diff options
| author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700 |
| commit | 034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c (patch) | |
| tree | 2536f4b2d7893ccd916b5abdf3c454ad6edc03c2 /Documentation/networking/plip.rst | |
| download | linux-stable-034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c.tar.gz linux-stable-034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c.zip | |
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
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/networking/plip.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/networking/plip.rst | 222 |
1 files changed, 222 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/networking/plip.rst b/Documentation/networking/plip.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0eda74505 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/networking/plip.rst @@ -0,0 +1,222 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +================================================ +PLIP: The Parallel Line Internet Protocol Device +================================================ + +Donald Becker (becker@super.org) +I.D.A. Supercomputing Research Center, Bowie MD 20715 + +At some point T. Thorn will probably contribute text, +Tommy Thorn (tthorn@daimi.aau.dk) + +PLIP Introduction +----------------- + +This document describes the parallel port packet pusher for Net/LGX. +This device interface allows a point-to-point connection between two +parallel ports to appear as a IP network interface. + +What is PLIP? +============= + +PLIP is Parallel Line IP, that is, the transportation of IP packages +over a parallel port. In the case of a PC, the obvious choice is the +printer port. PLIP is a non-standard, but [can use] uses the standard +LapLink null-printer cable [can also work in turbo mode, with a PLIP +cable]. [The protocol used to pack IP packages, is a simple one +initiated by Crynwr.] + +Advantages of PLIP +================== + +It's cheap, it's available everywhere, and it's easy. + +The PLIP cable is all that's needed to connect two Linux boxes, and it +can be built for very few bucks. + +Connecting two Linux boxes takes only a second's decision and a few +minutes' work, no need to search for a [supported] netcard. This might +even be especially important in the case of notebooks, where netcards +are not easily available. + +Not requiring a netcard also means that apart from connecting the +cables, everything else is software configuration [which in principle +could be made very easy.] + +Disadvantages of PLIP +===================== + +Doesn't work over a modem, like SLIP and PPP. Limited range, 15 m. +Can only be used to connect three (?) Linux boxes. Doesn't connect to +an existing Ethernet. Isn't standard (not even de facto standard, like +SLIP). + +Performance +=========== + +PLIP easily outperforms Ethernet cards....(ups, I was dreaming, but +it *is* getting late. EOB) + +PLIP driver details +------------------- + +The Linux PLIP driver is an implementation of the original Crynwr protocol, +that uses the parallel port subsystem of the kernel in order to properly +share parallel ports between PLIP and other services. + +IRQs and trigger timeouts +========================= + +When a parallel port used for a PLIP driver has an IRQ configured to it, the +PLIP driver is signaled whenever data is sent to it via the cable, such that +when no data is available, the driver isn't being used. + +However, on some machines it is hard, if not impossible, to configure an IRQ +to a certain parallel port, mainly because it is used by some other device. +On these machines, the PLIP driver can be used in IRQ-less mode, where +the PLIP driver would constantly poll the parallel port for data waiting, +and if such data is available, process it. This mode is less efficient than +the IRQ mode, because the driver has to check the parallel port many times +per second, even when no data at all is sent. Some rough measurements +indicate that there isn't a noticeable performance drop when using IRQ-less +mode as compared to IRQ mode as far as the data transfer speed is involved. +There is a performance drop on the machine hosting the driver. + +When the PLIP driver is used in IRQ mode, the timeout used for triggering a +data transfer (the maximal time the PLIP driver would allow the other side +before announcing a timeout, when trying to handshake a transfer of some +data) is, by default, 500usec. As IRQ delivery is more or less immediate, +this timeout is quite sufficient. + +When in IRQ-less mode, the PLIP driver polls the parallel port HZ times +per second (where HZ is typically 100 on most platforms, and 1024 on an +Alpha, as of this writing). Between two such polls, there are 10^6/HZ usecs. +On an i386, for example, 10^6/100 = 10000usec. It is easy to see that it is +quite possible for the trigger timeout to expire between two such polls, as +the timeout is only 500usec long. As a result, it is required to change the +trigger timeout on the *other* side of a PLIP connection, to about +10^6/HZ usecs. If both sides of a PLIP connection are used in IRQ-less mode, +this timeout is required on both sides. + +It appears that in practice, the trigger timeout can be shorter than in the +above calculation. It isn't an important issue, unless the wire is faulty, +in which case a long timeout would stall the machine when, for whatever +reason, bits are dropped. + +A utility that can perform this change in Linux is plipconfig, which is part +of the net-tools package (its location can be found in the +Documentation/Changes file). An example command would be +'plipconfig plipX trigger 10000', where plipX is the appropriate +PLIP device. + +PLIP hardware interconnection +----------------------------- + +PLIP uses several different data transfer methods. The first (and the +only one implemented in the early version of the code) uses a standard +printer "null" cable to transfer data four bits at a time using +data bit outputs connected to status bit inputs. + +The second data transfer method relies on both machines having +bi-directional parallel ports, rather than output-only ``printer`` +ports. This allows byte-wide transfers and avoids reconstructing +nibbles into bytes, leading to much faster transfers. + +Parallel Transfer Mode 0 Cable +============================== + +The cable for the first transfer mode is a standard +printer "null" cable which transfers data four bits at a time using +data bit outputs of the first port (machine T) connected to the +status bit inputs of the second port (machine R). There are five +status inputs, and they are used as four data inputs and a clock (data +strobe) input, arranged so that the data input bits appear as contiguous +bits with standard status register implementation. + +A cable that implements this protocol is available commercially as a +"Null Printer" or "Turbo Laplink" cable. It can be constructed with +two DB-25 male connectors symmetrically connected as follows:: + + STROBE output 1* + D0->ERROR 2 - 15 15 - 2 + D1->SLCT 3 - 13 13 - 3 + D2->PAPOUT 4 - 12 12 - 4 + D3->ACK 5 - 10 10 - 5 + D4->BUSY 6 - 11 11 - 6 + D5,D6,D7 are 7*, 8*, 9* + AUTOFD output 14* + INIT output 16* + SLCTIN 17 - 17 + extra grounds are 18*,19*,20*,21*,22*,23*,24* + GROUND 25 - 25 + + * Do not connect these pins on either end + +If the cable you are using has a metallic shield it should be +connected to the metallic DB-25 shell at one end only. + +Parallel Transfer Mode 1 +======================== + +The second data transfer method relies on both machines having +bi-directional parallel ports, rather than output-only ``printer`` +ports. This allows byte-wide transfers, and avoids reconstructing +nibbles into bytes. This cable should not be used on unidirectional +``printer`` (as opposed to ``parallel``) ports or when the machine +isn't configured for PLIP, as it will result in output driver +conflicts and the (unlikely) possibility of damage. + +The cable for this transfer mode should be constructed as follows:: + + STROBE->BUSY 1 - 11 + D0->D0 2 - 2 + D1->D1 3 - 3 + D2->D2 4 - 4 + D3->D3 5 - 5 + D4->D4 6 - 6 + D5->D5 7 - 7 + D6->D6 8 - 8 + D7->D7 9 - 9 + INIT -> ACK 16 - 10 + AUTOFD->PAPOUT 14 - 12 + SLCT->SLCTIN 13 - 17 + GND->ERROR 18 - 15 + extra grounds are 19*,20*,21*,22*,23*,24* + GROUND 25 - 25 + + * Do not connect these pins on either end + +Once again, if the cable you are using has a metallic shield it should +be connected to the metallic DB-25 shell at one end only. + +PLIP Mode 0 transfer protocol +============================= + +The PLIP driver is compatible with the "Crynwr" parallel port transfer +standard in Mode 0. That standard specifies the following protocol:: + + send header nibble '0x8' + count-low octet + count-high octet + ... data octets + checksum octet + +Each octet is sent as:: + + <wait for rx. '0x1?'> <send 0x10+(octet&0x0F)> + <wait for rx. '0x0?'> <send 0x00+((octet>>4)&0x0F)> + +To start a transfer the transmitting machine outputs a nibble 0x08. +That raises the ACK line, triggering an interrupt in the receiving +machine. The receiving machine disables interrupts and raises its own ACK +line. + +Restated:: + + (OUT is bit 0-4, OUT.j is bit j from OUT. IN likewise) + Send_Byte: + OUT := low nibble, OUT.4 := 1 + WAIT FOR IN.4 = 1 + OUT := high nibble, OUT.4 := 0 + WAIT FOR IN.4 = 0 |
