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1GPIO Descriptor Driver Interface
2================================
3
4This document serves as a guide for GPIO chip drivers writers. Note that it
5describes the new descriptor-based interface. For a description of the
6deprecated integer-based GPIO interface please refer to gpio-legacy.txt.
7
8Each GPIO controller driver needs to include the following header, which defines
9the structures used to define a GPIO driver:
10
11 #include <linux/gpio/driver.h>
12
13
14Internal Representation of GPIOs
15================================
16
17Inside a GPIO driver, individual GPIOs are identified by their hardware number,
18which is a unique number between 0 and n, n being the number of GPIOs managed by
19the chip. This number is purely internal: the hardware number of a particular
20GPIO descriptor is never made visible outside of the driver.
21
22On top of this internal number, each GPIO also need to have a global number in
23the integer GPIO namespace so that it can be used with the legacy GPIO
24interface. Each chip must thus have a "base" number (which can be automatically
25assigned), and for each GPIO the global number will be (base + hardware number).
26Although the integer representation is considered deprecated, it still has many
27users and thus needs to be maintained.
28
29So for example one platform could use numbers 32-159 for GPIOs, with a
30controller defining 128 GPIOs at a "base" of 32 ; while another platform uses
31numbers 0..63 with one set of GPIO controllers, 64-79 with another type of GPIO
32controller, and on one particular board 80-95 with an FPGA. The numbers need not
33be contiguous; either of those platforms could also use numbers 2000-2063 to
34identify GPIOs in a bank of I2C GPIO expanders.
35
36
37Controller Drivers: gpio_chip
38=============================
39
40In the gpiolib framework each GPIO controller is packaged as a "struct
41gpio_chip" (see linux/gpio/driver.h for its complete definition) with members
42common to each controller of that type:
43
44 - methods to establish GPIO direction
45 - methods used to access GPIO values
46 - method to return the IRQ number associated to a given GPIO
47 - flag saying whether calls to its methods may sleep
48 - optional debugfs dump method (showing extra state like pullup config)
49 - optional base number (will be automatically assigned if omitted)
50 - label for diagnostics and GPIOs mapping using platform data
51
52The code implementing a gpio_chip should support multiple instances of the
53controller, possibly using the driver model. That code will configure each
54gpio_chip and issue gpiochip_add(). Removing a GPIO controller should be rare;
55use gpiochip_remove() when it is unavoidable.
56
57Most often a gpio_chip is part of an instance-specific structure with state not
58exposed by the GPIO interfaces, such as addressing, power management, and more.
59Chips such as codecs will have complex non-GPIO state.
60
61Any debugfs dump method should normally ignore signals which haven't been
62requested as GPIOs. They can use gpiochip_is_requested(), which returns either
63NULL or the label associated with that GPIO when it was requested.
64
65Locking IRQ usage
66-----------------
67Input GPIOs can be used as IRQ signals. When this happens, a driver is requested
68to mark the GPIO as being used as an IRQ:
69
70 int gpiod_lock_as_irq(struct gpio_desc *desc)
71
72This will prevent the use of non-irq related GPIO APIs until the GPIO IRQ lock
73is released:
74
75 void gpiod_unlock_as_irq(struct gpio_desc *desc)