1.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
2
3V4L2 sub-devices
4----------------
5
6Many drivers need to communicate with sub-devices. These devices can do all
7sort of tasks, but most commonly they handle audio and/or video muxing,
8encoding or decoding. For webcams common sub-devices are sensors and camera
9controllers.
10
11Usually these are I2C devices, but not necessarily. In order to provide the
12driver with a consistent interface to these sub-devices the
13:c:type:`v4l2_subdev` struct (v4l2-subdev.h) was created.
14
15Each sub-device driver must have a :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` struct. This struct
16can be stand-alone for simple sub-devices or it might be embedded in a larger
17struct if more state information needs to be stored. Usually there is a
18low-level device struct (e.g. ``i2c_client``) that contains the device data as
19setup by the kernel. It is recommended to store that pointer in the private
20data of :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` using :c:func:`v4l2_set_subdevdata`. That makes
21it easy to go from a :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` to the actual low-level bus-specific
22device data.
23
24You also need a way to go from the low-level struct to :c:type:`v4l2_subdev`.
25For the common i2c_client struct the i2c_set_clientdata() call is used to store
26a :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` pointer, for other buses you may have to use other
27methods.
28
29Bridges might also need to store per-subdev private data, such as a pointer to
30bridge-specific per-subdev private data. The :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` structure
31provides host private data for that purpose that can be accessed with
32:c:func:`v4l2_get_subdev_hostdata` and :c:func:`v4l2_set_subdev_hostdata`.
33
34From the bridge driver perspective, you load the sub-device module and somehow
35obtain the :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` pointer. For i2c devices this is easy: you call
36``i2c_get_clientdata()``. For other buses something similar needs to be done.
37Helper functions exist for sub-devices on an I2C bus that do most of this
38tricky work for you.
39
40Each :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` contains function pointers that sub-device drivers
41can implement (or leave ``NULL`` if it is not applicable). Since sub-devices can
42do so many different things and you do not want to end up with a huge ops struct
43of which only a handful of ops are commonly implemented, the function pointers
44are sorted according to category and each category has its own ops struct.
45
46The top-level ops struct contains pointers to the category ops structs, which
47may be NULL if the subdev driver does not support anything from that category.
48
49It looks like this:
50
51.. code-block:: c
52
53	struct v4l2_subdev_core_ops {
54		int (*log_status)(struct v4l2_subdev *sd);
55		int (*init)(struct v4l2_subdev *sd, u32 val);
56		...
57	};
58
59	struct v4l2_subdev_tuner_ops {
60		...
61	};
62
63	struct v4l2_subdev_audio_ops {
64		...
65	};
66
67	struct v4l2_subdev_video_ops {
68		...
69	};
70
71	struct v4l2_subdev_pad_ops {
72		...
73	};
74
75	struct v4l2_subdev_ops {
76		const struct v4l2_subdev_core_ops  *core;
77		const struct v4l2_subdev_tuner_ops *tuner;
78		const struct v4l2_subdev_audio_ops *audio;
79		const struct v4l2_subdev_video_ops *video;
80		const struct v4l2_subdev_pad_ops *video;
81	};
82
83The core ops are common to all subdevs, the other categories are implemented
84depending on the sub-device. E.g. a video device is unlikely to support the
85audio ops and vice versa.
86
87This setup limits the number of function pointers while still making it easy
88to add new ops and categories.
89
90A sub-device driver initializes the :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` struct using:
91
92	:c:func:`v4l2_subdev_init <v4l2_subdev_init>`
93	(:c:type:`sd <v4l2_subdev>`, &\ :c:type:`ops <v4l2_subdev_ops>`).
94
95
96Afterwards you need to initialize :c:type:`sd <v4l2_subdev>`->name with a
97unique name and set the module owner. This is done for you if you use the
98i2c helper functions.
