watchdog: Introduce hardware maximum heartbeat in watchdog core

Introduce an optional hardware maximum heartbeat in the watchdog core.
The hardware maximum heartbeat can be lower than the maximum timeout.

Drivers can set the maximum hardware heartbeat value in the watchdog data
structure. If the configured timeout exceeds the maximum hardware heartbeat,
the watchdog core enables a timer function to assist sending keepalive
requests to the watchdog driver.

Signed-off-by: Guenter Roeck <linux@roeck-us.net>
Signed-off-by: Wim Van Sebroeck <wim@iguana.be>

1 files changed, 17 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/watchdog/watchdog-kernel-api.txt b/Documentation/watchdog/watchdog-kernel-api.txt
index dd8f912c0576..15a02595ade1 100644
--- a/Documentation/watchdog/watchdog-kernel-api.txt
+++ b/Documentation/watchdog/watchdog-kernel-api.txt
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ struct watchdog_device {
         unsigned int timeout;
         unsigned int min_timeout;
         unsigned int max_timeout;
+        unsigned int max_hw_heartbeat_ms;
         struct notifier_block reboot_nb;
         struct notifier_block restart_nb;
         void *driver_data;
@@ -73,8 +74,18 @@ It contains following fields:
   additional information about the watchdog timer itself. (Like it's unique name)
 * ops: a pointer to the list of watchdog operations that the watchdog supports.
 * timeout: the watchdog timer's timeout value (in seconds).
+  This is the time after which the system will reboot if user space does
+  not send a heartbeat request if WDOG_ACTIVE is set.
 * min_timeout: the watchdog timer's minimum timeout value (in seconds).
-* max_timeout: the watchdog timer's maximum timeout value (in seconds).
+  If set, the minimum configurable value for 'timeout'.
+* max_timeout: the watchdog timer's maximum timeout value (in seconds),
+  as seen from userspace. If set, the maximum configurable value for
+  'timeout'. Not used if max_hw_heartbeat_ms is non-zero.
+* max_hw_heartbeat_ms: Maximum hardware heartbeat, in milli-seconds.
+  If set, the infrastructure will send heartbeats to the watchdog driver
+  if 'timeout' is larger than max_hw_heartbeat_ms, unless WDOG_ACTIVE
+  is set and userspace failed to send a heartbeat for at least 'timeout'
+  seconds.
 * reboot_nb: notifier block that is registered for reboot notifications, for
   internal use only. If the driver calls watchdog_stop_on_reboot, watchdog core
   will stop the watchdog on such notifications.
@@ -153,7 +164,11 @@ they are supported. These optional routines/operations are:
   and -EIO for "could not write value to the watchdog". On success this
   routine should set the timeout value of the watchdog_device to the
   achieved timeout value (which may be different from the requested one
-  because the watchdog does not necessarily has a 1 second resolution).
+  because the watchdog does not necessarily have a 1 second resolution).
+  Drivers implementing max_hw_heartbeat_ms set the hardware watchdog heartbeat
+  to the minimum of timeout and max_hw_heartbeat_ms. Those drivers set the
+  timeout value of the watchdog_device either to the requested timeout value
+  (if it is larger than max_hw_heartbeat_ms), or to the achieved timeout value.
   (Note: the WDIOF_SETTIMEOUT needs to be set in the options field of the
   watchdog's info structure).
   If the watchdog driver does not have to perform any action but setting the