| GPIO Descriptor Driver Interface |
| ================================ |
| |
| This document serves as a guide for GPIO chip drivers writers. Note that it |
| describes the new descriptor-based interface. For a description of the |
| deprecated integer-based GPIO interface please refer to gpio-legacy.txt. |
| |
| Each GPIO controller driver needs to include the following header, which defines |
| the structures used to define a GPIO driver: |
| |
| #include <linux/gpio/driver.h> |
| |
| |
| Internal Representation of GPIOs |
| ================================ |
| |
| Inside a GPIO driver, individual GPIOs are identified by their hardware number, |
| which is a unique number between 0 and n, n being the number of GPIOs managed by |
| the chip. This number is purely internal: the hardware number of a particular |
| GPIO descriptor is never made visible outside of the driver. |
| |
| On top of this internal number, each GPIO also need to have a global number in |
| the integer GPIO namespace so that it can be used with the legacy GPIO |
| interface. Each chip must thus have a "base" number (which can be automatically |
| assigned), and for each GPIO the global number will be (base + hardware number). |
| Although the integer representation is considered deprecated, it still has many |
| users and thus needs to be maintained. |
| |
| So for example one platform could use numbers 32-159 for GPIOs, with a |
| controller defining 128 GPIOs at a "base" of 32 ; while another platform uses |
| numbers 0..63 with one set of GPIO controllers, 64-79 with another type of GPIO |
| controller, and on one particular board 80-95 with an FPGA. The numbers need not |
| be contiguous; either of those platforms could also use numbers 2000-2063 to |
| identify GPIOs in a bank of I2C GPIO expanders. |
| |
| |
| Controller Drivers: gpio_chip |
| ============================= |
| |
| In the gpiolib framework each GPIO controller is packaged as a "struct |
| gpio_chip" (see linux/gpio/driver.h for its complete definition) with members |
| common to each controller of that type: |
| |
| - methods to establish GPIO direction |
| - methods used to access GPIO values |
| - method to return the IRQ number associated to a given GPIO |
| - flag saying whether calls to its methods may sleep |
| - optional debugfs dump method (showing extra state like pullup config) |
| - optional base number (will be automatically assigned if omitted) |
| - label for diagnostics and GPIOs mapping using platform data |
| |
| The code implementing a gpio_chip should support multiple instances of the |
| controller, possibly using the driver model. That code will configure each |
| gpio_chip and issue gpiochip_add(). Removing a GPIO controller should be rare; |
| use gpiochip_remove() when it is unavoidable. |
| |
| Most often a gpio_chip is part of an instance-specific structure with state not |
| exposed by the GPIO interfaces, such as addressing, power management, and more. |
| Chips such as codecs will have complex non-GPIO state. |
| |
| Any debugfs dump method should normally ignore signals which haven't been |
| requested as GPIOs. They can use gpiochip_is_requested(), which returns either |
| NULL or the label associated with that GPIO when it was requested. |
| |
| RT_FULL: GPIO driver should not use spinlock_t or any sleepable APIs |
| (like PM runtime) in its gpio_chip implementation (.get/.set and direction |
| control callbacks) if it is expected to call GPIO APIs from atomic context |
| on -RT (inside hard IRQ handlers and similar contexts). Normally this should |
| not be required. |
| |
| GPIO drivers providing IRQs |
| --------------------------- |
| It is custom that GPIO drivers (GPIO chips) are also providing interrupts, |
| most often cascaded off a parent interrupt controller, and in some special |
| cases the GPIO logic is melded with a SoC's primary interrupt controller. |
| |
| The IRQ portions of the GPIO block are implemented using an irqchip, using |
| the header <linux/irq.h>. So basically such a driver is utilizing two sub- |
| systems simultaneously: gpio and irq. |
| |
| RT_FULL: GPIO driver should not use spinlock_t or any sleepable APIs |
| (like PM runtime) as part of its irq_chip implementation on -RT. |
| - spinlock_t should be replaced with raw_spinlock_t [1]. |
| - If sleepable APIs have to be used, these can be done from the .irq_bus_lock() |
| and .irq_bus_unlock() callbacks, as these are the only slowpath callbacks |
| on an irqchip. Create the callbacks if needed [2]. |
| |
| GPIO irqchips usually fall in one of two categories: |
