[openib-general] Re: RFC: ipath ioctls and their replacements

[Greg KH]

On Wed, Jan 18, 2006 at 04:43:31PM -0800, Bryan O'Sullivan wrote:
> For EEPROM/flash management:
> 
>         READ_EEPROM reads the flash.  WRITE_EEPROM writes it.  I don't
>         see a standard way of doing this in the kernel; many drivers
>         provide their own private ioctls, some on dedicated special
>         files.  I think that using read and write instead would be okay
>         (with a small qualm about semantics), but this idea makes an
>         influential coworker barf violently.  I can't see how we could
>         use the ethtool flash interface: the low-level driver doesn't
>         look like a regular net device, and we support partial updates
>         of the flash.

Use the firmware subsystem for this.  It uses sysfs so ioctl needed at
all.

thanks,

greg k-h