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diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/connector.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/connector.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..23d068191 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/driver-api/connector.rst @@ -0,0 +1,157 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +================ +Kernel Connector +================ + +Kernel connector - new netlink based userspace <-> kernel space easy +to use communication module. + +The Connector driver makes it easy to connect various agents using a +netlink based network. One must register a callback and an identifier. +When the driver receives a special netlink message with the appropriate +identifier, the appropriate callback will be called. + +From the userspace point of view it's quite straightforward: + + - socket(); + - bind(); + - send(); + - recv(); + +But if kernelspace wants to use the full power of such connections, the +driver writer must create special sockets, must know about struct sk_buff +handling, etc... The Connector driver allows any kernelspace agents to use +netlink based networking for inter-process communication in a significantly +easier way:: + + int cn_add_callback(struct cb_id *id, char *name, void (*callback) (struct cn_msg *, struct netlink_skb_parms *)); + void cn_netlink_send_mult(struct cn_msg *msg, u16 len, u32 portid, u32 __group, int gfp_mask); + void cn_netlink_send(struct cn_msg *msg, u32 portid, u32 __group, int gfp_mask); + + struct cb_id + { + __u32 idx; + __u32 val; + }; + +idx and val are unique identifiers which must be registered in the +connector.h header for in-kernel usage. `void (*callback) (void *)` is a +callback function which will be called when a message with above idx.val +is received by the connector core. The argument for that function must +be dereferenced to `struct cn_msg *`:: + + struct cn_msg + { + struct cb_id id; + + __u32 seq; + __u32 ack; + + __u16 len; /* Length of the following data */ + __u16 flags; + __u8 data[0]; + }; + +Connector interfaces +==================== + + .. kernel-doc:: include/linux/connector.h + + Note: + When registering new callback user, connector core assigns + netlink group to the user which is equal to its id.idx. + +Protocol description +==================== + +The current framework offers a transport layer with fixed headers. The +recommended protocol which uses such a header is as following: + +msg->seq and msg->ack are used to determine message genealogy. When +someone sends a message, they use a locally unique sequence and random +acknowledge number. The sequence number may be copied into +nlmsghdr->nlmsg_seq too. + +The sequence number is incremented with each message sent. + +If you expect a reply to the message, then the sequence number in the +received message MUST be the same as in the original message, and the +acknowledge number MUST be the same + 1. + +If we receive a message and its sequence number is not equal to one we +are expecting, then it is a new message. If we receive a message and +its sequence number is the same as one we are expecting, but its +acknowledge is not equal to the sequence number in the original +message + 1, then it is a new message. + +Obviously, the protocol header contains the above id. + +The connector allows event notification in the following form: kernel +driver or userspace process can ask connector to notify it when +selected ids will be turned on or off (registered or unregistered its +callback). It is done by sending a special command to the connector +driver (it also registers itself with id={-1, -1}). + +As example of this usage can be found in the cn_test.c module which +uses the connector to request notification and to send messages. + +Reliability +=========== + +Netlink itself is not a reliable protocol. That means that messages can +be lost due to memory pressure or process' receiving queue overflowed, +so caller is warned that it must be prepared. That is why the struct +cn_msg [main connector's message header] contains u32 seq and u32 ack +fields. + +Userspace usage +=============== + +2.6.14 has a new netlink socket implementation, which by default does not +allow people to send data to netlink groups other than 1. +So, if you wish to use a netlink socket (for example using connector) +with a different group number, the userspace application must subscribe to +that group first. It can be achieved by the following pseudocode:: + + s = socket(PF_NETLINK, SOCK_DGRAM, NETLINK_CONNECTOR); + + l_local.nl_family = AF_NETLINK; + l_local.nl_groups = 12345; + l_local.nl_pid = 0; + + if (bind(s, (struct sockaddr *)&l_local, sizeof(struct sockaddr_nl)) == -1) { + perror("bind"); + close(s); + return -1; + } + + { + int on = l_local.nl_groups; + setsockopt(s, 270, 1, &on, sizeof(on)); + } + +Where 270 above is SOL_NETLINK, and 1 is a NETLINK_ADD_MEMBERSHIP socket +option. To drop a multicast subscription, one should call the above socket +option with the NETLINK_DROP_MEMBERSHIP parameter which is defined as 0. + +2.6.14 netlink code only allows to select a group which is less or equal to +the maximum group number, which is used at netlink_kernel_create() time. +In case of connector it is CN_NETLINK_USERS + 0xf, so if you want to use +group number 12345, you must increment CN_NETLINK_USERS to that number. +Additional 0xf numbers are allocated to be used by non-in-kernel users. + +Due to this limitation, group 0xffffffff does not work now, so one can +not use add/remove connector's group notifications, but as far as I know, +only cn_test.c test module used it. + +Some work in netlink area is still being done, so things can be changed in +2.6.15 timeframe, if it will happen, documentation will be updated for that +kernel. + +Code samples +============ + +Sample code for a connector test module and user space can be found +in samples/connector/. To build this code, enable CONFIG_CONNECTOR +and CONFIG_SAMPLES. |