On Wed, Jan 18, 2017 at 12:14 AM, Paul Cercueil [off-list ref] wrote:

One problem still unresolved: the pinctrl framework does not allow us to
configure each pin on demand (someone please prove me wrong), when the
various PWM channels are requested or released. For instance, the PWM
channels can be configured from sysfs, which would require all PWM pins
to be configured properly beforehand for the PWM function, eventually
causing conflicts with other platform or board drivers.

Why do you think this?

- Pincontrol handles can be obtained at runtime.
- Pincontrol states can be changed at runtime.

The fact that a the handle is retrived by the device core and set to
the states named "init" or "default" during boot is just a convenience.

You can have as many and as fine-grained states as you want. They
can pertain to just one pin too.

Linus Walleij