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| author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-24 08:46:03 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-24 08:46:03 -0700 |
| commit | cf9610f9116d55c5a66ef9f1faecacabd93a9322 (patch) | |
| tree | 757a3d280760c654767631cab5ad8af2d86d1848 /Documentation/driver-api/connector.rst | |
| download | linux-stable-cf9610f9116d55c5a66ef9f1faecacabd93a9322.tar.gz linux-stable-cf9610f9116d55c5a66ef9f1faecacabd93a9322.zip | |
Merge tag 'pinctrl-v7.3-1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/linusw/linux-pinctrlgrafted
Pull pin control updates from Linus Walleij:
"Core changes:
- Use the non-blocking mux_state_try_select() in the generic MUX pin
control back-end
- Free pin maps on pinctrl_generic_to_map() failure in the core
helpers
New hardware pin control:
- Qualcomm Maili TLMM SoC, PMG1110 PMIC, and Eliza LPASS LPI TLMM SoC
(this is for the low power audio, LPASS = Low Power Audio SubSystem
portions)
- Upboard support on top of the Intel pin controller
- Apple T6030 and T6031 support (just compatible strings)
- Samsung Exynos 8855 SoC
- Mediatek MT6858 SoC
- Rockchip RK3308B and RV1106 SoCs
- Airoha EN7523 and AN7563 SoCs
Improvements:
- Qualcomm TLMM GPIOs are unconditionally marked as wakeup capable
- Qualcomm improvements on top of the Qualcomm PDC (power domain
controller) irqchip improvements from tglx:s tree
- Qualcomm IPQ806x and IPQ9650 non-urgent pin grop fixups
- The NPCM8xx driver has been put into shape fixing many pin and
group definitions
- Some non-urgent Tegra 264 pin assignments are fixed up
- Some non-urgent fixups to Airoha AN7581 and AN7583 registers and
pin assignments, missing features etc"
* tag 'pinctrl-v7.3-1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/linusw/linux-pinctrl: (130 commits)
dt-bindings: pinctrl: Convert TI DA850 pupd to DT schema
pinctrl: meson: sync some modify from A4
pinctrl: meson: a4: Add input enable pin configuration
pinctrl: realtek: rtd1625: remove unused group name spdif_sel
pinctrl: realtek: rtd1625: fix base_bit for VE4 GPIO 13
dt-bindings: pinctrl: microchip,pic32mzda-pinctrl: Convert to DT schema
Revert "Merge branch 'ib-rsk7204' into devel"
pinctrl: rockchip: Add RV1106 pinctrl support
dt-bindings: pinctrl: rockchip: Add RV1106 compatible
pinctrl: rockchip: Decode drive strength in the get function
pinctrl: fix PINCTRL_GENERIC_MUX not always being selectable
pinctrl: airoha: add support of an7563 SoC
dt-bindings: pinctrl: airoha: add support of an7563 pin controller
pinctrl: airoha: try to find chip scu node by phandle first
pinctrl: airoha: add support of en7523 SoC
dt-bindings: pinctrl: airoha: add support of en7523 pin controller
pinctrl: airoha: an7583: add support for olt pinmux
pinctrl: airoha: an7583: add support for pon_alt pinmux
pinctrl: airoha: an7583: add support for npu_uart pinmux
dt-bindings: pinctrl: airoha: an7583: add missed features
...
