Re: [PATCH] Revert "tty: serial: samsung_tty: build it for any platform"

.On Fri, 6 Mar 2020 at 11:23, Geert Uytterhoeven
[off-list ref] wrote:

This reverts commit 175b558d0efb8b4f33aa7bd2c1b5389b912d3019.

When the user configures a kernel without support for Samsung SoCs, it
makes no sense to ask the user about enabling "Samsung SoC serial
support", as Samsung serial ports can only be found on Samsung SoCs.

Signed-off-by: Geert Uytterhoeven <geert+renesas@glider.be>
---
 drivers/tty/serial/Kconfig | 1 +
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)

Discussion about removal and then re-adding of PLAT_SAMSUNG and
ARCH_EXYNOS dependencies remind me [1]: "[RFC] Input: tm2-touchkey -
add hardware dependency".

In both cases the driver is clearly only for Samsung SoC or even for
particular device, although one could argue that touchscreen could be
reused while re-usage of serial IP of SoC is highly unlikely. My
understanding, maybe not correct, of "depends on" syntax is a kernel
source code, building or running dependency. I do not see it as a
hardware dependency. Although Samsung S3C/Exynos serial driver will
not exist outside of Samsung SoC, there is no kernel dependency.
Unless I missed something...

I understand and agree with concerns mentioned in [1] and in the
thread here, that removal of this "depends on" makes life of
distributions and generic users more difficult. To solve this problem
I was thinking about adding weaker type of dependency. A hint about
hardware dependency. Something like the "imply" is for "select". This
did not happen, therefore I still stand on my understanding of
"depends on" thus I gave positive feedback to Greg's patch.

It is a pity though that Greg's patch was applied so fast while
discussion was still on going...

[1] https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/9695769/

Best regards,
Krzysztof

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