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Diffstat (limited to 'kernel/Documentation/filesystems/sysfs.txt')
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diff --git a/kernel/Documentation/filesystems/sysfs.txt b/kernel/Documentation/filesystems/sysfs.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b35a64b82 --- /dev/null +++ b/kernel/Documentation/filesystems/sysfs.txt @@ -0,0 +1,380 @@ + +sysfs - _The_ filesystem for exporting kernel objects. + +Patrick Mochel <mochel@osdl.org> +Mike Murphy <mamurph@cs.clemson.edu> + +Revised: 16 August 2011 +Original: 10 January 2003 + + +What it is: +~~~~~~~~~~~ + +sysfs is a ram-based filesystem initially based on ramfs. It provides +a means to export kernel data structures, their attributes, and the +linkages between them to userspace. + +sysfs is tied inherently to the kobject infrastructure. Please read +Documentation/kobject.txt for more information concerning the kobject +interface. + + +Using sysfs +~~~~~~~~~~~ + +sysfs is always compiled in if CONFIG_SYSFS is defined. You can access +it by doing: + + mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys + + +Directory Creation +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +For every kobject that is registered with the system, a directory is +created for it in sysfs. That directory is created as a subdirectory +of the kobject's parent, expressing internal object hierarchies to +userspace. Top-level directories in sysfs represent the common +ancestors of object hierarchies; i.e. the subsystems the objects +belong to. + +Sysfs internally stores a pointer to the kobject that implements a +directory in the sysfs_dirent object associated with the directory. In +the past this kobject pointer has been used by sysfs to do reference +counting directly on the kobject whenever the file is opened or closed. +With the current sysfs implementation the kobject reference count is +only modified directly by the function sysfs_schedule_callback(). + + +Attributes +~~~~~~~~~~ + +Attributes can be exported for kobjects in the form of regular files in +the filesystem. Sysfs forwards file I/O operations to methods defined +for the attributes, providing a means to read and write kernel +attributes. + +Attributes should be ASCII text files, preferably with only one value +per file. It is noted that it may not be efficient to contain only one +value per file, so it is socially acceptable to express an array of +values of the same type. + +Mixing types, expressing multiple lines of data, and doing fancy +formatting of data is heavily frowned upon. Doing these things may get +you publicly humiliated and your code rewritten without notice. + + +An attribute definition is simply: + +struct attribute { + char * name; + struct module *owner; + umode_t mode; +}; + + +int sysfs_create_file(struct kobject * kobj, const struct attribute * attr); +void sysfs_remove_file(struct kobject * kobj, const struct attribute * attr); + + +A bare attribute contains no means to read or write the value of the +attribute. Subsystems are encouraged to define their own attribute +structure and wrapper functions for adding and removing attributes for +a specific object type. + +For example, the driver model defines struct device_attribute like: + +struct device_attribute { + struct attribute attr; + ssize_t (*show)(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr, + char *buf); + ssize_t (*store)(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr, + const char *buf, size_t count); +}; + +int device_create_file(struct device *, const struct device_attribute *); +void device_remove_file(struct device *, const struct device_attribute *); + +It also defines this helper for defining device attributes: + +#define DEVICE_ATTR(_name, _mode, _show, _store) \ +struct device_attribute dev_attr_##_name = __ATTR(_name, _mode, _show, _store) + +For example, declaring + +static DEVICE_ATTR(foo, S_IWUSR | S_IRUGO, show_foo, store_foo); + +is equivalent to doing: + +static struct device_attribute dev_attr_foo = { + .attr = { + .name = "foo", + .mode = S_IWUSR | S_IRUGO, + }, + .show = show_foo, + .store = store_foo, +}; + + +Subsystem-Specific Callbacks +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +When a subsystem defines a new attribute type, it must implement a +set of sysfs operations for forwarding read and write calls to the +show and store methods of the attribute owners. + +struct sysfs_ops { + ssize_t (*show)(struct kobject *, struct attribute *, char *); + ssize_t (*store)(struct kobject *, struct attribute *, const char *, size_t); +}; + +[ Subsystems should have already defined a struct kobj_type as a +descriptor for this type, which is where the sysfs_ops pointer is +stored. See the kobject documentation for more information. ] + +When a file is read or written, sysfs calls the appropriate method +for the type. The method then translates the generic struct kobject +and struct attribute pointers to the appropriate pointer types, and +calls the associated methods. + + +To illustrate: + +#define to_dev(obj) container_of(obj, struct device, kobj) +#define to_dev_attr(_attr) container_of(_attr, struct device_attribute, attr) + +static ssize_t dev_attr_show(struct kobject *kobj, struct attribute *attr, + char *buf) +{ + struct device_attribute *dev_attr = to_dev_attr(attr); + struct device *dev = to_dev(kobj); + ssize_t ret = -EIO; + + if (dev_attr->show) + ret = dev_attr->show(dev, dev_attr, buf); + if (ret >= (ssize_t)PAGE_SIZE) { + print_symbol("dev_attr_show: %s returned bad count\n", + (unsigned long)dev_attr->show); + } + return ret; +} + + + +Reading/Writing Attribute Data +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +To read or write attributes, show() or store() methods must be +specified when declaring the attribute. The method types should be as +simple as those defined for device attributes: + +ssize_t (*show)(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr, char *buf); +ssize_t (*store)(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr, + const char *buf, size_t count); + +IOW, they should take only an object, an attribute, and a buffer as parameters. + + +sysfs allocates