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/driver-api/connector.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/driver-api/connector.rst | 157 |
1 files changed, 157 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/connector.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/connector.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..631b84a48 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/driver-api/connector.rst @@ -0,0 +1,157 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +================ +Kernel Connector +================ + +Kernel connector - new netlink based userspace <-> kernel space easy +to use communication module. + +The Connector driver makes it easy to connect various agents using a +netlink based network. One must register a callback and an identifier. +When the driver receives a special netlink message with the appropriate +identifier, the appropriate callback will be called. + +From the userspace point of view it's quite straightforward: + + - socket(); + - bind(); + - send(); + - recv(); + +But if kernelspace wants to use the full power of such connections, the +driver writer must create special sockets, must know about struct sk_buff +handling, etc... The Connector driver allows any kernelspace agents to use +netlink based networking for inter-process communication in a significantly +easier way:: + + int cn_add_callback(const struct cb_id *id, char *name, void (*callback) (struct cn_msg *, struct netlink_skb_parms *)); + void cn_netlink_send_mult(struct cn_msg *msg, u16 len, u32 portid, u32 __group, int gfp_mask); + void cn_netlink_send(struct cn_msg *msg, u32 portid, u32 __group, int gfp_mask); + + struct cb_id + { + __u32 idx; + __u32 val; + }; + +idx and val are unique identifiers which must be registered in the +connector.h header for in-kernel usage. `void (*callback) (void *)` is a +callback function which will be called when a message with above idx.val +is received by the connector core. The argument for that function must +be dereferenced to `struct cn_msg *`:: + + struct cn_msg + { + struct cb_id id; + + __u32 seq; + __u32 ack; + + __u16 len; /* Length of the following data */ + __u16 flags; + __u8 data[0]; + }; + +Connector interfaces +==================== + + .. kernel-doc:: include/linux/connector.h + + Note: + When registering new callback user, connector core assigns + netlink group to the user which is equal to its id.idx. + +Protocol description +==================== + +The current framework offers a transport layer with fixed headers. The +recommended protocol which uses such a header is as following: + +msg->seq and msg->ack are used to determine message genealogy. When +someone sends a message, they use a locally unique sequence and random +acknowledge number. The sequence number may be copied into +nlmsghdr->nlmsg_seq too. + +The sequence number is incremented with each message sent. + +If you expect a reply to the message, then the sequence number in the +received message MUST be the same as in the original message, and the +acknowledge number MUST be the same + 1. + +If we receive a message and its sequence number is not equal to one we +are expecting, then it is a new message. If we receive a message and +its sequence number is the same as one we are expecting, but its +acknowledge is not equal to the sequence number in the original +message + 1, then it is a new message. + +Obviously, the protocol header contains the above id. + +The connector allows event notification in the following form: kernel +driver or userspace process can ask connector to notify it when +selected ids will be turned on or off (registered or unregistered its +callback). It is done by sending a special command to the connector +driver (it also registers itself with id={-1, -1}). + +As example of this usage can be found in the cn_test.c module which +uses the connector to request notification and to send messages. + +Reliability +=========== + +Netlink itself is not a reliable protocol. That means that messages can +be lost due to memory pressure or process' receiving queue overflowed, +so caller is warned that it must be prepared. That is why the struct +cn_msg [main connector's message header] contains u32 seq and u32 ack +fields. + +Userspace usage +=============== + +2.6.14 has a new netlink socket implementation, which by default does not +allow people to send data to netlink groups other than 1. +So, if you wish to use a netlink socket (for example using connector) +with a different group number, the userspace application must subscribe to +that group first. It can be achieved by the following pseudocode:: + + s = socket(PF_NETLINK, SOCK_DGRAM, NETLINK_CONNECTOR); + + l_local.nl_family = AF_NETLINK; + l_local.nl_groups = 12345; + l_local.nl_pid = 0; + + if (bind(s, (struct sockaddr *)&l_local, sizeof(struct sockaddr_nl)) == -1) { + perror("bind"); + close(s); + return -1; + } + + { + int on = l_local.nl_groups; + setsockopt(s, 270, 1, &on, sizeof(on)); + } + +Where 270 above is SOL_NETLINK, and 1 is a NETLINK_ADD_MEMBERSHIP socket +option. To drop a multicast subscription, one should call the above socket +option with the NETLINK_DROP_MEMBERSHIP parameter which is defined as 0. + +2.6.14 netlink code only allows to select a group which is less or equal to +the maximum group number, which is used at netlink_kernel_create() time. +In case of connector it is CN_NETLINK_USERS + 0xf, so if you want to use +group number 12345, you must increment CN_NETLINK_USERS to that number. +Additional 0xf numbers are allocated to be used by non-in-kernel users. + +Due to this limitation, group 0xffffffff does not work now, so one can +not use add/remove connector's group notifications, but as far as I know, +only cn_test.c test module used it. + +Some work in netlink area is still being done, so things can be changed in +2.6.15 timeframe, if it will happen, documentation will be updated for that +kernel. + +Code samples +============ + +Sample code for a connector test module and user space can be found +in samples/connector/. To build this code, enable CONFIG_CONNECTOR +and CONFIG_SAMPLES. |
