summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/tools/include/uapi/README
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-08-24 08:46:03 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-08-24 08:46:03 -0700
commitcf9610f9116d55c5a66ef9f1faecacabd93a9322 (patch)
tree757a3d280760c654767631cab5ad8af2d86d1848 /tools/include/uapi/README
downloadlinux-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 'tools/include/uapi/README')
-rw-r--r--tools/include/uapi/README73
1 files changed, 73 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/tools/include/uapi/README b/tools/include/uapi/README
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7147b1b2c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/include/uapi/README
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+Why we want a copy of kernel headers in tools?
+==============================================
+
+There used to be no copies, with tools/ code using kernel headers
+directly. From time to time tools/perf/ broke due to legitimate kernel
+hacking. At some point Linus complained about such direct usage. Then we
+adopted the current model.
+
+The way these headers are used in perf are not restricted to just
+including them to compile something.
+
+There are sometimes used in scripts that convert defines into string
+tables, etc, so some change may break one of these scripts, or new MSRs
+may use some different #define pattern, etc.
+
+E.g.:
+
+ $ ls -1 tools/perf/trace/beauty/*.sh | head -5
+ tools/perf/trace/beauty/arch_errno_names.sh
+ tools/perf/trace/beauty/drm_ioctl.sh
+ tools/perf/trace/beauty/fadvise.sh
+ tools/perf/trace/beauty/fsconfig.sh
+ tools/perf/trace/beauty/fsmount.sh
+ $
+ $ tools/perf/trace/beauty/fadvise.sh
+ static const char *fadvise_advices[] = {
+ [0] = "NORMAL",
+ [1] = "RANDOM",
+ [2] = "SEQUENTIAL",
+ [3] = "WILLNEED",
+ [4] = "DONTNEED",
+ [5] = "NOREUSE",
+ };
+ $
+
+The tools/perf/check-headers.sh script, part of the tools/ build
+process, points out changes in the original files.
+
+So its important not to touch the copies in tools/ when doing changes in
+the original kernel headers, that will be done later, when
+check-headers.sh inform about the change to the perf tools hackers.
+
+Another explanation from Ingo Molnar:
+It's better than all the alternatives we tried so far:
+
+ - Symbolic links and direct #includes: this was the original approach but
+ was pushed back on from the kernel side, when tooling modified the
+ headers and broke them accidentally for kernel builds.
+
+ - Duplicate self-defined ABI headers like glibc: double the maintenance
+ burden, double the chance for mistakes, plus there's no tech-driven
+ notification mechanism to look at new kernel side changes.
+
+What we are doing now is a third option:
+
+ - A software-enforced copy-on-write mechanism of kernel headers to
+ tooling, driven by non-fatal warnings on the tooling side build when
+ kernel headers get modified:
+
+ Warning: Kernel ABI header differences:
+ diff -u tools/include/uapi/drm/i915_drm.h include/uapi/drm/i915_drm.h
+ diff -u tools/include/uapi/linux/fs.h include/uapi/linux/fs.h
+ diff -u tools/include/uapi/linux/kvm.h include/uapi/linux/kvm.h
+ ...
+
+ The tooling policy is to always pick up the kernel side headers as-is,
+ and integate them into the tooling build. The warnings above serve as a
+ notification to tooling maintainers that there's changes on the kernel
+ side.
+
+We've been using this for many years now, and it might seem hacky, but
+works surprisingly well.
+