99
100If integration with the media framework is needed, you must initialize the
101:c:type:`media_entity` struct embedded in the :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` struct
102(entity field) by calling :c:func:`media_entity_pads_init`, if the entity has
103pads:
104
105.. code-block:: c
106
107	struct media_pad *pads = &my_sd->pads;
108	int err;
109
110	err = media_entity_pads_init(&sd->entity, npads, pads);
111
112The pads array must have been previously initialized. There is no need to
113manually set the struct media_entity function and name fields, but the
114revision field must be initialized if needed.
115
116A reference to the entity will be automatically acquired/released when the
117subdev device node (if any) is opened/closed.
118
119Don't forget to cleanup the media entity before the sub-device is destroyed:
120
121.. code-block:: c
122
123	media_entity_cleanup(&sd->entity);
124
125If a sub-device driver implements sink pads, the subdev driver may set the
126link_validate field in :c:type:`v4l2_subdev_pad_ops` to provide its own link
127validation function. For every link in the pipeline, the link_validate pad
128operation of the sink end of the link is called. In both cases the driver is
129still responsible for validating the correctness of the format configuration
130between sub-devices and video nodes.
131
132If link_validate op is not set, the default function
133:c:func:`v4l2_subdev_link_validate_default` is used instead. This function
134ensures that width, height and the media bus pixel code are equal on both source
135and sink of the link. Subdev drivers are also free to use this function to
136perform the checks mentioned above in addition to their own checks.
137
138Subdev registration
139~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
140
141There are currently two ways to register subdevices with the V4L2 core. The
142first (traditional) possibility is to have subdevices registered by bridge
143drivers. This can be done when the bridge driver has the complete information
144about subdevices connected to it and knows exactly when to register them. This
145is typically the case for internal subdevices, like video data processing units
146within SoCs or complex PCI(e) boards, camera sensors in USB cameras or connected
147to SoCs, which pass information about them to bridge drivers, usually in their
148platform data.
149
150There are however also situations where subdevices have to be registered
151asynchronously to bridge devices. An example of such a configuration is a Device
152Tree based system where information about subdevices is made available to the
153system independently from the bridge devices, e.g. when subdevices are defined
154in DT as I2C device nodes. The API used in this second case is described further
155below.
156
157Using one or the other registration method only affects the probing process, the
158run-time bridge-subdevice interaction is in both cases the same.
159
160Registering synchronous sub-devices
161^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
162
163In the **synchronous** case a device (bridge) driver needs to register the
164:c:type:`v4l2_subdev` with the v4l2_device:
165
166	:c:func:`v4l2_device_register_subdev <v4l2_device_register_subdev>`
167	(:c:type:`v4l2_dev <v4l2_device>`, :c:type:`sd <v4l2_subdev>`).
168
169This can fail if the subdev module disappeared before it could be registered.
170After this function was called successfully the subdev->dev field points to
171the :c:type:`v4l2_device`.
172
173If the v4l2_device parent device has a non-NULL mdev field, the sub-device
174entity will be automatically registered with the media device.
175
176You can unregister a sub-device using:
177
178	:c:func:`v4l2_device_unregister_subdev <v4l2_device_unregister_subdev>`
179	(:c:type:`sd <v4l2_subdev>`).
180
181Afterwards the subdev module can be unloaded and
182:c:type:`sd <v4l2_subdev>`->dev == ``NULL``.
183
184Registering asynchronous sub-devices
185^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
186
187In the **asynchronous** case subdevice probing can be invoked independently of
188the bridge driver availability. The subdevice driver then has to verify whether
189all the requirements for a successful probing are satisfied. This can include a
190check for a master clock availability. If any of the conditions aren't satisfied
191the driver might decide to return ``-EPROBE_DEFER`` to request further reprobing
192attempts. Once all conditions are met the subdevice shall be registered using
193the :c:func:`v4l2_async_register_subdev` function. Unregistration is
194performed using the :c:func:`v4l2_async_unregister_subdev` call. Subdevices
195registered this way are stored in a global list of subdevices, ready to be
196picked up by bridge drivers.
