Re: [PATCH v5 1/4] ethernet: arc: Add support for Rockchip SoC layer device tree bindings

On Thu, Sep 04, 2014 at 11:33:38AM +0200, Arnd Bergmann wrote:

This is a recurring problem: 

driver a depends on x and selects y
driver b depends on y and selects x

Maybe we should teach Kconfig to not worry about it when x and y are
both user-selectable as well.

However, a nicer solution would be if we could agree for each symbol
on who is supposed to 'select' or 'depends on' it. In particular,
we are inconsistent about CONFIG_REGULATOR:

MDIO_SUN4I probably should not 'select' it but instead 'depends on'
this symbol if anything. It would be nice if someone could submit
a patch to that effect. EMAC_ROCKCHIP could also drop the dependency
on REGULATOR: you can still build the driver without that subsystem
being enabled, but then all the regulators have to be set up by
the boot loader.

Thanks, things are clearer now. 

If I understand correctly the dependency of MDIO_SUN4I on REGULATOR
can be dropped as well for the same reason; I will send a patch for
that.

Beniamino

There isn't much we can do about the PHYLIB dependency, unless we
turn it into a silent symbol that gets selected by all phy drivers,
or we change all network drivers that currently 'select' it to
'depends on'. I don't really want to get involved in that discussion ;-)

	Arnd