xref: /netbsd/share/man/man9/driver.9 (revision 6550d01e)
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30.Dd January 5, 2011
31.Dt DRIVER 9
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm driver
35.Nd description of a device driver
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.In sys/param.h
38.In sys/device.h
39.In sys/errno.h
40.Ft static int
41.Fn foo_match "struct device *parent" "struct cfdata *match" "void *aux"
42.Ft static void
43.Fn foo_attach "struct device *parent" "struct device *self" "void *aux"
44.Ft static int
45.Fn foo_detach "struct device *self" "int flags"
46.Ft static int
47.Fn foo_activate "struct device *self" "enum devact act"
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49This page briefly describes the basic
50.Nx
51autoconfiguration interface used by device drivers.
52For a detailed overview of the autoconfiguration framework see
53.Xr autoconf 9 .
54.Pp
55Each device driver must present to the system a standard
56autoconfiguration interface.
57This interface is provided by the
58.Em cfattach
59structure.
60The interface to the driver is constant and is defined
61statically inside the driver.
62For example, the interface to driver
63.Dq foo
64is defined with:
65.Pp
66.Bd -literal
67CFATTACH_DECL(foo, 			/* driver name */
68	sizeof(struct foo_softc),	/* size of instance data */
69	foo_match,			/* match/probe function */
70	foo_attach,			/* attach function */
71	foo_detach,			/* detach function */
72	foo_activate);			/* activate function */
73.Ed
74.Pp
75For each device instance controlled by the driver, the
76autoconfiguration framework allocates a block of memory to record
77device-instance-specific driver variables.
78The size of this memory block is specified by the second argument in the
79.Em CFATTACH_DECL
80macro.
81The memory block is referred to as the driver's
82.Em softc
83structure.
84The
85.Em softc
86structure is only accessed within the driver, so its definition is
87local to the driver.
88Nevertheless, the
89.Em softc
90structure should adopt the standard
91.Nx
92configuration and naming conventions.
93For example, the
94.Em softc
95structure for driver
96.Dq foo
97is defined with:
98.Pp
99.Bd -literal
100struct foo_softc {
101	struct device sc_dev;		/* generic device info */
102	/* device-specific state */
103};
104.Ed
105.Pp
106The autoconfiguration framework mandates that the first member of the
107.Em softc
108structure must be the driver-independent
109.Em struct device .
110Probably its most useful aspect to the driver is that it contains the
111device-instance name
112.Em dv_xname .
113.Pp
114If a driver has character device interfaces accessed from userland, the driver
115must define the
116.Em cdevsw
117structure.
118The structure is constant and is defined inside the driver.
119For example, the
120.Em cdevsw
121structure for driver
122.Dq foo
123is defined with:
124.Pp
125.Bd -literal
126const struct cdevsw foo_cdevsw {
127	int (*d_open)(dev_t, int, int, struct lwp *);
128	int (*d_close)(dev_t, int, int, struct lwp *);
129	int (*d_read)(dev_t, struct uio *, int);
130	int (*d_write)(dev_t, struct uio *, int);
131	int (*d_ioctl)(dev_t, u_long, void *, int, struct lwp *);
132	void (*d_stop)(struct tty *, int);
133	struct tty *(*d_tty)(dev_t);
134	int (*d_poll)(dev_t, int, struct lwp *);
135	paddr_t (*d_mmap)(dev_t, off_t, int);
136	int (*d_kqfilter)(dev_t, struct knote *);
137	int d_flag;
138};
139.Ed
140.Pp
141The structure variable must be named foo_cdevsw by appending the letters
142.Dq _cdevsw
143to the driver's base name.
144This convention is mandated by the autoconfiguration framework.
145.Pp
146If the driver
147.Dq foo
148has also block device interfaces, the driver must define the
149.Em bdevsw
150structure.
151The structure is constant and is defined inside the driver.
152For example, the
153.Em bdevsw
154structure for driver
155.Dq foo
156is defined with:
157.Pp
158.Bd -literal
159const struct bdevsw foo_bdevsw {
160	int (*d_open)(dev_t, int, int, struct lwp *);
161	int (*d_close)(dev_t, int, int, struct lwp *);
162	void (*d_strategy)(struct buf *);
163	int (*d_ioctl)(dev_t, u_long, void *, int, struct lwp *);
164	int (*d_dump)(dev_t, daddr_t, void *, size_t);
165	int (*d_psize)(dev_t);
166	int d_flag;
167};
168.Ed
169.Pp
170The structure variable must be named foo_bdevsw by appending the letters
171.Dq _bdevsw
172to the driver's base name.
173This convention is mandated by the autoconfiguration framework.
174.Pp
175During system bootstrap, the autoconfiguration framework searches the
176system for devices.
177For each device driver, its match function is called (via its
178.Em cfattach
179structure) to match the driver with a device instance.
180The match function is called with three arguments.
181This first argument
182.Fa parent
183is a pointer to the driver's parent device structure.
184The second argument
185.Fa match
186is a pointer to a data structure describing the autoconfiguration
187framework's understanding of the driver.
188Both the
189.Fa parent
190and
191.Fa match
192arguments are ignored by most drivers.
193The third argument
194.Fa aux
195contains a pointer to a structure describing a potential
196device-instance.