197
198Asynchronous sub-device notifiers
199^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
200
201Bridge drivers in turn have to register a notifier object. This is performed
202using the :c:func:`v4l2_async_nf_register` call. To unregister the notifier the
203driver has to call :c:func:`v4l2_async_nf_unregister`. Before releasing memory
204of an unregister notifier, it must be cleaned up by calling
205:c:func:`v4l2_async_nf_cleanup`.
206
207Before registering the notifier, bridge drivers must do two things: first, the
208notifier must be initialized using the :c:func:`v4l2_async_nf_init`.  Second,
209bridge drivers can then begin to form a list of async connection descriptors
210that the bridge device needs for its
211operation. :c:func:`v4l2_async_nf_add_fwnode`,
212:c:func:`v4l2_async_nf_add_fwnode_remote` and :c:func:`v4l2_async_nf_add_i2c`
213
214Async connection descriptors describe connections to external sub-devices the
215drivers for which are not yet probed. Based on an async connection, a media data
216or ancillary link may be created when the related sub-device becomes
217available. There may be one or more async connections to a given sub-device but
218this is not known at the time of adding the connections to the notifier. Async
219connections are bound as matching async sub-devices are found, one by one.
220
221Asynchronous sub-device notifier for sub-devices
222^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
223
224A driver that registers an asynchronous sub-device may also register an
225asynchronous notifier. This is called an asynchronous sub-device notifier andthe
226process is similar to that of a bridge driver apart from that the notifier is
227initialised using :c:func:`v4l2_async_subdev_nf_init` instead. A sub-device
228notifier may complete only after the V4L2 device becomes available, i.e. there's
229a path via async sub-devices and notifiers to a notifier that is not an
230asynchronous sub-device notifier.
231
232Asynchronous sub-device registration helper for camera sensor drivers
233^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
234
235:c:func:`v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor` is a helper function for sensor
236drivers registering their own async connection, but it also registers a notifier
237and further registers async connections for lens and flash devices found in
238firmware. The notifier for the sub-device is unregistered and cleaned up with
239the async sub-device, using :c:func:`v4l2_async_unregister_subdev`.
240
241Asynchronous sub-device notifier example
242^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
243
244These functions allocate an async connection descriptor which is of type struct
245:c:type:`v4l2_async_connection` embedded in a driver-specific struct. The &struct
246:c:type:`v4l2_async_connection` shall be the first member of this struct:
247
248.. code-block:: c
249
250	struct my_async_connection {
251		struct v4l2_async_connection asc;
252		...
253	};
254
255	struct my_async_connection *my_asc;
256	struct fwnode_handle *ep;
257
258	...
259
260	my_asc = v4l2_async_nf_add_fwnode_remote(&notifier, ep,
261						 struct my_async_connection);
262	fwnode_handle_put(ep);
263
264	if (IS_ERR(my_asc))
265		return PTR_ERR(my_asc);
266
267Asynchronous sub-device notifier callbacks
268^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
269
270The V4L2 core will then use these connection descriptors to match asynchronously
271registered subdevices to them. If a match is detected the ``.bound()`` notifier
272callback is called. After all connections have been bound the .complete()
273callback is called. When a connection is removed from the system the
274``.unbind()`` method is called. All three callbacks are optional.
275
276Drivers can store any type of custom data in their driver-specific
277:c:type:`v4l2_async_connection` wrapper. If any of that data requires special
278handling when the structure is freed, drivers must implement the ``.destroy()``
279notifier callback. The framework will call it right before freeing the
280:c:type:`v4l2_async_connection`.
281
282Calling subdev operations
283~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
284
285The advantage of using :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` is that it is a generic struct and
286does not contain any knowledge about the underlying hardware. So a driver might
287contain several subdevs that use an I2C bus, but also a subdev that is
288controlled through GPIO pins. This distinction is only relevant when setting
289up the device, but once the subdev is registered it is completely transparent.
