[alsa-devel] [RFC PATCH v8 1/4] media: Media Device Allocator API

[shuah]

On 11/19/18 1:59 AM, Pavel Machek wrote:
> On Thu 2018-11-01 18:31:30, shuah at kernel.org wrote:
>> From: Shuah Khan <shuah at kernel.org>
>>
>> Media Device Allocator API to allows multiple drivers share a media device.
>> Using this API, drivers can allocate a media device with the shared struct
>> device as the key. Once the media device is allocated by a driver, other
>> drivers can get a reference to it. The media device is released when all
>> the references are released.
> 
> Sounds like a ... bad idea?
> 
> That's what new "media control" framework is for, no?
> 
> Why do you need this?
> 								Pavel
> 

Media control framework doesn't address this problem of ownership of the 
media device when non-media drivers have to own the pipeline. In this 
case, snd-usb owns the audio pipeline when an audio application is using 
the device. Without this work, media drivers won't be able to tell if 
snd-usb is using the tuner and owns the media pipeline.

I am going to clarify this in the commit log.

thanks,
-- Shuah