Jonathan Cameron wrote on 2012-04-22:
Hi All,
I vaguely recall asking this in response to certain drivers over the
years, but what is the usecase for userspace 'resetting' a device via
a reset attribute? It's reasonably common in the drivers but not
(as I've kept it out) in the abi docs.
It is common in some of Analog's inertial sensor drivers but I think
turns up in various other places.
Ideally we shouldn't have such an attribute.
Error checking and handling should be all done in the drivers, if possible.
I don't remember exactly why it went into one of the original inertial sensor drivers.
But I think it went there to provide error correction, in case plausibility/error checking
of the delivered data failed.
I also suspect it then got copied over and over again.