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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
commit034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c (patch)
tree2536f4b2d7893ccd916b5abdf3c454ad6edc03c2 /Documentation/userspace-api/gpio/chardev.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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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+===================================
+GPIO Character Device Userspace API
+===================================
+
+This is latest version (v2) of the character device API, as defined in
+``include/uapi/linux/gpio.h.``
+
+First added in 5.10.
+
+.. note::
+ Do NOT abuse userspace APIs to control hardware that has proper kernel
+ drivers. There may already be a driver for your use case, and an existing
+ kernel driver is sure to provide a superior solution to bitbashing
+ from userspace.
+
+ Read Documentation/driver-api/gpio/drivers-on-gpio.rst to avoid reinventing
+ kernel wheels in userspace.
+
+ Similarly, for multi-function lines there may be other subsystems, such as
+ Documentation/spi/index.rst, Documentation/i2c/index.rst,
+ Documentation/driver-api/pwm.rst, Documentation/w1/index.rst etc, that
+ provide suitable drivers and APIs for your hardware.
+
+Basic examples using the character device API can be found in ``tools/gpio/*``.
+
+The API is based around two major objects, the :ref:`gpio-v2-chip` and the
+:ref:`gpio-v2-line-request`.
+
+.. _gpio-v2-chip:
+
+Chip
+====
+
+The Chip represents a single GPIO chip and is exposed to userspace using device
+files of the form ``/dev/gpiochipX``.
+
+Each chip supports a number of GPIO lines,
+:c:type:`chip.lines<gpiochip_info>`. Lines on the chip are identified by an
+``offset`` in the range from 0 to ``chip.lines - 1``, i.e. `[0,chip.lines)`.
+
+Lines are requested from the chip using gpio-v2-get-line-ioctl.rst
+and the resulting line request is used to access the GPIO chip's lines or
+monitor the lines for edge events.
+
+Within this documentation, the file descriptor returned by calling `open()`
+on the GPIO device file is referred to as ``chip_fd``.
+
+Operations
+----------
+
+The following operations may be performed on the chip:
+
+.. toctree::
+ :titlesonly:
+
+ Get Line <gpio-v2-get-line-ioctl>
+ Get Chip Info <gpio-get-chipinfo-ioctl>
+ Get Line Info <gpio-v2-get-lineinfo-ioctl>
+ Watch Line Info <gpio-v2-get-lineinfo-watch-ioctl>
+ Unwatch Line Info <gpio-get-lineinfo-unwatch-ioctl>
+ Read Line Info Changed Events <gpio-v2-lineinfo-changed-read>
+
+.. _gpio-v2-line-request:
+
+Line Request
+============
+
+Line requests are created by gpio-v2-get-line-ioctl.rst and provide
+access to a set of requested lines. The line request is exposed to userspace
+via the anonymous file descriptor returned in
+:c:type:`request.fd<gpio_v2_line_request>` by gpio-v2-get-line-ioctl.rst.
+
+Within this documentation, the line request file descriptor is referred to
+as ``req_fd``.
+
+Operations
+----------
+
+The following operations may be performed on the line request:
+
+.. toctree::
+ :titlesonly:
+
+ Get Line Values <gpio-v2-line-get-values-ioctl>
+ Set Line Values <gpio-v2-line-set-values-ioctl>
+ Read Line Edge Events <gpio-v2-line-event-read>
+ Reconfigure Lines <gpio-v2-line-set-config-ioctl>
+
+Types
+=====
+
+This section contains the structs and enums that are referenced by the API v2,
+as defined in ``include/uapi/linux/gpio.h``.
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/uapi/linux/gpio.h
+ :identifiers:
+ gpio_v2_line_attr_id
+ gpio_v2_line_attribute
+ gpio_v2_line_changed_type
+ gpio_v2_line_config
+ gpio_v2_line_config_attribute
+ gpio_v2_line_event
+ gpio_v2_line_event_id
+ gpio_v2_line_flag
+ gpio_v2_line_info
+ gpio_v2_line_info_changed
+ gpio_v2_line_request
+ gpio_v2_line_values
+ gpiochip_info
+
+.. toctree::
+ :hidden:
+
+ error-codes