290
291Once the subdev has been registered you can call an ops function either
292directly:
293
294.. code-block:: c
295
296	err = sd->ops->core->g_std(sd, &norm);
297
298but it is better and easier to use this macro:
299
300.. code-block:: c
301
302	err = v4l2_subdev_call(sd, core, g_std, &norm);
303
304The macro will do the right ``NULL`` pointer checks and returns ``-ENODEV``
305if :c:type:`sd <v4l2_subdev>` is ``NULL``, ``-ENOIOCTLCMD`` if either
306:c:type:`sd <v4l2_subdev>`->core or :c:type:`sd <v4l2_subdev>`->core->g_std is ``NULL``, or the actual result of the
307:c:type:`sd <v4l2_subdev>`->ops->core->g_std ops.
308
309It is also possible to call all or a subset of the sub-devices:
310
311.. code-block:: c
312
313	v4l2_device_call_all(v4l2_dev, 0, core, g_std, &norm);
314
315Any subdev that does not support this ops is skipped and error results are
316ignored. If you want to check for errors use this:
317
318.. code-block:: c
319
320	err = v4l2_device_call_until_err(v4l2_dev, 0, core, g_std, &norm);
321
322Any error except ``-ENOIOCTLCMD`` will exit the loop with that error. If no
323errors (except ``-ENOIOCTLCMD``) occurred, then 0 is returned.
324
325The second argument to both calls is a group ID. If 0, then all subdevs are
326called. If non-zero, then only those whose group ID match that value will
327be called. Before a bridge driver registers a subdev it can set
328:c:type:`sd <v4l2_subdev>`->grp_id to whatever value it wants (it's 0 by
329default). This value is owned by the bridge driver and the sub-device driver
330will never modify or use it.
331
332The group ID gives the bridge driver more control how callbacks are called.
333For example, there may be multiple audio chips on a board, each capable of
334changing the volume. But usually only one will actually be used when the
335user want to change the volume. You can set the group ID for that subdev to
336e.g. AUDIO_CONTROLLER and specify that as the group ID value when calling
337``v4l2_device_call_all()``. That ensures that it will only go to the subdev
338that needs it.
339
340If the sub-device needs to notify its v4l2_device parent of an event, then
341it can call ``v4l2_subdev_notify(sd, notification, arg)``. This macro checks
342whether there is a ``notify()`` callback defined and returns ``-ENODEV`` if not.
343Otherwise the result of the ``notify()`` call is returned.
344
345V4L2 sub-device userspace API
346-----------------------------
347
348Bridge drivers traditionally expose one or multiple video nodes to userspace,
349and control subdevices through the :c:type:`v4l2_subdev_ops` operations in
350response to video node operations. This hides the complexity of the underlying
351hardware from applications. For complex devices, finer-grained control of the
352device than what the video nodes offer may be required. In those cases, bridge
353drivers that implement :ref:`the media controller API <media_controller>` may
354opt for making the subdevice operations directly accessible from userspace.
355
356Device nodes named ``v4l-subdev``\ *X* can be created in ``/dev`` to access
357sub-devices directly. If a sub-device supports direct userspace configuration
358it must set the ``V4L2_SUBDEV_FL_HAS_DEVNODE`` flag before being registered.
359
360After registering sub-devices, the :c:type:`v4l2_device` driver can create
361device nodes for all registered sub-devices marked with
362``V4L2_SUBDEV_FL_HAS_DEVNODE`` by calling
363:c:func:`v4l2_device_register_subdev_nodes`. Those device nodes will be
364automatically removed when sub-devices are unregistered.
365
366The device node handles a subset of the V4L2 API.
