From nobody Sun Feb 8 06:00:07 2026 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [23.128.96.18]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 60767C77B73 for ; Tue, 6 Jun 2023 08:30:45 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S235864AbjFFIan (ORCPT ); Tue, 6 Jun 2023 04:30:43 -0400 Received: from lindbergh.monkeyblade.net ([23.128.96.19]:54108 "EHLO lindbergh.monkeyblade.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S237427AbjFFIaS (ORCPT ); Tue, 6 Jun 2023 04:30:18 -0400 Received: from esa.microchip.iphmx.com (esa.microchip.iphmx.com [68.232.153.233]) by lindbergh.monkeyblade.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 5D34D19AD; Tue, 6 Jun 2023 01:29:07 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/simple; d=microchip.com; i=@microchip.com; q=dns/txt; s=mchp; t=1686040147; x=1717576147; h=from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id:mime-version: content-transfer-encoding; bh=83CH+1+GFJLq7dRIvQNFv+8CIkhu41Bosypd3+XFrTY=; b=EiCw3T8NTlQnkSRK6PdQ+nKxb4elpji3BTdgQErYBwl7ZP8vuhchxz/D LWDS5bLYiPDgSiHt2YlevWUyzhefJ9GFj1liapPZxZjZ7PMHcXYSEDiHV jqXCOKBYIqvGq9Lkfw9L4nRkIQZMiAo806D5K3Zz4pikJxsGGi9/kLC9Z w5mJ7DnbIVE+IrxXCW7OLxnEEaEmczmxodgLnCN7K0VH1Dc62/9viHD0W cqArWSUIz1/gaFo7C/psVBqq57IA4L/1Ipht7PqAulm6UHXWlLeS/PUWZ SeXwpZ3LiEoQ+OpJlu45cJ/U64yqZGHKckqO78fu+MKA3sdPiyrvE/a5K A==; X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="6.00,219,1681196400"; d="scan'208";a="216388308" X-Amp-Result: SKIPPED(no attachment in message) Received: from unknown (HELO email.microchip.com) ([170.129.1.10]) by esa3.microchip.iphmx.com with ESMTP/TLS/AES256-SHA256; 06 Jun 2023 01:28:34 -0700 Received: from chn-vm-ex02.mchp-main.com (10.10.85.144) by chn-vm-ex03.mchp-main.com (10.10.85.151) with Microsoft SMTP Server (version=TLS1_2, cipher=TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256) id 15.1.2507.21; Tue, 6 Jun 2023 01:28:33 -0700 Received: from wendy.microchip.com (10.10.115.15) by chn-vm-ex02.mchp-main.com (10.10.85.144) with Microsoft SMTP Server id 15.1.2507.21 via Frontend Transport; Tue, 6 Jun 2023 01:28:31 -0700 From: Conor Dooley To: CC: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Krzysztof Kozlowski Subject: [PATCH v3] Documentation/process: add soc maintainer handbook Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2023 09:27:43 +0100 Message-ID: <20230606-escapable-stuffed-7ca5033e7741@wendy> X-Mailer: git-send-email 2.40.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Developer-Signature: v=1; a=openpgp-sha256; l=11238; i=conor.dooley@microchip.com; h=from:subject:message-id; bh=83CH+1+GFJLq7dRIvQNFv+8CIkhu41Bosypd3+XFrTY=; b=owGbwMvMwCFWscWwfUFT0iXG02pJDCl1b//8evzpkYZV1LHFAaE3poZwMjR6xe/8L1N8MX5652KZ Mh7DjlIWBjEOBlkxRZbE230tUuv/uOxw7nkLM4eVCWQIAxenAEzkmRXDX6GI+uufJuxoF51U4bjH9k KR80fno/6BATZCiVcKm2P2WzL8ZnkpeOvHMs+nn6e1CIdlvNx5O4Ihe8Lt7Pc7f/MdNJ+6gx0A X-Developer-Key: i=conor.dooley@microchip.com; a=openpgp; fpr=F9ECA03CF54F12CD01F1655722E2C55B37CF380C Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Arnd suggested that adding a maintainer handbook for the SoC "subsystem" would be helpful in trying to bring on board maintainers for the various new platforms cropping up in RISC-V land. Add a document briefly describing the role of the SoC subsystem and some basic advice for (new) platform maintainers. Suggested-by: Arnd Bergmann Reviewed-by: Krzysztof Kozlowski Signed-off-by: Conor Dooley --- Changes in v3: - sort out a rake of spelling/grammar bits spotted by Randy, apart from the one noted as a suggestion - drop the refs for document filepaths Changes in v2: - add Krzysztof's suggested method for avoiding inter-branch dependencies - explicitly mention that tags should be signed - link to the devicetree abi document, rather than trying to explain it here & reword that whole section - fix some typos, capitalisation & unify bullet style The devicetree abi doc feels quite out of date at this point, and could probably do with a spring clean - but it also feels like hallowed ground on which one should tread lightly, so I won't go near that til Rob is back. --- .../process/maintainer-handbooks.rst | 3 +- Documentation/process/maintainer-soc.rst | 177 ++++++++++++++++++ MAINTAINERS | 1 + 3 files changed, 180 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) create mode 100644 Documentation/process/maintainer-soc.rst diff --git a/Documentation/process/maintainer-handbooks.rst b/Documentation= /process/maintainer-handbooks.rst index d783060b4cc6..fe24cb665fb7 100644 --- a/Documentation/process/maintainer-handbooks.rst +++ b/Documentation/process/maintainer-handbooks.rst @@ -15,5 +15,6 @@ Contents: :numbered: :maxdepth: 2 =20 - maintainer-tip maintainer-netdev + maintainer-soc + maintainer-tip diff --git a/Documentation/process/maintainer-soc.rst b/Documentation/proce= ss/maintainer-soc.