1 The Linux Hardware Monitoring kernel API.
2 =========================================
9 This document describes the API that can be used by hardware monitoring
10 drivers that want to use the hardware monitoring framework.
12 This document does not describe what a hardware monitoring (hwmon) Driver or
13 Device is. It also does not describe the API which can be used by user space
14 to communicate with a hardware monitoring device. If you want to know this
15 then please read the following file: Documentation/hwmon/sysfs-interface.
17 For additional guidelines on how to write and improve hwmon drivers, please
18 also read Documentation/hwmon/submitting-patches.
22 Each hardware monitoring driver must #include <linux/hwmon.h> and, in most
23 cases, <linux/hwmon-sysfs.h>. linux/hwmon.h declares the following
24 register/unregister functions:
27 hwmon_device_register_with_groups(struct device *dev, const char *name,
29 const struct attribute_group **groups);
32 devm_hwmon_device_register_with_groups(struct device *dev,
33 const char *name, void *drvdata,
34 const struct attribute_group **groups);
37 hwmon_device_register_with_info(struct device *dev,
38 const char *name, void *drvdata,
39 const struct hwmon_chip_info *info,
40 const struct attribute_group **extra_groups);
43 devm_hwmon_device_register_with_info(struct device *dev,
46 const struct hwmon_chip_info *info,
47 const struct attribute_group **extra_groups);
49 void hwmon_device_unregister(struct device *dev);
50 void devm_hwmon_device_unregister(struct device *dev);
52 hwmon_device_register_with_groups registers a hardware monitoring device.
53 The first parameter of this function is a pointer to the parent device.
54 The name parameter is a pointer to the hwmon device name. The registration
55 function wil create a name sysfs attribute pointing to this name.
56 The drvdata parameter is the pointer to the local driver data.
57 hwmon_device_register_with_groups will attach this pointer to the newly
58 allocated hwmon device. The pointer can be retrieved by the driver using
59 dev_get_drvdata() on the hwmon device pointer. The groups parameter is
60 a pointer to a list of sysfs attribute groups. The list must be NULL terminated.
61 hwmon_device_register_with_groups creates the hwmon device with name attribute
62 as well as all sysfs attributes attached to the hwmon device.
63 This function returns a pointer to the newly created hardware monitoring device
64 or PTR_ERR for failure.
66 devm_hwmon_device_register_with_groups is similar to
67 hwmon_device_register_with_groups. However, it is device managed, meaning the
68 hwmon device does not have to be removed explicitly by the removal function.
70 hwmon_device_register_with_info is the most comprehensive and preferred means
71 to register a hardware monitoring device. It creates the standard sysfs
72 attributes in the hardware monitoring core, letting the driver focus on reading
73 from and writing to the chip instead of having to bother with sysfs attributes.
74 Its parameters are described in more detail below.
76 devm_hwmon_device_register_with_info is similar to
77 hwmon_device_register_with_info. However, it is device managed, meaning the
78 hwmon device does not have to be removed explicitly by the removal function.
80 hwmon_device_unregister deregisters a registered hardware monitoring device.
81 The parameter of this function is the pointer to the registered hardware
82 monitoring device structure. This function must be called from the driver
83 remove function if the hardware monitoring device was registered with
84 hwmon_device_register_with_groups or hwmon_device_register_with_info.
86 devm_hwmon_device_unregister does not normally have to be called. It is only
87 needed for error handling, and only needed if the driver probe fails after
88 the call to devm_hwmon_device_register_with_groups or
89 hwmon_device_register_with_info and if the automatic (device managed)
90 removal would be too late.
92 Using devm_hwmon_device_register_with_info()
93 --------------------------------------------
95 hwmon_device_register_with_info() registers a hardware monitoring device.
96 The parameters to this function are
98 struct device *dev Pointer to parent device
99 const char *name Device name
100 void *drvdata Driver private data
101 const struct hwmon_chip_info *info
102 Pointer to chip description.
103 const struct attribute_group **extra_groups
104 Null-terminated list of additional non-standard
105 sysfs attribute groups.
107 This function returns a pointer to the created hardware monitoring device
108 on success and a negative error code for failure.
110 The hwmon_chip_info structure looks as follows.
112 struct hwmon_chip_info {
113 const struct hwmon_ops *ops;
114 const struct hwmon_channel_info **info;
117 It contains the following fields:
119 * ops: Pointer to device operations.
120 * info: NULL-terminated list of device channel descriptors.
122 The list of hwmon operations is defined as:
125 umode_t (*is_visible)(const void *, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
127 int (*read)(struct device *, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
128 u32 attr, int, long *);
129 int (*write)(struct device *, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
130 u32 attr, int, long);
133 It defines the following operations.
135 * is_visible: Pointer to a function to return the file mode for each supported
136 attribute. This function is mandatory.
138 * read: Pointer to a function for reading a value from the chip. This function
139 is optional, but must be provided if any readable attributes exist.
141 * write: Pointer to a function for writing a value to the chip. This function is
142 optional, but must be provided if any writeable attributes exist.
144 Each sensor channel is described with struct hwmon_channel_info, which is
147 struct hwmon_channel_info {
148 enum hwmon_sensor_types type;
152 It contains following fields:
154 * type: The hardware monitoring sensor type.
155 Supported sensor types are
156 * hwmon_chip A virtual sensor type, used to describe attributes
157 * which are not bound to a specific input or output
158 * hwmon_temp Temperature sensor
159 * hwmon_in Voltage sensor
160 * hwmon_curr Current sensor
161 * hwmon_power Power sensor
162 * hwmon_energy Energy sensor
163 * hwmon_humidity Humidity sensor
164 * hwmon_fan Fan speed sensor
165 * hwmon_pwm PWM control
167 * config: Pointer to a 0-terminated list of configuration values for each
168 sensor of the given type. Each value is a combination of bit values
169 describing the attributes supposed by a single sensor.