| |
| * CHAINED GPIO irqchips: these are usually the type that is embedded on |
| an SoC. This means that there is a fast IRQ handler for the GPIOs that |
| gets called in a chain from the parent IRQ handler, most typically the |
| system interrupt controller. This means the GPIO irqchip is registered |
| using irq_set_chained_handler() or the corresponding |
| gpiochip_set_chained_irqchip() helper function, and the GPIO irqchip |
| handler will be called immediately from the parent irqchip, while |
| holding the IRQs disabled. The GPIO irqchip will then end up calling |
| something like this sequence in its interrupt handler: |
| |
| static irqreturn_t tc3589x_gpio_irq(int irq, void *data) |
| chained_irq_enter(...); |
| generic_handle_irq(...); |
| chained_irq_exit(...); |
| |
| Chained GPIO irqchips typically can NOT set the .can_sleep flag on |
| struct gpio_chip, as everything happens directly in the callbacks. |
| |
| RT_FULL: Note, chained IRQ handlers will not be forced threaded on -RT. |
| As result, spinlock_t or any sleepable APIs (like PM runtime) can't be used |
| in chained IRQ handler. |
| if required (and if it can't be converted to the nested threaded GPIO irqchip) |
| - chained IRQ handler can be converted to generic irq handler and this way |
| it will be threaded IRQ handler on -RT and hard IRQ handler on non-RT |
| (for example, see [3]). |
| Know W/A: The generic_handle_irq() is expected to be called with IRQ disabled, |
| so IRQ core will complain if it will be called from IRQ handler which is |
| forced thread. The "fake?" raw lock can be used to W/A this problem: |
| |
| raw_spinlock_t wa_lock; |
| static irqreturn_t omap_gpio_irq_handler(int irq, void *gpiobank) |
| unsigned long wa_lock_flags; |
| raw_spin_lock_irqsave(&bank->wa_lock, wa_lock_flags); |
| generic_handle_irq(irq_find_mapping(bank->chip.irqdomain, bit)); |
| raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore(&bank->wa_lock, wa_lock_flags); |
| |
| * GENERIC CHAINED GPIO irqchips: these are the same as "CHAINED GPIO irqchips", |
| but chained IRQ handlers are not used. Instead GPIO IRQs dispatching is |
| performed by generic IRQ handler which is configured using request_irq(). |
| The GPIO irqchip will then end up calling something like this sequence in |
| its interrupt handler: |
| |
| static irqreturn_t gpio_rcar_irq_handler(int irq, void *dev_id) |
| for each detected GPIO IRQ |
| generic_handle_irq(...); |
| |
| RT_FULL: Such kind of handlers will be forced threaded on -RT, as result IRQ |
| core will complain that generic_handle_irq() is called with IRQ enabled and |
| the same W/A as for "CHAINED GPIO irqchips" can be applied. |
| |
| * NESTED THREADED GPIO irqchips: these are off-chip GPIO expanders and any |
| other GPIO irqchip residing on the other side of a sleeping bus. Of course |
| such drivers that need slow bus traffic to read out IRQ status and similar, |
| traffic which may in turn incur other IRQs to happen, cannot be handled |
| in a quick IRQ handler with IRQs disabled. Instead they need to spawn a |
| thread and then mask the parent IRQ line until the interrupt is handled |
| by the driver. The hallmark of this driver is to call something like |
| this in its interrupt handler: |
| |
| static irqreturn_t tc3589x_gpio_irq(int irq, void *data) |
| ... |
| handle_nested_irq(irq); |
| |
| The hallmark of threaded GPIO irqchips is that they set the .can_sleep |
| flag on struct gpio_chip to true, indicating that this chip may sleep |
| when accessing the GPIOs. |
| |
| To help out in handling the set-up and management of GPIO irqchips and the |
| associated irqdomain and resource allocation callbacks, the gpiolib has |
| some helpers that can be enabled by selecting the GPIOLIB_IRQCHIP Kconfig |
| symbol: |
| |
| * gpiochip_irqchip_add(): adds an irqchip to a gpiochip. It will pass |
| the struct gpio_chip* for the chip to all IRQ callbacks, so the callbacks |
| need to embed the gpio_chip in its state container and obtain a pointer |
| to the container using container_of(). |
| (See Documentation/driver-model/design-patterns.txt) |
| |
| * gpiochip_set_chained_irqchip(): sets up a chained irq handler for a |
| gpio_chip from a parent IRQ and passes the struct gpio_chip* as handler |
| data. (Notice handler data, since the irqchip data is likely used by the |
| parent irqchip!) This is for the chained type of chip. This is also used |
| to set up a nested irqchip if NULL is passed as handler. |
| |
| To use the helpers please keep the following in mind: |
| |
