6 This document is meant as a brief overview of some aspects of the new serial
7 driver. It is not complete, any questions you have should be directed to
10 The reference implementation is contained within amba_pl011.c.
14 Low Level Serial Hardware Driver
15 --------------------------------
17 The low level serial hardware driver is responsible for supplying port
18 information (defined by uart_port) and a set of control methods (defined
19 by uart_ops) to the core serial driver. The low level driver is also
20 responsible for handling interrupts for the port, and providing any
27 The serial core provides a few helper functions. This includes identifing
28 the correct port structure (via uart_get_console) and decoding command line
29 arguments (uart_parse_options).
31 There is also a helper function (uart_write_console) which performs a
32 character by character write, translating newlines to CRLF sequences.
33 Driver writers are recommended to use this function rather than implementing
40 It is the responsibility of the low level hardware driver to perform the
41 necessary locking using port->lock. There are some exceptions (which
42 are described in the uart_ops listing below.)
44 There are three locks. A per-port spinlock, a per-port tmpbuf semaphore,
45 and an overall semaphore.
47 From the core driver perspective, the port->lock locks the following
52 info->xmit.head (circ->head)
53 info->xmit.tail (circ->tail)
55 The low level driver is free to use this lock to provide any additional
58 The core driver uses the info->tmpbuf_sem lock to prevent multi-threaded
59 access to the info->tmpbuf bouncebuffer used for port writes.
61 The port_sem semaphore is used to protect against ports being added/
62 removed or reconfigured at inappropriate times.
68 The uart_ops structure is the main interface between serial_core and the
69 hardware specific driver. It contains all the methods to control the
73 This function tests whether the transmitter fifo and shifter
74 for the port described by 'port' is empty. If it is empty,
75 this function should return TIOCSER_TEMT, otherwise return 0.
76 If the port does not support this operation, then it should
80 Interrupts: caller dependent.
81 This call must not sleep
83 set_mctrl(port, mctrl)
84 This function sets the modem control lines for port described
85 by 'port' to the state described by mctrl. The relevant bits
87 - TIOCM_RTS RTS signal.
88 - TIOCM_DTR DTR signal.
89 - TIOCM_OUT1 OUT1 signal.
90 - TIOCM_OUT2 OUT2 signal.
91 - TIOCM_LOOP Set the port into loopback mode.
92 If the appropriate bit is set, the signal should be driven
93 active. If the bit is clear, the signal should be driven
96 Locking: port->lock taken.
97 Interrupts: locally disabled.
98 This call must not sleep
101 Returns the current state of modem control inputs. The state
102 of the outputs should not be returned, since the core keeps
103 track of their state. The state information should include:
104 - TIOCM_CAR state of DCD signal
105 - TIOCM_CTS state of CTS signal
106 - TIOCM_DSR state of DSR signal
107 - TIOCM_RI state of RI signal
108 The bit is set if the signal is currently driven active. If
109 the port does not support CTS, DCD or DSR, the driver should
110 indicate that the signal is permanently active. If RI is
111 not available, the signal should not be indicated as active.
113 Locking: port->lock taken.
114 Interrupts: locally disabled.
115 This call must not sleep
118 Stop transmitting characters. This might be due to the CTS
119 line becoming inactive or the tty layer indicating we want
120 to stop transmission due to an XOFF character.
122 The driver should stop transmitting characters as soon as
125 Locking: port->lock taken.
126 Interrupts: locally disabled.
127 This call must not sleep
130 Start transmitting characters.
132 Locking: port->lock taken.
133 Interrupts: locally disabled.
134 This call must not sleep
137 Transmit a high priority character, even if the port is stopped.
138 This is used to implement XON/XOFF flow control and tcflow(). If
139 the serial driver does not implement this function, the tty core
140 will append the character to the circular buffer and then call
141 start_tx() / stop_tx() to flush the data out.
