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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700
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tree2536f4b2d7893ccd916b5abdf3c454ad6edc03c2 /Documentation/driver-api/serial/driver.rst
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Merge tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-tracegrafted
Pull tracing fixes from Steven Rostedt: - Fix error output of boot instance creation failure Currently if a boot instance creation fails, instead of printing out the name of the instance that failed, it prints "(null)". That is because it prints "cur_str" that had already been processed by strsep(). Print the saved name instead. While at it, print the error code of the failure. - Fix use-after-free for same named historgrams Histograms can be named so that they can be used in multiple events. But if the named histogram has a variable attached, the second event that uses the named histogram which duplicates it and needs to free the original after duplication leaves the old variable in place and still visible. If another histogram uses than variable, it will use the stale one which will try to reference the freed duplicate histogram and crash the kernel. Free the duplicate variables along with the duplicated histogram data. - Check return value of kthread_run() in event self test The events self tests uses a kthread for testing but does not check if it succeeded in creating a kthread. If the kthread creation were to fail, the code will still try to call kthread_stop() on the error returned. - Fix race between reading trace_pipe and updating subbuffer size If a user is reading the trace_pipe file at the same time they update the ring buffer sub-buffer size, can cause the trace_pipe read to read stale data. Add trace_access_lock() around updating the ring buffer sub-buffer size. - Fix eventfs_inode on failure path in creation of the events directory In the creation of the "events" directory, if after allocating the eventfs_inode a failure is detected, it calls cleanup_ei() which calls free_ei(). The free_ei() will test if eventfs_inode being freed has no children. It is a bug if it does. But on the failure case of the creation of the "events" directory, the children lists have not yet been initialized and the free will trigger a warning because list_empty() on an uninitialized list returns false. Move the initialization into init_ei() where it makes more sense and makes sure that a created eventfs_inode has its lists initialized upon creation. - Check return value of kthread_run() in ftrace direct sample code The sample code that shows how to use the ftrace direct calls does not test the return of kthread_run() to see if it succeeds. Return a failure if the kthread_run() doesn't succeed. - Clear user events state on fork in case of alloc failure On fork, the child gets a pointer to the parent's user events state. It makes a copy of it then updates the child's pointer to it. But if the allocation fails, the duplication function leaves the child with a pointer to its parent's descriptor. When the child cleans up its data, it will free the parent's descriptor while the parent is still using it. In the duplication function, set the child's user_event_mm to NULL before testing if the allocation succeeded, and when it exits it will not free the parent's descriptor. - Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap simple_ring_buffer_swap_reader_page() starts with retry set to 8 and post-decrements it only after a failed link replacement. On the final attempt, a successful replacement leaves retry at zero, while a failed replacement leaves it at -1. But the check for success expects the retry value to be non-zero and exits with an error on zero. This is the opposite result. Fix it. - Fail nicely when the remote swap_reader_page() returns an error Currently, if the swap_reader_page() of a remote buffer fails, it triggers a WARN_ON_ONCE() and continues normally. Instead, have it exit with an error and a pr_warn() print instead of a full WARNING. * tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace: ring-buffer: Stop remote reader update when page swap fails tracing: Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap tracing/user_events: Clear copied tracing state before fork duplication samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-multi-modify samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-modify eventfs: Initialize ei->children and ei->list in init_ei() tracing: Fix use-after-free in trace_pipe read on sub-buffer order change tracing: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop() tracing: Fix use-after-free with same-name named triggers tracing: Fix logged instance name on creation failure
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+====================
+Low Level Serial API
+====================
+
+
+This document is meant as a brief overview of some aspects of the new serial
+driver. It is not complete, any questions you have should be directed to
+<rmk@arm.linux.org.uk>
+
+The reference implementation is contained within amba-pl011.c.
+
+
+
+Low Level Serial Hardware Driver
+--------------------------------
+
+The low level serial hardware driver is responsible for supplying port
+information (defined by uart_port) and a set of control methods (defined
+by uart_ops) to the core serial driver. The low level driver is also
+responsible for handling interrupts for the port, and providing any
+console support.
+
+
+Console Support
+---------------
+
+The serial core provides a few helper functions. This includes
+decoding command line arguments (uart_parse_options()).
+
+There is also a helper function (uart_console_write()) which performs a
+character by character write, translating newlines to CRLF sequences.
+Driver writers are recommended to use this function rather than implementing
+their own version.
+
+
+Locking
+-------
+
+It is the responsibility of the low level hardware driver to perform the
+necessary locking using port->lock. There are some exceptions (which
+are described in the struct uart_ops listing below.)
+
+There are two locks. A per-port spinlock, and an overall semaphore.
+
+From the core driver perspective, the port->lock locks the following
+data::
+
+ port->mctrl
+ port->icount
+ port->state->xmit.head (circ_buf->head)
+ port->state->xmit.tail (circ_buf->tail)
+
+The low level driver is free to use this lock to provide any additional
+locking.
+
+The port_sem semaphore is used to protect against ports being added/
+removed or reconfigured at inappropriate times. Since v2.6.27, this
+semaphore has been the 'mutex' member of the tty_port struct, and
+commonly referred to as the port mutex.
+
+
+uart_ops
+--------
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/serial_core.h
+ :identifiers: uart_ops
+
+Other functions
+---------------
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/tty/serial/serial_core.c
+ :identifiers: uart_update_timeout uart_get_baud_rate uart_get_divisor
+ uart_match_port uart_write_wakeup uart_register_driver
+ uart_unregister_driver uart_suspend_port uart_resume_port
+ uart_add_one_port uart_remove_one_port uart_console_write
+ uart_parse_earlycon uart_parse_options uart_set_options
+ uart_get_lsr_info uart_handle_dcd_change uart_handle_cts_change
+ uart_try_toggle_sysrq
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/serial_core.h
+ :identifiers: uart_port_tx_limited uart_port_tx
+
+Other notes
+-----------
+
+It is intended some day to drop the 'unused' entries from uart_port, and
+allow low level drivers to register their own individual uart_port's with
+the core. This will allow drivers to use uart_port as a pointer to a
+structure containing both the uart_port entry with their own extensions,
+thus::
+
+ struct my_port {
+ struct uart_port port;
+ int my_stuff;
+ };
+
+Modem control lines via GPIO
+----------------------------
+
+Some helpers are provided in order to set/get modem control lines via GPIO.
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/tty/serial/serial_mctrl_gpio.c
+ :identifiers: mctrl_gpio_init mctrl_gpio_to_gpiod
+ mctrl_gpio_set mctrl_gpio_get mctrl_gpio_enable_ms
+ mctrl_gpio_disable_ms_sync mctrl_gpio_disable_ms_no_sync