1 GPIO Descriptor Driver Interface
2 ================================
4 This document serves as a guide for GPIO chip drivers writers. Note that it
5 describes the new descriptor-based interface. For a description of the
6 deprecated integer-based GPIO interface please refer to gpio-legacy.txt.
8 Each GPIO controller driver needs to include the following header, which defines
9 the structures used to define a GPIO driver:
11 #include <linux/gpio/driver.h>
14 Internal Representation of GPIOs
15 ================================
17 Inside a GPIO driver, individual GPIOs are identified by their hardware number,
18 which is a unique number between 0 and n, n being the number of GPIOs managed by
19 the chip. This number is purely internal: the hardware number of a particular
20 GPIO descriptor is never made visible outside of the driver.
22 On top of this internal number, each GPIO also need to have a global number in
23 the integer GPIO namespace so that it can be used with the legacy GPIO
24 interface. Each chip must thus have a "base" number (which can be automatically
25 assigned), and for each GPIO the global number will be (base + hardware number).
26 Although the integer representation is considered deprecated, it still has many
27 users and thus needs to be maintained.
29 So for example one platform could use numbers 32-159 for GPIOs, with a
30 controller defining 128 GPIOs at a "base" of 32 ; while another platform uses
31 numbers 0..63 with one set of GPIO controllers, 64-79 with another type of GPIO
32 controller, and on one particular board 80-95 with an FPGA. The numbers need not
33 be contiguous; either of those platforms could also use numbers 2000-2063 to
34 identify GPIOs in a bank of I2C GPIO expanders.
37 Controller Drivers: gpio_chip
38 =============================
40 In the gpiolib framework each GPIO controller is packaged as a "struct
41 gpio_chip" (see linux/gpio/driver.h for its complete definition) with members
42 common to each controller of that type:
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
52 The code implementing a gpio_chip should support multiple instances of the
53 controller, possibly using the driver model. That code will configure each
54 gpio_chip and issue gpiochip_add(). Removing a GPIO controller should be rare;
55 use gpiochip_remove() when it is unavoidable.
57 Most often a gpio_chip is part of an instance-specific structure with state not
58 exposed by the GPIO interfaces, such as addressing, power management, and more.
59 Chips such as codecs will have complex non-GPIO state.
61 Any debugfs dump method should normally ignore signals which haven't been
62 requested as GPIOs. They can use gpiochip_is_requested(), which returns either
63 NULL or the label associated with that GPIO when it was requested.
65 RT_FULL: GPIO driver should not use spinlock_t or any sleepable APIs
66 (like PM runtime) in its gpio_chip implementation (.get/.set and direction
67 control callbacks) if it is expected to call GPIO APIs from atomic context
68 on -RT (inside hard IRQ handlers and similar contexts). Normally this should
71 GPIO drivers providing IRQs
72 ---------------------------
73 It is custom that GPIO drivers (GPIO chips) are also providing interrupts,
74 most often cascaded off a parent interrupt controller, and in some special
75 cases the GPIO logic is melded with a SoC's primary interrupt controller.
77 The IRQ portions of the GPIO block are implemented using an irqchip, using
78 the header <linux/irq.h>. So basically such a driver is utilizing two sub-
79 systems simultaneously: gpio and irq.
81 RT_FULL: GPIO driver should not use spinlock_t or any sleepable APIs
82 (like PM runtime) as part of its irq_chip implementation on -RT.
83 - spinlock_t should be replaced with raw_spinlock_t [1].
84 - If sleepable APIs have to be used, these can be done from the .irq_bus_lock()
85 and .irq_bus_unlock() callbacks, as these are the only slowpath callbacks
86 on an irqchip. Create the callbacks if needed [2].
88 GPIO irqchips usually fall in one of two categories:
90 * CHAINED GPIO irqchips: these are usually the type that is embedded on
91 an SoC. This means that there is a fast IRQ handler for the GPIOs that
92 gets called in a chain from the parent IRQ handler, most typically the
93 system interrupt controller. This means the GPIO irqchip is registered
94 using irq_set_chained_handler() or the corresponding
95 gpiochip_set_chained_irqchip() helper function, and the GPIO irqchip
96 handler will be called immediately from the parent irqchip, while
97 holding the IRQs disabled. The GPIO irqchip will then end up calling
98 something like this sequence in its interrupt handler:
100 static irqreturn_t tc3589x_gpio_irq(int irq, void *data)
101 chained_irq_enter(...);
102 generic_handle_irq(...);
103 chained_irq_exit(...);
105 Chained GPIO irqchips typically can NOT set the .can_sleep flag on
106 struct gpio_chip, as everything happens directly in the callbacks.