197It is passed to the driver from the parent.
198The match function would type-cast the
199.Fa aux
200argument to its appropriate attachment structure and use its contents
201to determine whether it supports the device.
202Depending on the device hardware, the contents of the attachment
203structure may contain
204.Dq locators
205to locate the device instance so that the driver can probe it for its
206identity.
207If the probe process identifies additional device properties, it may
208modify the members of the attachment structure.
209For these devices, the
210.Nx
211convention is to
212call the match routine
213.Fn foo_probe
214instead of
215.Fn foo_match
216to make this distinction clear.
217Either way, the match function returns a nonzero integer indicating the
218confidence of supporting this device and a value of 0 if the driver
219doesn't support the device.
220Generally, only a single driver exists for a device, so the match
221function returns 1 for a positive match.
222.Pp
223The autoconfiguration framework will call the attach function
224(via its
225.Em cfattach
226structure)
227of the driver which returns the highest value from its match function.
228The attach function is called with three arguments.
229The attach function performs the necessary process to initialise the
230device for operation.
231The first argument
232.Fa parent
233is a pointer to the driver's parent device structure.
234The second argument
235.Fa self
236is a pointer to the driver's device structure.
237It is also a pointer to our
238.Em softc
239structure since the device structure is its first member.
240The third argument
241.Fa aux
242is a pointer to the attachment structure.
243The
244.Fa parent
245and
246.Fa aux
247arguments are the same as passed to the match function.
248.Pp
249The driver's attach function is called before system interrupts are
250enabled.
251If interrupts are required during initialisation, then the attach
252function should make use of
253.Fn config_interrupts
254(see
255.Xr autoconf 9 ) .
256.Pp
257Some devices can be removed from the system without requiring a system
258reboot.
259The autoconfiguration framework calls the driver's detach function
260(via its
261.Em cfattach
262structure) during device detachment.
263If the device does not support detachment, then the driver does not
264have to provide a detach function.
265The detach function is used to relinquish resources allocated to the
266driver which are no longer needed.
267The first argument
268.Fa self
269is a pointer to the driver's device structure.
270It is the same structure as passed to the attach function.
271The second argument
272.Fa flags
273contains detachment flags.
274Valid values are
275.Dv DETACH_FORCE
276(force detachment; hardware gone) and
277.Dv DETACH_QUIET
278(do not print a notice).
279.Pp
280The autoconfiguration framework may call the driver's activate function
281to notify the driver of a change in the resources that have been
282allocated to it.
283For example, an Ethernet driver has to be notified if the network stack
284is being added or removed from the kernel.
285The first argument to the activate function
286.Fa self
287is a pointer to the driver's device structure.
288It is the same argument as passed to the attach function.
289The second argument
290.Fa act
291describes the action.
292Valid actions are
293.Dv DVACT_ACTIVATE
294(activate the device) and
295.Dv DVACT_DEACTIVATE
296(deactivate the device).
297If the action is not supported the activate function should return
298.Er EOPNOTSUPP .
299The
300.Dv DVACT_DEACTIVATE
301call will only be made if the
302.Dv DVACT_ACTIVATE
303call was successful.
304The activate function is called in interrupt context.
305.Pp
306Most drivers will want to make use of interrupt facilities.
307Interrupt locators provided through the attachment structure should be
308used to establish interrupts within the system.
309Generally, an interrupt interface is provided by the parent.
310The interface will require a handler and a driver-specific argument
311to be specified.
312This argument is usually a pointer to the device-instance-specific
313softc structure.
314When a hardware interrupt for the device occurs the handler is called
315with the argument.
316Interrupt handlers should return 0 for
317.Dq interrupt not for me ,
3181 for
319.Dq I took care of it ,
320or -1 for
321.Do
322I guess it was mine, but I wasn't expecting it
323.Dc .
324.Pp
325For a driver to be compiled into the kernel,
326.Xr config 1
327must be aware of its existence.
328This is done by including an entry in files.\*[Lt]bus\*[Gt] in the
329directory containing the driver.
330For example, the driver
331.Dq foo
332attaching to bus
333.Dq bar
334with dependency on kernel module
335.Dq baz
336has the entry:
337.Bd -literal
338device	foo: baz
339attach	foo at bar
340file	dev/bar/foo.c		foo
341.Ed
342.Pp
343An entry can now be added to the machine description file:
344.Bd -literal
345foo*	at bar?
346.Ed
347.Pp
348For device interfaces of a driver to be compiled into the kernel,
349.Xr config 1
350must be aware of its existence.
351This is done by including an entry in majors.\*[Lt]arch\*[Gt].
352For example, the driver
353.Dq foo
354with character device interfaces, a character major device number
355.Dq cmaj ,
356block device interfaces, a block device major number
357.Dq bmaj
358and dependency on kernel module
359.Dq baz
360has the entry:
361.Bd -literal
362device-major	foo	char cmaj block bmaj	baz
363.Ed
364.Pp
365For a detailed description of the machine description file and the
366.Dq device definition
367language see
368.Xr config 9 .
369.Sh SEE ALSO
370.Xr config 1 ,
371.Xr autoconf 9 ,
372.Xr config 9 ,
373.Xr pmf 9
374