Driver core holds a reference to the USB interface and its parent USB
device while the interface is bound to a driver and there is no need to
take additional references unless the structures are needed after
disconnect.

Drop the redundant device reference to reduce cargo culting, make it
easier to spot drivers where an extra reference is needed, and reduce
the risk of memory leaks when drivers fail to release it.

Signed-off-by: Johan Hovold <johan@kernel.org>
---
 drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-tiny-usb.c | 13 +++----------
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-tiny-usb.c b/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-tiny-usb.c
index 9ef495f88ef2..88d66593d9fc 100644
--- a/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-tiny-usb.c
+++ b/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-tiny-usb.c
@@ -213,12 +213,6 @@ static int usb_write(struct i2c_adapter *adapter, int cmd,
 	return ret;
 }
 
-static void i2c_tiny_usb_free(struct i2c_tiny_usb *dev)
-{
-	usb_put_dev(dev->usb_dev);
-	kfree(dev);
-}
-
 static int i2c_tiny_usb_probe(struct usb_interface *interface,
 			      const struct usb_device_id *id)
 {
@@ -237,7 +231,7 @@ static int i2c_tiny_usb_probe(struct usb_interface *interface,
 	if (!dev)
 		goto error;
 
-	dev->usb_dev = usb_get_dev(interface_to_usbdev(interface));
+	dev->usb_dev = interface_to_usbdev(interface);
 	dev->interface = interface;
 
 	/* save our data pointer in this interface device */
@@ -277,8 +271,7 @@ static int i2c_tiny_usb_probe(struct usb_interface *interface,
 	return 0;
 
  error:
-	if (dev)
-		i2c_tiny_usb_free(dev);
+	kfree(dev);
 
 	return retval;
 }
@@ -289,7 +282,7 @@ static void i2c_tiny_usb_disconnect(struct usb_interface *interface)
 
 	i2c_del_adapter(&dev->adapter);
 	usb_set_intfdata(interface, NULL);
-	i2c_tiny_usb_free(dev);
+	kfree(dev);
 
 	dev_dbg(&interface->dev, "disconnected\n");
 }
-- 
2.52.0

On Thu, Mar 05, 2026 at 01:54:03PM +0100, Johan Hovold wrote:
> Driver core holds a reference to the USB interface and its parent USB
> device while the interface is bound to a driver and there is no need to
> take additional references unless the structures are needed after
> disconnect.
> 
> Drop the redundant device reference to reduce cargo culting, make it
> easier to spot drivers where an extra reference is needed, and reduce
> the risk of memory leaks when drivers fail to release it.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Johan Hovold <johan@kernel.org>

Applied to for-next, thanks!