board.c that kills it.  That
>> call needs to be no-op-able.
>
> Why?
>
> What about fixing serial_init like this:
>
> struct serial_device *dev = get_current();
> int ret = 0;
> if (dev)
>   ret = dev->start();
>
> return ret;

How does this help?  Are you suggesting that default_serial_console()
return "NULL"?  It seems that you would then have to add a ton of
checks for NULL coming back from default_serial_console() all the
places that just use it assuming it's actually a device pointer.
Sounds ugly.  If you aren't talking about having
default_serial_console() return NULL, then I don't see how this helps.

-Joe