xref: /dragonfly/share/man/man4/devctl.4 (revision ab709bfb)
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25.\" $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man4/devctl.4,v 1.5 2006/08/04 07:56:32 yar Exp $
26.\" $DragonFly: src/share/man/man4/devctl.4,v 1.2 2008/10/03 10:30:43 swildner Exp $
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28.Dd October 2, 2008
29.Dt DEVCTL 4
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm devctl
33.Nd "device event reporting and device control interface"
34.Sh DESCRIPTION
35The
36.Nm
37device is used to report device events from the kernel.
38Future versions will allow for some device control as well.
39.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
40This design allows only one reader for
41.Pa /dev/devctl .
42This is not desirable
43in the long run, but will get a lot of hair out of this implementation.
44Maybe we should make this device a clonable device.
45.Pp
46Also note: we specifically do not attach a device to the
47.Vt device_t
48tree
49to avoid potential chicken and egg problems.
50One could argue that all of this belongs to the root node.
51One could also further argue that the
52.Xr sysctl 3
53interface that we have now might more properly be an
54.Xr ioctl 2
55interface.
56.Pp
57.Dv SIGIO
58support is included in the driver.
59However, the author is not sure that the
60.Dv SIGIO
61support is done correctly.
62It was copied from a driver that had
63.Dv SIGIO
64support that likely has not been
65tested since
66.Fx 3.4
67or
68.Fx 2.2.8 !
69.Pp
70The read channel for this device is used to report changes to
71userland in realtime.
72We return one record at a time.
73If you try to read this device a character at a time, you will lose
74the rest of the data.
75Listening programs are expected to cope.
76.Pp
77The sysctl and boot parameter
78.Va hw.bus.devctl_disable
79is used to disable
80.Nm
81when no
82.Xr devd 8
83is running.
84.Sh PROTOCOL
85The
86.Nm
87device
88uses an
89.Tn ASCII
90protocol.
91The driver returns one record at a time to its readers.
92Each record is terminated with a newline.
93The first character of the record is the event type.
94.Pp
95.Bl -column -compact "Type" "Description"
96.Em "Type	Description"
97!	A notify event, such as a link state change.
98+	Device node in tree attached.
99-	Device node in tree detached.
100?	Unknown device detected.
101.El
102.Ss Message Formats
103Except for the first character in the record, attach and detach
104messages have the same format.
105.Pp
106.D1 Ar T Ns Ar dev Li at Ar parent Li on Ar location
107.Pp
108.Bl -column -compact "location" "Description"
109.Em "Part	Description"
110.It Ar T Ta "+ or -"
111.It Ar dev Ta "The device name that was attached/detached."
112.It Ar parent Ta "The device name of the parent bus that attached the device."
113.It Ar location Ta "Bus specific location information."
114.El
115.Pp
116The nomatch messages can be used to load devices driver.
117If you load a device driver, then one of two things can happen.
118If the device driver attaches to something, you will get a device
119attached message.
120If it does not, then nothing will happen.
121.Pp
122The attach and detach messages arrive after the event.
123This means one cannot use the attach message to load an alternate
124driver.
125The attach message driver has already claimed this device.
126One cannot use the detach messages to flush data to the device.
127The device is already gone.
128.Sh SEE ALSO
129.Xr devd 8
130