[U-Boot] [PATCH 00/93] dm: Move towards completing CONFIG_BLK migration

[Marek Vasut]

On 11/19/2018 08:45 PM, Adam Ford wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 19, 2018 at 12:36 PM Tom Rini <trini at konsulko.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Nov 19, 2018 at 10:54 AM Simon Glass <sjg at chromium.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> All boards should now be migrated to use CONFIG_BLK. This series removes
>>> those with build problems using this option.
>>>
>>> If maintainers want to keep these boards in they should send a patch in
>>> the next week or two. Otherwise the board will be removed in the next
>>> release, and will need to be added and re-reviewed later.
>>>
>>> The goal is to have all boards use driver model. But so far, we do allow
>>> CONFIG_DM to not be defined.
>>>
>>> PLEASE NOTE: This is not an easy process. It is possible that your board
>>> does work, or works with only minor changes. Please try to understand that
>>> the removal of a board is not done because people don't like your board.
>>> In fact the board might have been the first one I used when trying out
>>> U-Boot! It's just that we expect maintainers to keep up with the migration
>>> to driver model which has been running now for 4 years. It just isn't
>>> possible for a few people to migrate and test hundreds of boards.
>>>
>>> So, send a patch!
>>
>> OK, so with the intention of "need to light a fire", consider the fire
>> lit!  But, I think v2 of this series needs to:
>> - Address the bug that's been noted of you checking on "DM_BLK" when
>>   it's really just "BLK".
>> - Do a test build with BLK just being unconditional now.  For example,
>>   you're deleting the am335x_evm family but it builds fine with BLK
>>   being enabled now.  I even gave it a run time test via test.py and
>>   we're fine.  So, I think a new run where you see what fails to build
>>   with BLK enabled by default now is in order to come up with a new
>>   delete list.
>>
> 
> When we were migrating toward GCC 6, we introduced a warning message
> that was displayed at build indicating older versions of GCC would be
> unsupported, and GCC 6 would become a requirement.  The
> CONFIG_DM_I2C_COMPAT generates a build warning and suggests that it be
> removed.  I would like to propose that in the future, when setting
> deadlines, we insert something into the build mechanism that generates
> a warning to tell people that something is going to happen.

I agree, that sounds good.

I am extremely unhappy by how Simon decided, unilaterally, some
arbitrary deadline, told pretty much no one about that deadline and then
put a knife on many peoples' throats by sending out this series which
removes boards that are actively used and maintained, demanding they be
converted right this instant.

In my opinion, most maintainers cannot just drop everything they are
working on at any given point and start doing random conversion the
minute Simon decides they should. The only result of such behavior will
be loss of functionality and more stress exerted on the maintainers,
which helps no one.

While I understand the need to move over to CONFIG_DM_BLK, U-Boot is a
cooperative project and it can only move forward as fast as the
community around it can. If anyone within that community wants to
convert others to some new feature, that's perfectly fine, but there
should be a clear way to do it and a possibility to shift a deadline for
conversion around for boards which are useful to people and simply late.
Just dropping useful functionality is not acceptable.

-- 
Best regards,
Marek Vasut