Root/Documentation/driver-model/device.txt

1
2The Basic Device Structure
3~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4
5struct device {
6        struct list_head g_list;
7        struct list_head node;
8        struct list_head bus_list;
9        struct list_head driver_list;
10        struct list_head intf_list;
11        struct list_head children;
12        struct device * parent;
13
14        char name[DEVICE_NAME_SIZE];
15        char bus_id[BUS_ID_SIZE];
16
17        spinlock_t lock;
18        atomic_t refcount;
19
20        struct bus_type * bus;
21        struct driver_dir_entry dir;
22
23    u32 class_num;
24
25        struct device_driver *driver;
26        void *driver_data;
27        void *platform_data;
28
29        u32 current_state;
30        unsigned char *saved_state;
31
32        void (*release)(struct device * dev);
33};
34
35Fields
36~~~~~~
37g_list: Node in the global device list.
38
39node: Node in device's parent's children list.
40
41bus_list: Node in device's bus's devices list.
42
43driver_list: Node in device's driver's devices list.
44
45intf_list: List of intf_data. There is one structure allocated for
46           each interface that the device supports.
47
48children: List of child devices.
49
50parent: *** FIXME ***
51
52name: ASCII description of device.
53           Example: " 3Com Corporation 3c905 100BaseTX [Boomerang]"
54
55bus_id: ASCII representation of device's bus position. This
56           field should be a name unique across all devices on the
57           bus type the device belongs to.
58
59           Example: PCI bus_ids are in the form of
60           <bus number>:<slot number>.<function number>
61           This name is unique across all PCI devices in the system.
62
63lock: Spinlock for the device.
64
65refcount: Reference count on the device.
66
67bus: Pointer to struct bus_type that device belongs to.
68
69dir: Device's sysfs directory.
70
71class_num: Class-enumerated value of the device.
72
73driver: Pointer to struct device_driver that controls the device.
74
75driver_data: Driver-specific data.
76
77platform_data: Platform data specific to the device.
78
79           Example: for devices on custom boards, as typical of embedded
80           and SOC based hardware, Linux often uses platform_data to point
81           to board-specific structures describing devices and how they
82           are wired. That can include what ports are available, chip
83           variants, which GPIO pins act in what additional roles, and so
84           on. This shrinks the "Board Support Packages" (BSPs) and
85           minimizes board-specific #ifdefs in drivers.
86
87current_state: Current power state of the device.
88
89saved_state: Pointer to saved state of the device. This is usable by
90           the device driver controlling the device.
91
92release: Callback to free the device after all references have
93           gone away. This should be set by the allocator of the
94           device (i.e. the bus driver that discovered the device).
95
96
97Programming Interface
98~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
99The bus driver that discovers the device uses this to register the
100device with the core:
101
102int device_register(struct device * dev);
103
104The bus should initialize the following fields:
105
106    - parent
107    - name
108    - bus_id
109    - bus
110
111A device is removed from the core when its reference count goes to
1120. The reference count can be adjusted using:
113
114struct device * get_device(struct device * dev);
115void put_device(struct device * dev);
116
117get_device() will return a pointer to the struct device passed to it
118if the reference is not already 0 (if it's in the process of being
119removed already).
120
121A driver can access the lock in the device structure using:
122
123void lock_device(struct device * dev);
124void unlock_device(struct device * dev);
125
126
127Attributes
128~~~~~~~~~~
129struct device_attribute {
130    struct attribute attr;
131    ssize_t (*show)(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr,
132            char *buf);
133    ssize_t (*store)(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr,
134             const char *buf, size_t count);
135};
136
137Attributes of devices can be exported via drivers using a simple
138procfs-like interface.
139
140Please see Documentation/filesystems/sysfs.txt for more information
141on how sysfs works.
142
143Attributes are declared using a macro called DEVICE_ATTR:
144
145#define DEVICE_ATTR(name,mode,show,store)
146
147Example:
148
149DEVICE_ATTR(power,0644,show_power,store_power);
150
151This declares a structure of type struct device_attribute named
152'dev_attr_power'. This can then be added and removed to the device's
153directory using:
154
155int device_create_file(struct device *device, struct device_attribute * entry);
156void device_remove_file(struct device * dev, struct device_attribute * attr);
157
158Example:
159
160device_create_file(dev,&dev_attr_power);
161device_remove_file(dev,&dev_attr_power);
162
163The file name will be 'power' with a mode of 0644 (-rw-r--r--).
164
165Word of warning: While the kernel allows device_create_file() and
166device_remove_file() to be called on a device at any time, userspace has
167strict expectations on when attributes get created. When a new device is
168registered in the kernel, a uevent is generated to notify userspace (like
169udev) that a new device is available. If attributes are added after the
170device is registered, then userspace won't get notified and userspace will
171not know about the new attributes.
172
173This is important for device driver that need to publish additional
174attributes for a device at driver probe time. If the device driver simply
175calls device_create_file() on the device structure passed to it, then
176userspace will never be notified of the new attributes. Instead, it should
177probably use class_create() and class->dev_attrs to set up a list of
178desired attributes in the modules_init function, and then in the .probe()
179hook, and then use device_create() to create a new device as a child
180of the probed device. The new device will generate a new uevent and
181properly advertise the new attributes to userspace.
182
183For example, if a driver wanted to add the following attributes:
184struct device_attribute mydriver_attribs[] = {
185    __ATTR(port_count, 0444, port_count_show),
186    __ATTR(serial_number, 0444, serial_number_show),
187    NULL
188};
189
190Then in the module init function is would do:
191    mydriver_class = class_create(THIS_MODULE, "my_attrs");
192    mydriver_class.dev_attr = mydriver_attribs;
193
194And assuming 'dev' is the struct device passed into the probe hook, the driver
195probe function would do something like:
196    create_device(&mydriver_class, dev, chrdev, &private_data, "my_name");
197

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