| - Make sure to assign all relevant members of the struct gpio_chip so that |
| the irqchip can initialize. E.g. .dev and .can_sleep shall be set up |
| properly. |
| |
| - Nominally set all handlers to handle_bad_irq() in the setup call and pass |
| handle_bad_irq() as flow handler parameter in gpiochip_irqchip_add() if it is |
| expected for GPIO driver that irqchip .set_type() callback have to be called |
| before using/enabling GPIO IRQ. Then set the handler to handle_level_irq() |
| and/or handle_edge_irq() in the irqchip .set_type() callback depending on |
| what your controller supports. |
| |
| It is legal for any IRQ consumer to request an IRQ from any irqchip no matter |
| if that is a combined GPIO+IRQ driver. The basic premise is that gpio_chip and |
| irq_chip are orthogonal, and offering their services independent of each |
| other. |
| |
| gpiod_to_irq() is just a convenience function to figure out the IRQ for a |
| certain GPIO line and should not be relied upon to have been called before |
| the IRQ is used. |
| |
| So always prepare the hardware and make it ready for action in respective |
| callbacks from the GPIO and irqchip APIs. Do not rely on gpiod_to_irq() having |
| been called first. |
| |
| This orthogonality leads to ambiguities that we need to solve: if there is |
| competition inside the subsystem which side is using the resource (a certain |
| GPIO line and register for example) it needs to deny certain operations and |
| keep track of usage inside of the gpiolib subsystem. This is why the API |
| below exists. |
| |
| |
| Locking IRQ usage |
| ----------------- |
| Input GPIOs can be used as IRQ signals. When this happens, a driver is requested |
| to mark the GPIO as being used as an IRQ: |
| |
| int gpiochip_lock_as_irq(struct gpio_chip *chip, unsigned int offset) |
| |
| This will prevent the use of non-irq related GPIO APIs until the GPIO IRQ lock |
| is released: |
| |
| void gpiochip_unlock_as_irq(struct gpio_chip *chip, unsigned int offset) |
| |
| When implementing an irqchip inside a GPIO driver, these two functions should |
| typically be called in the .startup() and .shutdown() callbacks from the |
| irqchip. |
| |
| Real-Time compliance for GPIO IRQ chips |
| --------------------------------------- |
| |
| Any provider of irqchips needs to be carefully tailored to support Real Time |
| preemption. It is desirable that all irqchips in the GPIO subsystem keep this |
| in mind and does the proper testing to assure they are real time-enabled. |
| So, pay attention on above " RT_FULL:" notes, please. |
| The following is a checklist to follow when preparing a driver for real |
| time-compliance: |
| |
| - ensure spinlock_t is not used as part irq_chip implementation; |
| - ensure that sleepable APIs are not used as part irq_chip implementation. |
| If sleepable APIs have to be used, these can be done from the .irq_bus_lock() |
| and .irq_bus_unlock() callbacks; |
| - Chained GPIO irqchips: ensure spinlock_t or any sleepable APIs are not used |
| from chained IRQ handler; |
| - Generic chained GPIO irqchips: take care about generic_handle_irq() calls and |
| apply corresponding W/A; |
| - Chained GPIO irqchips: get rid of chained IRQ handler and use generic irq |
| handler if possible :) |
| - regmap_mmio: Sry, but you are in trouble :( if MMIO regmap is used as for |
| GPIO IRQ chip implementation; |
| - Test your driver with the appropriate in-kernel real time test cases for both |
| level and edge IRQs. |
| |
| |
| Requesting self-owned GPIO pins |
| ------------------------------- |
| |
| Sometimes it is useful to allow a GPIO chip driver to request its own GPIO |
| descriptors through the gpiolib API. Using gpio_request() for this purpose |
| does not help since it pins the module to the kernel forever (it calls |
| try_module_get()). A GPIO driver can use the following functions instead |
| to request and free descriptors without being pinned to the kernel forever. |
| |
| struct gpio_desc *gpiochip_request_own_desc(struct gpio_desc *desc, |
| const char *label) |
| |
| void gpiochip_free_own_desc(struct gpio_desc *desc) |
| |
| Descriptors requested with gpiochip_request_own_desc() must be released with |
| gpiochip_free_own_desc(). |
| |
| These functions must be used with care since they do not affect module use |
| count. Do not use the functions to request gpio descriptors not owned by the |
| calling driver. |
| |
| [1] http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-omap/msg120425.html |
| [2] https://lkml.org/lkml/2015/9/25/494 |
| [3] https://lkml.org/lkml/2015/9/25/495 |