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..49f08289d62c --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/process/maintainer-soc.rst @@ -0,0 +1,177 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D +SoC Subsystem +=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D + +Overview +-------- + +The SoC subsystem is a place of aggregation for SoC-specific code. +The main components of the subsystem are: + +* devicetrees for 32- & 64-bit ARM and RISC-V +* 32-bit ARM board files (arch/arm/mach*) +* 32- & 64-bit ARM defconfigs +* SoC-specific drivers across architectures, in particular for 32- & 64-bit + ARM, RISC-V and Loongarch + +These "SoC-specific drivers" do not include clock, GPIO etc drivers that h= ave +other top-level maintainers. The drivers/soc/ directory is generally meant +for kernel-internal drivers that are used by other drivers to provide SoC- +specific functionality like identifying an SoC revision or interfacing with +power domains. + +The SoC subsystem also serves as an intermediate location for changes to +drivers/bus, drivers/firmware, drivers/reset and drivers/memory. The addi= tion +of new platforms, or the removal of existing ones, often go through the SoC +tree as a dedicated branch covering multiple subsystems. + +The main SoC tree is housed on git.kernel.org: + https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/soc/soc.git/ + +Clearly this is quite a wide range of topics, which no one person, or even +small group of people are capable of maintaining. Instead, the SoC subsys= tem +is comprised of many submaintainers, each taking care of individual platfo= rms +and driver subdirectories. +In this regard, "platform" usually refers to a series of SoCs from a given +vendor, for example, Nvidia's series of Tegra SoCs. Many submaintainers o= perate +on a vendor level, responsible for multiple product lines. For several re= asons, +including acquisitions/different business units in a company, things vary +significantly here. The various submaintainers are documented in the +MAINTAINERS file. + +Most of these submaintainers have their own trees where they stage patches, +sending pull requests to the main SoC tree. These trees are usually, but = not +always, listed in MAINTAINERS. The main SoC maintainers can be reached vi= a the +alias soc@kernel.org if there is no platform-specific maintainer, or if th= ey +are unresponsive. + +What the SoC tree is not, however, is a location for architecture-specific= code +changes. Each architecture has its own maintainers that are responsible f= or +architectural details, CPU errata and the like. + +Information for (new) Submaintainers +------------------------------------ + +As new platforms spring up, they often bring with them new submaintainers, +many of whom work for the silicon vendor, and may not be familiar with the +process. + +Devicetree ABI Stability +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Perhaps one of the most important things to highlight is that dt-bindings +document the ABI between the devicetree and the kernel. +Please read Documentation/devicetree/bindings/ABI.rst. + +If changes are being made to a devicetree that are incompatible with old +kernels, the devicetree patch should not be applied until the driver is, o= r an +appropriate time later. Most importantly, any incompatible changes should= be +clearly pointed out in the patch description and pull request, along with = the +expected impact on existing users, such as bootloaders or other operating +systems. + +Driver Branch Dependencies +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +A common problem is synchronizing changes between device drivers and devic= etree +files. Even if a change is compatible in both directions, this may require +coordinating how the changes get merged through different maintainer trees. + +Usually the branch that includes a driver change will also include the +corresponding change to the devicetree binding description, to ensure they= are +in fact compatible. This means that the devicetree branch can end up caus= ing +warnings in the "make dtbs_check" step. If a devicetree change depends on +missing additions to a header file in include/dt-bindings/, it will fail t= he +"make dtbs" step and not get merged. + +There are multiple ways to deal with this: + +* Avoid defining custom macros in include/dt-bindings/ for hardware consta= nts + that can be derived from a datasheet -- binding macros in header files s= hould + only be used as a last resort if there is no natural way to define a bin= ding + +* Use literal values in the devicetree