Hello, despite having been searching for documentation I couldn't find out the exact and detailed difference between the .shutdown() and .remove() calls in struct device_driver. My best understanding follows. Any amendment or clarification would be appreciated, and why not it might end up in improving the docs. The different intent is kind of clear: remove() is called when the device is disconnected or otherwise removed from the system, and also when the driver is removed (which can only happen by unloading a kernel module, I think). shutdown() is called during reboot and shutdown. remove() is _not_ called during shutdown and reboot. shutdown() is not called on device or driver removal. Things get more blurred when trying to understand what each of the two should do. Definitely both must stop the device from producing any events to the rest of the system: stop DMAs, stop anything that would trigger interrupts etc. remove() should also "turn off" the device, but it's probably a good idea to do in shutdown() as well in order to not leave peripherals unnecessarily powered while rebooting. remove() must definitely free any allocated resources, which would be useless in shutdown().
From the above it looks like the shutdown() actions must be a subset of remove() actions.
How much of my understanding is correct? Thanks. -- Luca