367
368``VIDIOC_QUERYCTRL``,
369``VIDIOC_QUERYMENU``,
370``VIDIOC_G_CTRL``,
371``VIDIOC_S_CTRL``,
372``VIDIOC_G_EXT_CTRLS``,
373``VIDIOC_S_EXT_CTRLS`` and
374``VIDIOC_TRY_EXT_CTRLS``:
375
376	The controls ioctls are identical to the ones defined in V4L2. They
377	behave identically, with the only exception that they deal only with
378	controls implemented in the sub-device. Depending on the driver, those
379	controls can be also be accessed through one (or several) V4L2 device
380	nodes.
381
382``VIDIOC_DQEVENT``,
383``VIDIOC_SUBSCRIBE_EVENT`` and
384``VIDIOC_UNSUBSCRIBE_EVENT``
385
386	The events ioctls are identical to the ones defined in V4L2. They
387	behave identically, with the only exception that they deal only with
388	events generated by the sub-device. Depending on the driver, those
389	events can also be reported by one (or several) V4L2 device nodes.
390
391	Sub-device drivers that want to use events need to set the
392	``V4L2_SUBDEV_FL_HAS_EVENTS`` :c:type:`v4l2_subdev`.flags before registering
393	the sub-device. After registration events can be queued as usual on the
394	:c:type:`v4l2_subdev`.devnode device node.
395
396	To properly support events, the ``poll()`` file operation is also
397	implemented.
398
399Private ioctls
400
401	All ioctls not in the above list are passed directly to the sub-device
402	driver through the core::ioctl operation.
403
404Read-only sub-device userspace API
405----------------------------------
406
407Bridge drivers that control their connected subdevices through direct calls to
408the kernel API realized by :c:type:`v4l2_subdev_ops` structure do not usually
409want userspace to be able to change the same parameters through the subdevice
410device node and thus do not usually register any.
411
412It is sometimes useful to report to userspace the current subdevice
413configuration through a read-only API, that does not permit applications to
414change to the device parameters but allows interfacing to the subdevice device
415node to inspect them.
416
417For instance, to implement cameras based on computational photography, userspace
418needs to know the detailed camera sensor configuration (in terms of skipping,
419binning, cropping and scaling) for each supported output resolution. To support
420such use cases, bridge drivers may expose the subdevice operations to userspace
421through a read-only API.
422
423To create a read-only device node for all the subdevices registered with the
424``V4L2_SUBDEV_FL_HAS_DEVNODE`` set, the :c:type:`v4l2_device` driver should call
425:c:func:`v4l2_device_register_ro_subdev_nodes`.
426
427Access to the following ioctls for userspace applications is restricted on
428sub-device device nodes registered with
429:c:func:`v4l2_device_register_ro_subdev_nodes`.
430
431``VIDIOC_SUBDEV_S_FMT``,
432``VIDIOC_SUBDEV_S_CROP``,
433``VIDIOC_SUBDEV_S_SELECTION``:
434
435	These ioctls are only allowed on a read-only subdevice device node
436	for the :ref:`V4L2_SUBDEV_FORMAT_TRY <v4l2-subdev-format-whence>`
437	formats and selection rectangles.
438
439``VIDIOC_SUBDEV_S_FRAME_INTERVAL``,
440``VIDIOC_SUBDEV_S_DV_TIMINGS``,
441``VIDIOC_SUBDEV_S_STD``:
442
443	These ioctls are not allowed on a read-only subdevice node.
444
445In case the ioctl is not allowed, or the format to modify is set to
446``V4L2_SUBDEV_FORMAT_ACTIVE``, the core returns a negative error code and
447the errno variable is set to ``-EPERM``.
448
449I2C sub-device drivers
450----------------------
451
452Since these drivers are so common, special helper functions are available to
453ease the use of these drivers (``v4l2-common.h``).
454
455The recommended method of adding :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` support to an I2C driver
456is to embed the :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` struct into the state struct that is
457created for each I2C device instance. Very simple devices have no state
458struct and in that case you can just create a :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` directly.
