NSH networking: There is now a configuration option that will bring up the network on an separate thread. Since the network bring-up is asynchronous, there are not serial console start-up delays due to the network negotiation time.

nshlib/Kconfig

@@ -777,6 +777,49 @@ config NSH_ARCHINIT
 menu "Networking Configuration"
 	depends on NET
 
+config NSH_NETINIT_THREAD
+	bool "Network initialization thread"
+	default n
+	depends on !DISABLE_PTHREAD
+	---help---
+		NSH is brought up through a series of sequential initialization
+		steps.  This includes networking. If the network is available on
+		reset, then there is really no issue.  Negotiating the link will
+		take only a second or so and the delay to the NSH prompt is
+		normally acceptable.
+
+		But if there is no network connected, then the start-up delay can
+		be very long depending upon things like the particular PHY, driver
+		timeout delay times, and numbers of retries.  A failed negotiation
+		can potentially take a very long time, perhaps as much as a
+		minute... Long enough that you might think that the board would
+		never come up!
+
+		One solution is to enabled by this option.  If NSH_NETINIT_THREAD
+		is selected, the network bring-up will all occur in parallel with
+		NSH on a separate thread.  In this case, the NSH prompt will occur
+		immediately with the network becoming available some time layer (if
+		if all).  This thread will terminate once it successfully initializes
+		the network
+
+		NOTES:  If no network is connected, the network bring-up will fail
+		and the network initialization thread will simply exit.  There are
+		no retries and no mechanism to know if the network initialization
+		was successful.  Furthermore, there is currently no support for
+		detecting loss of network connection.  Lots of things to do!
+
+if NSH_NETINIT_THREAD
+
+config NSH_NETINIT_THREAD_STACKSIZE
+	int "Network initialization thread stack size"
+	default 1568
+
+config NSH_NETINIT_THREAD_PRIORITY
+	int "Network initialization thread priority"
+	default 100
+
+endif # NSH_NETINIT_THREAD
+
 config NSH_DHCPC
 	bool "Use DHCP to get IP address"
 	default n

nshlib/nsh.h

@@ -104,7 +104,9 @@
 #  define CONFIG_NSH_TMPDIR "/tmp"
 #endif
 
-/* Networking support */
+/* Networking support.  Make sure that all non-boolean configuration
+ * settings have some value.
+ */
 
 #ifndef CONFIG_NSH_IPADDR
 #  define CONFIG_NSH_IPADDR    0x0a000002
@@ -126,6 +128,14 @@
 #  define CONFIG_NSH_MACADDR   0x00e0deadbeef
 #endif
 
+#ifndef CONFIG_NSH_NETINIT_THREAD_STACKSIZE
+#  define CONFIG_NSH_NETINIT_THREAD_STACKSIZE 1568
+#endif
+
+#ifndef CONFIG_NSH_NETINIT_THREAD_PRIORITY
+#  define CONFIG_NSH_NETINIT_THREAD_PRIORITY   100
+#endif
+
 #ifndef CONFIG_NET
 #  undef CONFIG_NSH_ARCHMAC
 #endif

nshlib/nsh_init.c

@@ -101,4 +101,3 @@ void nsh_initialize(void)
 
   (void)nsh_netinit();
 }
-

nshlib/nsh_netinit.c

@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
 
 #include <nuttx/config.h>
 
+#include <pthread.h>
 #include <debug.h>
 
 #include <net/if.h>
@@ -95,18 +96,14 @@
  ****************************************************************************/
 
 /****************************************************************************
- * Public Functions
- ****************************************************************************/
-
-/****************************************************************************
- * Name: nsh_netinit
+ * Name: nsh_netinit_thread
  *
  * Description:
  *   Initialize the network per the selected NuttX configuration
  *
  ****************************************************************************/
 
-int nsh_netinit(void)
+pthread_addr_t nsh_netinit_thread(pthread_addr_t arg)
 {
   struct in_addr addr;
 #if defined(CONFIG_NSH_DHCPC)
@@ -116,6 +113,8 @@ int nsh_netinit(void)
   uint8_t mac[IFHWADDRLEN];
 #endif
 
+  nvdbg("Entry\n");
+
   /* Many embedded network interfaces must have a software assigned MAC */
 
 #if defined(CONFIG_NSH_NOMAC) && !defined(CONFIG_NET_SLIP)
@@ -207,7 +206,65 @@ int nsh_netinit(void)
     }
 #endif
 
+  nvdbg("Exit\n");
   return OK;
 }
 
+/****************************************************************************
+ * Public Functions
+ ****************************************************************************/
+
+/****************************************************************************
+ * Name: nsh_netinit
+ *
+ * Description:
+ *   Initialize the network per the selected NuttX configuration
+ *
+ ****************************************************************************/
+
+int nsh_netinit(void)
+{
+#ifdef CONFIG_NSH_NETINIT_THREAD
+  struct sched_param  sparam;
+  pthread_attr_t      attr;
+  pthread_t           tid;
+  void               *value;
+  int                 ret;
+
+  /* Start the network initialization thread to perform the network bring-up
+   * asynchronously.
+   */
+
+  pthread_attr_init(&attr);
+  sparam.sched_priority = CONFIG_NSH_NETINIT_THREAD_PRIORITY;
+  (void)pthread_attr_setschedparam(&attr, &sparam);
+  (void)pthread_attr_setstacksize(&attr, CONFIG_NSH_NETINIT_THREAD_STACKSIZE);
+
+  nvdbg("Starting netinit thread\n");
+  ret = pthread_create(&tid, &attr, nsh_netinit_thread, NULL);
+  if (ret != OK)
+    {
+      ndbg("ERROR: Failed to create netinit thread: %d\n", ret);
+      (void)nsh_netinit_thread(NULL);
+    }
+  else
+    {
+      /* Detach the thread because we will not be joining to it */
+
+      (void)pthread_detach(tid);
+
+      /* Name the thread */
+
+      pthread_setname_np(tid, "netinit");
+    }
+
+  return OK;
+
+#else
+  /* Perform network initialization sequentially */
+
+  (void)nsh_netinit_thread(NULL);
+#endif
+}
+
 #endif /* CONFIG_NET */