171 As an example, here is the complete description file for a LM75 compatible
172 sensor chip. The chip has a single temperature sensor. The driver wants to
173 register with the thermal subsystem (HWMON_C_REGISTER_TZ), and it supports
174 the update_interval attribute (HWMON_C_UPDATE_INTERVAL). The chip supports
175 reading the temperature (HWMON_T_INPUT), it has a maximum temperature
176 register (HWMON_T_MAX) as well as a maximum temperature hysteresis register
179 static const u32 lm75_chip_config[] = {
180 HWMON_C_REGISTER_TZ | HWMON_C_UPDATE_INTERVAL,
184 static const struct hwmon_channel_info lm75_chip = {
186 .config = lm75_chip_config,
189 static const u32 lm75_temp_config[] = {
190 HWMON_T_INPUT | HWMON_T_MAX | HWMON_T_MAX_HYST,
194 static const struct hwmon_channel_info lm75_temp = {
196 .config = lm75_temp_config,
199 static const struct hwmon_channel_info *lm75_info[] = {
205 static const struct hwmon_ops lm75_hwmon_ops = {
206 .is_visible = lm75_is_visible,
211 static const struct hwmon_chip_info lm75_chip_info = {
212 .ops = &lm75_hwmon_ops,
216 A complete list of bit values indicating individual attribute support
217 is defined in include/linux/hwmon.h. Definition prefixes are as follows.
219 HWMON_C_xxxx Chip attributes, for use with hwmon_chip.
220 HWMON_T_xxxx Temperature attributes, for use with hwmon_temp.
221 HWMON_I_xxxx Voltage attributes, for use with hwmon_in.
222 HWMON_C_xxxx Current attributes, for use with hwmon_curr.
223 Notice the prefix overlap with chip attributes.
224 HWMON_P_xxxx Power attributes, for use with hwmon_power.
225 HWMON_E_xxxx Energy attributes, for use with hwmon_energy.
226 HWMON_H_xxxx Humidity attributes, for use with hwmon_humidity.
227 HWMON_F_xxxx Fan speed attributes, for use with hwmon_fan.
228 HWMON_PWM_xxxx PWM control attributes, for use with hwmon_pwm.
230 Driver callback functions
231 -------------------------
233 Each driver provides is_visible, read, and write functions. Parameters
234 and return values for those functions are as follows.
236 umode_t is_visible_func(const void *data, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
237 u32 attr, int channel)
240 data: Pointer to device private data structure.
241 type: The sensor type.
242 attr: Attribute identifier associated with a specific attribute.
243 For example, the attribute value for HWMON_T_INPUT would be
244 hwmon_temp_input. For complete mappings of bit fields to
245 attribute values please see include/linux/hwmon.h.
246 channel:The sensor channel number.
249 The file mode for this attribute. Typically, this will be 0 (the
250 attribute will not be created), S_IRUGO, or 'S_IRUGO | S_IWUSR'.
252 int read_func(struct device *dev, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
253 u32 attr, int channel, long *val)
256 dev: Pointer to the hardware monitoring device.
257 type: The sensor type.
258 attr: Attribute identifier associated with a specific attribute.
259 For example, the attribute value for HWMON_T_INPUT would be
260 hwmon_temp_input. For complete mappings please see
261 include/linux/hwmon.h.
262 channel:The sensor channel number.
263 val: Pointer to attribute value.
266 0 on success, a negative error number otherwise.
268 int write_func(struct device *dev, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
269 u32 attr, int channel, long val)
272 dev: Pointer to the hardware monitoring device.
273 type: The sensor type.
274 attr: Attribute identifier associated with a specific attribute.
275 For example, the attribute value for HWMON_T_INPUT would be
276 hwmon_temp_input. For complete mappings please see
277 include/linux/hwmon.h.
278 channel:The sensor channel number.
279 val: The value to write to the chip.
282 0 on success, a negative error number otherwise.
285 Driver-provided sysfs attributes
286 --------------------------------
288 If the hardware monitoring device is registered with
289 hwmon_device_register_with_info or devm_hwmon_device_register_with_info,
290 it is most likely not necessary to provide sysfs attributes. Only additional
291 non-standard sysfs attributes need to be provided when one of those registration
294 The header file linux/hwmon-sysfs.h provides a number of useful macros to
295 declare and use hardware monitoring sysfs attributes.
297 In many cases, you can use the exsting define DEVICE_ATTR to declare such
298 attributes. This is feasible if an attribute has no additional context. However,
299 in many cases there will be additional information such as a sensor index which
300 will need to be passed to the sysfs attribute handling function.
302 SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR and SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR_2 can be used to define attributes
303 which need such additional context information. SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR requires
304 one additional argument, SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR_2 requires two.
306 SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR defines a struct sensor_device_attribute variable.
307 This structure has the following fields.
309 struct sensor_device_attribute {
310 struct device_attribute dev_attr;
314 You can use to_sensor_dev_attr to get the pointer to this structure from the
315 attribute read or write function. Its parameter is the device to which the
316 attribute is attached.
318 SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR_2 defines a struct sensor_device_attribute_2 variable,
319 which is defined as follows.
321 struct sensor_device_attribute_2 {
322 struct device_attribute dev_attr;
327 Use to_sensor_dev_attr_2 to get the pointer to this structure. Its parameter
328 is the device to which the attribute is attached.