143 Do not transmit if ch == '\0' (__DISABLED_CHAR).
146 Interrupts: caller dependent.
149 Stop receiving characters; the port is in the process of
152 Locking: port->lock taken.
153 Interrupts: locally disabled.
154 This call must not sleep
157 Enable the modem status interrupts.
159 This method may be called multiple times. Modem status
160 interrupts should be disabled when the shutdown method is
163 Locking: port->lock taken.
164 Interrupts: locally disabled.
165 This call must not sleep
168 Control the transmission of a break signal. If ctl is
169 nonzero, the break signal should be transmitted. The signal
170 should be terminated when another call is made with a zero
174 Interrupts: caller dependent.
175 This call must not sleep
178 Grab any interrupt resources and initialise any low level driver
179 state. Enable the port for reception. It should not activate
180 RTS nor DTR; this will be done via a separate call to set_mctrl.
182 This method will only be called when the port is initially opened.
184 Locking: port_sem taken.
185 Interrupts: globally disabled.
188 Disable the port, disable any break condition that may be in
189 effect, and free any interrupt resources. It should not disable
190 RTS nor DTR; this will have already been done via a separate
193 Drivers must not access port->info once this call has completed.
195 This method will only be called when there are no more users of
198 Locking: port_sem taken.
199 Interrupts: caller dependent.
202 Flush any write buffers, reset any DMA state and stop any
203 ongoing DMA transfers.
205 This will be called whenever the port->info->xmit circular
208 Locking: port->lock taken.
209 Interrupts: locally disabled.
210 This call must not sleep
212 set_termios(port,termios,oldtermios)
213 Change the port parameters, including word length, parity, stop
214 bits. Update read_status_mask and ignore_status_mask to indicate
215 the types of events we are interested in receiving. Relevant
216 termios->c_cflag bits are:
219 PARENB - parity enable
220 PARODD - odd parity (when PARENB is in force)
221 CREAD - enable reception of characters (if not set,
222 still receive characters from the port, but
224 CRTSCTS - if set, enable CTS status change reporting
225 CLOCAL - if not set, enable modem status change
227 Relevant termios->c_iflag bits are:
228 INPCK - enable frame and parity error events to be
229 passed to the TTY layer.
231 PARMRK - both of these enable break events to be
232 passed to the TTY layer.
234 IGNPAR - ignore parity and framing errors
235 IGNBRK - ignore break errors, If IGNPAR is also
236 set, ignore overrun errors as well.
237 The interaction of the iflag bits is as follows (parity error
238 given as an example):
239 Parity error INPCK IGNPAR
240 n/a 0 n/a character received, marked as
242 None 1 n/a character received, marked as
244 Yes 1 0 character received, marked as
246 Yes 1 1 character discarded
248 Other flags may be used (eg, xon/xoff characters) if your
249 hardware supports hardware "soft" flow control.
252 Interrupts: caller dependent.
253 This call must not sleep
255 pm(port,state,oldstate)
256 Perform any power management related activities on the specified
257 port. State indicates the new state (defined by
258 enum uart_pm_state), oldstate indicates the previous state.
260 This function should not be used to grab any resources.
262 This will be called when the port is initially opened and finally
263 closed, except when the port is also the system console. This
264 will occur even if CONFIG_PM is not set.
267 Interrupts: caller dependent.
270 Return a pointer to a string constant describing the specified
271 port, or return NULL, in which case the string 'unknown' is
275 Interrupts: caller dependent.
278 Release any memory and IO region resources currently in use by
282 Interrupts: caller dependent.
285 Request any memory and IO region resources required by the port.
286 If any fail, no resources should be registered when this function
287 returns, and it should return -EBUSY on failure.
290 Interrupts: caller dependent.
292 config_port(port,type)
293 Perform any autoconfiguration steps required for the port. `type`
294 contains a bit mask of the required configuration. UART_CONFIG_TYPE
295 indicates that the port requires detection and identification.
296 port->type should be set to the type found, or PORT_UNKNOWN if
297 no port was detected.
299 UART_CONFIG_IRQ indicates autoconfiguration of the interrupt signal,
300 which should be probed using standard kernel autoprobing techniques.
