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| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/admin-guide/gpio/gpio-aggregator.rst | 111 |
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diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/gpio/gpio-aggregator.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/gpio/gpio-aggregator.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5cd1e7221 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/gpio/gpio-aggregator.rst @@ -0,0 +1,111 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only + +GPIO Aggregator +=============== + +The GPIO Aggregator provides a mechanism to aggregate GPIOs, and expose them as +a new gpio_chip. This supports the following use cases. + + +Aggregating GPIOs using Sysfs +----------------------------- + +GPIO controllers are exported to userspace using /dev/gpiochip* character +devices. Access control to these devices is provided by standard UNIX file +system permissions, on an all-or-nothing basis: either a GPIO controller is +accessible for a user, or it is not. + +The GPIO Aggregator provides access control for a set of one or more GPIOs, by +aggregating them into a new gpio_chip, which can be assigned to a group or user +using standard UNIX file ownership and permissions. Furthermore, this +simplifies and hardens exporting GPIOs to a virtual machine, as the VM can just +grab the full GPIO controller, and no longer needs to care about which GPIOs to +grab and which not, reducing the attack surface. + +Aggregated GPIO controllers are instantiated and destroyed by writing to +write-only attribute files in sysfs. + + /sys/bus/platform/drivers/gpio-aggregator/ + + "new_device" ... + Userspace may ask the kernel to instantiate an aggregated GPIO + controller by writing a string describing the GPIOs to + aggregate to the "new_device" file, using the format + + .. code-block:: none + + [<gpioA>] [<gpiochipB> <offsets>] ... + + Where: + + "<gpioA>" ... + is a GPIO line name, + + "<gpiochipB>" ... + is a GPIO chip label, and + + "<offsets>" ... + is a comma-separated list of GPIO offsets and/or + GPIO offset ranges denoted by dashes. + + Example: Instantiate a new GPIO aggregator by aggregating GPIO + line 19 of "e6052000.gpio" and GPIO lines 20-21 of + "e6050000.gpio" into a new gpio_chip: + + .. code-block:: sh + + $ echo 'e6052000.gpio 19 e6050000.gpio 20-21' > new_device + + "delete_device" ... + Userspace may ask the kernel to destroy an aggregated GPIO + controller after use by writing its device name to the + "delete_device" file. + + Example: Destroy the previously-created aggregated GPIO + controller, assumed to be "gpio-aggregator.0": + + .. code-block:: sh + + $ echo gpio-aggregator.0 > delete_device + + +Generic GPIO Driver +------------------- + +The GPIO Aggregator can also be used as a generic driver for a simple +GPIO-operated device described in DT, without a dedicated in-kernel driver. +This is useful in industrial control, and is not unlike e.g. spidev, which +allows the user to communicate with an SPI device from userspace. + +Binding a device to the GPIO Aggregator is performed either by modifying the +gpio-aggregator driver, or by writing to the "driver_override" file in Sysfs. + +Example: If "door" is a GPIO-operated device described in DT, using its own +compatible value:: + + door { + compatible = "myvendor,mydoor"; + + gpios = <&gpio2 19 GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH>, + <&gpio2 20 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>; + gpio-line-names = "open", "lock"; + }; + +it can be bound to the GPIO Aggregator by either: + +1. Adding its compatible value to ``gpio_aggregator_dt_ids[]``, +2. Binding manually using "driver_override": + +.. code-block:: sh + + $ echo gpio-aggregator > /sys/bus/platform/devices/door/driver_override + $ echo door > /sys/bus/platform/drivers/gpio-aggregator/bind + +After that, a new gpiochip "door" has been created: + +.. code-block:: sh + + $ gpioinfo door + gpiochip12 - 2 lines: + line 0: "open" unused input active-high + line 1: "lock" unused input active-high |