459
460A typical state struct would look like this (where 'chipname' is replaced by
461the name of the chip):
462
463.. code-block:: c
464
465	struct chipname_state {
466		struct v4l2_subdev sd;
467		...  /* additional state fields */
468	};
469
470Initialize the :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` struct as follows:
471
472.. code-block:: c
473
474	v4l2_i2c_subdev_init(&state->sd, client, subdev_ops);
475
476This function will fill in all the fields of :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` ensure that
477the :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` and i2c_client both point to one another.
478
479You should also add a helper inline function to go from a :c:type:`v4l2_subdev`
480pointer to a chipname_state struct:
481
482.. code-block:: c
483
484	static inline struct chipname_state *to_state(struct v4l2_subdev *sd)
485	{
486		return container_of(sd, struct chipname_state, sd);
487	}
488
489Use this to go from the :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` struct to the ``i2c_client``
490struct:
491
492.. code-block:: c
493
494	struct i2c_client *client = v4l2_get_subdevdata(sd);
495
496And this to go from an ``i2c_client`` to a :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` struct:
497
498.. code-block:: c
499
500	struct v4l2_subdev *sd = i2c_get_clientdata(client);
501
502Make sure to call
503:c:func:`v4l2_device_unregister_subdev`\ (:c:type:`sd <v4l2_subdev>`)
504when the ``remove()`` callback is called. This will unregister the sub-device
505from the bridge driver. It is safe to call this even if the sub-device was
506never registered.
507
508You need to do this because when the bridge driver destroys the i2c adapter
509the ``remove()`` callbacks are called of the i2c devices on that adapter.
510After that the corresponding v4l2_subdev structures are invalid, so they
511have to be unregistered first. Calling
512:c:func:`v4l2_device_unregister_subdev`\ (:c:type:`sd <v4l2_subdev>`)
513from the ``remove()`` callback ensures that this is always done correctly.
514
515
516The bridge driver also has some helper functions it can use:
517
518.. code-block:: c
519
520	struct v4l2_subdev *sd = v4l2_i2c_new_subdev(v4l2_dev, adapter,
521					"module_foo", "chipid", 0x36, NULL);
522
523This loads the given module (can be ``NULL`` if no module needs to be loaded)
524and calls :c:func:`i2c_new_client_device` with the given ``i2c_adapter`` and
525chip/address arguments. If all goes well, then it registers the subdev with
526the v4l2_device.
527
528You can also use the last argument of :c:func:`v4l2_i2c_new_subdev` to pass
529an array of possible I2C addresses that it should probe. These probe addresses
530are only used if the previous argument is 0. A non-zero argument means that you
531know the exact i2c address so in that case no probing will take place.
532
533Both functions return ``NULL`` if something went wrong.
534
535Note that the chipid you pass to :c:func:`v4l2_i2c_new_subdev` is usually
536the same as the module name. It allows you to specify a chip variant, e.g.
537"saa7114" or "saa7115". In general though the i2c driver autodetects this.
538The use of chipid is something that needs to be looked at more closely at a
539later date. It differs between i2c drivers and as such can be confusing.
540To see which chip variants are supported you can look in the i2c driver code
541for the i2c_device_id table. This lists all the possibilities.
542
543There are one more helper function:
544
545:c:func:`v4l2_i2c_new_subdev_board` uses an :c:type:`i2c_board_info` struct
546which is passed to the i2c driver and replaces the irq, platform_data and addr
547arguments.
548
549If the subdev supports the s_config core ops, then that op is called with
550the irq and platform_data arguments after the subdev was setup.
551
552The :c:func:`v4l2_i2c_new_subdev` function will call
553:c:func:`v4l2_i2c_new_subdev_board`, internally filling a
554:c:type:`i2c_board_info` structure using the ``client_type`` and the
555``addr`` to fill it.