301 This is not necessary on platforms where ports have interrupts
302 internally hard wired (eg, system on a chip implementations).
305 Interrupts: caller dependent.
307 verify_port(port,serinfo)
308 Verify the new serial port information contained within serinfo is
309 suitable for this port type.
312 Interrupts: caller dependent.
315 Perform any port specific IOCTLs. IOCTL commands must be defined
316 using the standard numbering system found in <asm/ioctl.h>
319 Interrupts: caller dependent.
322 Called by kgdb to perform the minimal hardware initialization needed
323 to support poll_put_char() and poll_get_char(). Unlike ->startup()
324 this should not request interrupts.
326 Locking: tty_mutex and tty_port->mutex taken.
329 poll_put_char(port,ch)
330 Called by kgdb to write a single character directly to the serial
331 port. It can and should block until there is space in the TX FIFO.
334 Interrupts: caller dependent.
335 This call must not sleep
338 Called by kgdb to read a single character directly from the serial
339 port. If data is available, it should be returned; otherwise
340 the function should return NO_POLL_CHAR immediately.
343 Interrupts: caller dependent.
344 This call must not sleep
349 uart_update_timeout(port,cflag,baud)
350 Update the FIFO drain timeout, port->timeout, according to the
351 number of bits, parity, stop bits and baud rate.
353 Locking: caller is expected to take port->lock
356 uart_get_baud_rate(port,termios,old,min,max)
357 Return the numeric baud rate for the specified termios, taking
358 account of the special 38400 baud "kludge". The B0 baud rate
359 is mapped to 9600 baud.
361 If the baud rate is not within min..max, then if old is non-NULL,
362 the original baud rate will be tried. If that exceeds the
363 min..max constraint, 9600 baud will be returned. termios will
364 be updated to the baud rate in use.
366 Note: min..max must always allow 9600 baud to be selected.
368 Locking: caller dependent.
371 uart_get_divisor(port,baud)
372 Return the divsor (baud_base / baud) for the specified baud
373 rate, appropriately rounded.
375 If 38400 baud and custom divisor is selected, return the
376 custom divisor instead.
378 Locking: caller dependent.
381 uart_match_port(port1,port2)
382 This utility function can be used to determine whether two
383 uart_port structures describe the same port.
388 uart_write_wakeup(port)
389 A driver is expected to call this function when the number of
390 characters in the transmit buffer have dropped below a threshold.
392 Locking: port->lock should be held.
395 uart_register_driver(drv)
396 Register a uart driver with the core driver. We in turn register
397 with the tty layer, and initialise the core driver per-port state.
399 drv->port should be NULL, and the per-port structures should be
400 registered using uart_add_one_port after this call has succeeded.
405 uart_unregister_driver()
406 Remove all references to a driver from the core driver. The low
407 level driver must have removed all its ports via the
408 uart_remove_one_port() if it registered them with uart_add_one_port().
419 uart_remove_one_port()
424 It is intended some day to drop the 'unused' entries from uart_port, and
425 allow low level drivers to register their own individual uart_port's with
426 the core. This will allow drivers to use uart_port as a pointer to a
427 structure containing both the uart_port entry with their own extensions,
431 struct uart_port port;
435 Modem control lines via GPIO
436 ----------------------------
438 Some helpers are provided in order to set/get modem control lines via GPIO.
440 mctrl_gpio_init(dev, idx):
441 This will get the {cts,rts,...}-gpios from device tree if they are
442 present and request them, set direction etc, and return an
443 allocated structure. devm_* functions are used, so there's no need
444 to call mctrl_gpio_free().
446 mctrl_gpio_free(dev, gpios):
447 This will free the requested gpios in mctrl_gpio_init().
448 As devm_* function are used, there's generally no need to call
451 mctrl_gpio_to_gpiod(gpios, gidx)
452 This returns the gpio structure associated to the modem line index.
454 mctrl_gpio_set(gpios, mctrl):
455 This will sets the gpios according to the mctrl state.
457 mctrl_gpio_get(gpios, mctrl):
458 This will update mctrl with the gpios values.