[RFC PATCH] imx: skip unused compatible strings in drivers

[Marek Vasut]

On 5/26/20 1:12 PM, Soeren Moch wrote:
> On 25.05.20 22:24, Anatolij Gustschin wrote:
>> Converting to DM increases binary size and breaks building some
>> boards (i.e. tbs2910, gcc 9.2). The approach to address this issue
>> via cutting off unused properties/nodes in device tree via custom
>> u-boot.dtsi was not welcome, even if the affected boards do not
>> pass the built-in device tree to the kernel.
> But there is CONFIG_OF_REMOVE_PROPS="dmas dma-names interrupt-parent
> interrupts interrupts-extended interrupt-names interrupt-map
> interrupt-map-mask" in tbs2910_defconfig. So removing properties is
> already done via this config option. Removing nodes is not implemented
> (yet? AFAIK). But would be welcome if someone implements this in a
> similar way, I think.

Why don't we turn this the other way around -- put the { compat string ,
driver } tuple list into a U-Boot linker list, then filter this linker
list against a DT which will be used for the platform (what if there are
multiple DTs?), and then scrub all unreferrenced symbols.