a buffer of size (PAGE_SIZE) and passes it to the +method. Sysfs will call the method exactly once for each read or +write. This forces the following behavior on the method +implementations: + +- On read(2), the show() method should fill the entire buffer. + Recall that an attribute should only be exporting one value, or an + array of similar values, so this shouldn't be that expensive. + + This allows userspace to do partial reads and forward seeks + arbitrarily over the entire file at will. If userspace seeks back to + zero or does a pread(2) with an offset of '0' the show() method will + be called again, rearmed, to fill the buffer. + +- On write(2), sysfs expects the entire buffer to be passed during the + first write. Sysfs then passes the entire buffer to the store() + method. + + When writing sysfs files, userspace processes should first read the + entire file, modify the values it wishes to change, then write the + entire buffer back. + + Attribute method implementations should operate on an identical + buffer when reading and writing values. + +Other notes: + +- Writing causes the show() method to be rearmed regardless of current + file position. + +- The buffer will always be PAGE_SIZE bytes in length. On i386, this + is 4096. + +- show() methods should return the number of bytes printed into the + buffer. This is the return value of scnprintf(). + +- show() should always use scnprintf(). + +- store() should return the number of bytes used from the buffer. If the + entire buffer has been used, just return the count argument. + +- show() or store() can always return errors. If a bad value comes + through, be sure to return an error. + +- The object passed to the methods will be pinned in memory via sysfs + referencing counting its embedded object. However, the physical + entity (e.g. device) the object represents may not be present. Be + sure to have a way to check this, if necessary. + + +A very simple (and naive) implementation of a device attribute is: + +static ssize_t show_name(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr, + char *buf) +{ + return scnprintf(buf, PAGE_SIZE, "%s\n", dev->name); +} + +static ssize_t store_name(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr, + const char *buf, size_t count) +{ + snprintf(dev->name, sizeof(dev->name), "%.*s", + (int)min(count, sizeof(dev->name) - 1), buf); + return count; +} + +static DEVICE_ATTR(name, S_IRUGO, show_name, store_name); + + +(Note that the real implementation doesn't allow userspace to set the +name for a device.) + + +Top Level Directory Layout +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The sysfs directory arrangement exposes the relationship of kernel +data structures. + +The top level sysfs directory looks like: + +block/ +bus/ +class/ +dev/ +devices/ +firmware/ +net/ +fs/ + +devices/ contains a filesystem representation of the device tree. It maps +directly to the internal kernel device tree, which is a hierarchy of +struct device. + +bus/ contains flat directory layout of the various bus types in the +kernel. Each bus's directory contains two subdirectories: + + devices/ + drivers/ + +devices/ contains symlinks for each device discovered in the system +that point to the device's directory under root/. + +drivers/ contains a directory for each device driver that is loaded +for devices on that particular bus (this assumes that drivers do not +span multiple bus types). + +fs/ contains a directory for some filesystems. Currently each +filesystem wanting to export attributes must create its own hierarchy +below fs/ (see ./fuse.txt for an example). + +dev/ contains two directories char/ and block/. Inside these two +directories there are symlinks named <major>:<minor>. These symlinks +point to the sysfs directory for the given device. /sys/dev provides a +quick way to lookup the sysfs interface for a device from the result of +a stat(2) operation. + +More information can driver-model specific features can be found in +Documentation/driver-model/. + + +TODO: Finish this section. + + +Current Interfaces +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The following interface layers currently exist in sysfs: + + +- devices (include/linux/device.h) +---------------------------------- +Structure: + +struct device_attribute { + struct attribute attr; + ssize_t (*show)(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr, + char *buf); + ssize_t (*store)(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr, + const char *buf, size_t count); +}; + +Declaring: + +DEVICE_ATTR(_name, _mode, _show, _store); + +Creation/Removal: + +int device_create_file(struct device *dev, const struct device_attribute * attr); +void device_remove_file(struct device *dev, const struct device_attribute * attr); + + +- bus drivers (include/linux/device.h) +-------------------------------------- +Structure: + +struct bus_attribute { + struct attribute attr; + ssize_t (*show)(struct bus_type *, char * buf); + ssize_t (*store)(struct bus_type *, const char * buf, size_t count); +}; + +Declaring: + +BUS_ATTR(_name, _mode, _show, _store) + +Creation/Removal: + +int bus_create_file(struct bus_type *, struct bus_attribute *); +void bus_remove_file(struct bus_type *, struct bus_attribute *); + + +- device drivers (include/linux/device.h) +----------------------------------------- + +Structure: + +struct driver_attribute { + struct attribute attr; + ssize_t (*show)(struct device_driver *, char * buf); + ssize_t (*store)(struct device_driver *, const char * buf, + size_t count); +}; + +Declaring: + +DRIVER_ATTR(_name, _mode, _show, _store) + +Creation/Removal: + +int driver_create_file(struct device_driver *, const struct driver_attribute *); +void driver_remove_file(struct device_driver *, const struct driver_attribute *); + + +Documentation +~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The sysfs directory structure and the attributes in each directory define an +ABI between the kernel and user space. As for any ABI, it is important that +this ABI is stable and properly documented. All new sysfs attributes must be +documented in Documentation/ABI. See also Documentation/ABI/README for more +information. |