file in place of macros even when a + header is required, and change them to the named representation in a + following release + +* Defer the devicetree changes to a release after the binding and driver h= ave + already been merged + +* Change the bindings in a shared immutable branch that is used as the bas= e for + both the driver change and the devicetree changes + +* Add duplicate defines in the devicetree file guarded by an #ifndef secti= on, + removing them in a later release + +Devicetree Naming Convention +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The general naming scheme for devicetree files is as follows. The aspects= of a +platform that are set at the SoC level, like CPU cores, are contained in a= file +named $soc.dtsi, for example, jh7100.dtsi. Integration details, that will= vary +from board to board, are described in $soc-$board.dts. An example of this= is +jh7100-beaglev-starlight.dts. Often many boards are variations on a theme= , and +frequently there are intermediate files, such as jh7100-common.dtsi, which= sit +between the $soc.dtsi and $soc-$board.dts files, containing the descriptio= ns of +common hardware. + +Some platforms also have System on Modules, containing an SoC, which are t= hen +integrated into several different boards. For these platforms, $soc-$som.d= tsi +and $soc-$som-$board.dts are typical. + +Directories are usually named after the vendor of the SoC at the time of i= ts +inclusion, leading to some historical directory names in the tree. + +Validating Devicetree Files +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +``make dtbs_check`` can be used to validate that devicetree files are comp= liant +with the dt-bindings that describe the ABI. Please read the section +"Running checks" of Documentation/devicetree/bindings/writing-schema.rst f= or +more information on the validation of devicetrees. + +For new platforms, or additions to existing ones, ``make dtbs_check`` shou= ld not +add any new warnings. For RISC-V, as it has the advantage of being a newer +architecture, ``make dtbs_check W=3D1`` is required to not add any new war= nings. +If in any doubt about a devicetree change, reach out to the devicetree +maintainers. + +Branches and Pull Requests +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Just as the main SoC tree has several branches, it is expected that +submaintainers will do the same. Driver, defconfig and devicetree changes = should +all be split into separate branches and appear in separate pull requests t= o the +SoC maintainers. Each branch should be usable by itself and avoid +regressions that originate from dependencies on other branches. + +Small sets of patches can also be sent as separate emails to soc@kernel.or= g, +grouped into the same categories. + +If changes do not fit into the normal patterns, there can be additional +top-level branches, e.g. for a treewide rework, or the addition of new SoC +platforms including dts files and drivers. + +Branches with a lot of changes can benefit from getting split up into sepa= rate +topics branches, even if they end up getting merged into the same branch o= f the +SoC tree. An example here would be one branch for devicetree warning fixe= s, one +for a rework and one for newly added boards. + +Another common way to split up changes is to send an early pull request wi= th the +majority of the changes at some point between rc1 and rc4, following up wi= th one +or more smaller pull requests towards the end of the cycle that can add la= te +changes or address problems identified while testing the first set. + +While there is no cut-off time for late pull requests, it helps to only se= nd +small branches as time gets closer to the merge window. + +Pull requests for bugfixes for the current release can be sent at any time= , but +again having multiple smaller branches is better than trying to combine to= o many +patches into one pull request. + +The subject line of a pull request should begin with "[GIT PULL]" and made= using +a signed tag, rather than a branch. This tag should contain a short descr= iption +summarising the changes in the pull request. For more detail on sending p= ull +requests, please see Documentation/maintainer/pull-requests.rst. diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS index 7e0b87d5aa2e..29631c325857 100644 --- a/MAINTAINERS +++ b/MAINTAINERS @@ -1815,6 +1815,7 @@ L: linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org (moderated fo= r non-subscribers) S: Maintained C: irc://irc.libera.chat/armlinux T: git git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/soc/soc.git +F: Documentation/process/maintainer-soc.rst F: arch/arm/boot/dts/Makefile F: arch/arm64/boot/dts/Makefile =20 --=20 2.40.1