556
557Centrally managed subdev active state
558-------------------------------------
559
560Traditionally V4L2 subdev drivers maintained internal state for the active
561device configuration. This is often implemented as e.g. an array of struct
562v4l2_mbus_framefmt, one entry for each pad, and similarly for crop and compose
563rectangles.
564
565In addition to the active configuration, each subdev file handle has an array of
566struct v4l2_subdev_pad_config, managed by the V4L2 core, which contains the try
567configuration.
568
569To simplify the subdev drivers the V4L2 subdev API now optionally supports a
570centrally managed active configuration represented by
571:c:type:`v4l2_subdev_state`. One instance of state, which contains the active
572device configuration, is stored in the sub-device itself as part of
573the :c:type:`v4l2_subdev` structure, while the core associates a try state to
574each open file handle, to store the try configuration related to that file
575handle.
576
577Sub-device drivers can opt-in and use state to manage their active configuration
578by initializing the subdevice state with a call to v4l2_subdev_init_finalize()
579before registering the sub-device. They must also call v4l2_subdev_cleanup()
580to release all the allocated resources before unregistering the sub-device.
581The core automatically allocates and initializes a state for each open file
582handle to store the try configurations and frees it when closing the file
583handle.
584
585V4L2 sub-device operations that use both the :ref:`ACTIVE and TRY formats
586<v4l2-subdev-format-whence>` receive the correct state to operate on through
587the 'state' parameter. The state must be locked and unlocked by the
588caller by calling :c:func:`v4l2_subdev_lock_state()` and
589:c:func:`v4l2_subdev_unlock_state()`. The caller can do so by calling the subdev
590operation through the :c:func:`v4l2_subdev_call_state_active()` macro.
591
592Operations that do not receive a state parameter implicitly operate on the
593subdevice active state, which drivers can exclusively access by
594calling :c:func:`v4l2_subdev_lock_and_get_active_state()`. The sub-device active
595state must equally be released by calling :c:func:`v4l2_subdev_unlock_state()`.
596
597Drivers must never manually access the state stored in the :c:type:`v4l2_subdev`
598or in the file handle without going through the designated helpers.
599
600While the V4L2 core passes the correct try or active state to the subdevice
601operations, many existing device drivers pass a NULL state when calling
602operations with :c:func:`v4l2_subdev_call()`. This legacy construct causes
603issues with subdevice drivers that let the V4L2 core manage the active state,
604as they expect to receive the appropriate state as a parameter. To help the
605conversion of subdevice drivers to a managed active state without having to
606convert all callers at the same time, an additional wrapper layer has been
607added to v4l2_subdev_call(), which handles the NULL case by getting and locking
608the callee's active state with :c:func:`v4l2_subdev_lock_and_get_active_state()`,
609and unlocking the state after the call.
610
611The whole subdev state is in reality split into three parts: the
612v4l2_subdev_state, subdev controls and subdev driver's internal state. In the
613future these parts should be combined into a single state. For the time being
614we need a way to handle the locking for these parts. This can be accomplished
615by sharing a lock. The v4l2_ctrl_handler already supports this via its 'lock'
616pointer and the same model is used with states. The driver can do the following
617before calling v4l2_subdev_init_finalize():
618
619.. code-block:: c
620
621	sd->ctrl_handler->lock = &priv->mutex;
622	sd->state_lock = &priv->mutex;
623
624This shares the driver's private mutex between the controls and the states.
625
626Streams, multiplexed media pads and internal routing
627----------------------------------------------------
628
629A subdevice driver can implement support for multiplexed streams by setting
630the V4L2_SUBDEV_FL_STREAMS subdev flag and implementing support for
631centrally managed subdev active state, routing and stream based
632configuration.
633
634V4L2 sub-device functions and data structures
635---------------------------------------------
636
637.. kernel-doc:: include/media/v4l2-subdev.h
638