Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH net-next v3 03/15] net: dsa: mt7530: use regmap to access switch register space

From: Daniel Golle <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2023 19:33:17 +0100

On Wed, Mar 29, 2023 at 06:24:21PM +0200, Andrew Lunn wrote:
> Thanks for splitting this patchset up. This is much easier to review.
> 
> > +static u32
> > +mt7530_mii_read(struct mt7530_priv *priv, u32 reg)
> > +{
> > +	int ret;
> > +	u32 val;
> > +
> > +	ret = regmap_read(priv->regmap, reg, &val);
> > +	if (ret) {
> > +		dev_err(priv->dev,
> > +			"failed to read mt7530 register\n");
> > +		return ret;
> 
> This is a u32 function. ret should be negative on error, which is
> going to be turned positive in order to return a u32. So you probably
> want to make this an int function.

This is a pre-existing flaw in the code. As we are accessing 32-bit
registers there has just never been any meaningful error handling.
I guess the correct solution would be to not use the return value only
to indicate success or error, and use an additional u32* parameter for
the read value.

However, I was hestitating to convert all the calls (they are many) to
follow that improved paradigm.

Should I?