108 RT_FULL: Note, chained IRQ handlers will not be forced threaded on -RT.
109 As result, spinlock_t or any sleepable APIs (like PM runtime) can't be used
110 in chained IRQ handler.
111 if required (and if it can't be converted to the nested threaded GPIO irqchip)
112 - chained IRQ handler can be converted to generic irq handler and this way
113 it will be threaded IRQ handler on -RT and hard IRQ handler on non-RT
114 (for example, see [3]).
115 Know W/A: The generic_handle_irq() is expected to be called with IRQ disabled,
116 so IRQ core will complain if it will be called from IRQ handler wich is forced
117 thread. The "fake?" raw lock can be used to W/A this problem:
119 raw_spinlock_t wa_lock;
120 static irqreturn_t omap_gpio_irq_handler(int irq, void *gpiobank)
121 unsigned long wa_lock_flags;
122 raw_spin_lock_irqsave(&bank->wa_lock, wa_lock_flags);
123 generic_handle_irq(irq_find_mapping(bank->chip.irqdomain, bit));
124 raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore(&bank->wa_lock, wa_lock_flags);
126 * GENERIC CHAINED GPIO irqchips: these are the same as "CHAINED GPIO irqchips",
127 but chained IRQ handlers are not used. Instead GPIO IRQs dispatching is
128 performed by generic IRQ handler which is configured using request_irq().
129 The GPIO irqchip will then end up calling something like this sequence in
130 its interrupt handler:
132 static irqreturn_t gpio_rcar_irq_handler(int irq, void *dev_id)
133 for each detected GPIO IRQ
134 generic_handle_irq(...);
136 RT_FULL: Such kind of handlers will be forced threaded on -RT, as result IRQ
137 core will complain that generic_handle_irq() is called with IRQ enabled and
138 the same W/A as for "CHAINED GPIO irqchips" can be applied.
140 * NESTED THREADED GPIO irqchips: these are off-chip GPIO expanders and any
141 other GPIO irqchip residing on the other side of a sleeping bus. Of course
142 such drivers that need slow bus traffic to read out IRQ status and similar,
143 traffic which may in turn incur other IRQs to happen, cannot be handled
144 in a quick IRQ handler with IRQs disabled. Instead they need to spawn a
145 thread and then mask the parent IRQ line until the interrupt is handled
146 by the driver. The hallmark of this driver is to call something like
147 this in its interrupt handler:
149 static irqreturn_t tc3589x_gpio_irq(int irq, void *data)
151 handle_nested_irq(irq);
153 The hallmark of threaded GPIO irqchips is that they set the .can_sleep
154 flag on struct gpio_chip to true, indicating that this chip may sleep
155 when accessing the GPIOs.
157 To help out in handling the set-up and management of GPIO irqchips and the
158 associated irqdomain and resource allocation callbacks, the gpiolib has
159 some helpers that can be enabled by selecting the GPIOLIB_IRQCHIP Kconfig
162 * gpiochip_irqchip_add(): adds an irqchip to a gpiochip. It will pass
163 the struct gpio_chip* for the chip to all IRQ callbacks, so the callbacks
164 need to embed the gpio_chip in its state container and obtain a pointer
165 to the container using container_of().
166 (See Documentation/driver-model/design-patterns.txt)
168 * gpiochip_set_chained_irqchip(): sets up a chained irq handler for a
169 gpio_chip from a parent IRQ and passes the struct gpio_chip* as handler
170 data. (Notice handler data, since the irqchip data is likely used by the
171 parent irqchip!) This is for the chained type of chip. This is also used
172 to set up a nested irqchip if NULL is passed as handler.
174 To use the helpers please keep the following in mind:
176 - Make sure to assign all relevant members of the struct gpio_chip so that
177 the irqchip can initialize. E.g. .dev and .can_sleep shall be set up
180 - Nominally set all handlers to handle_bad_irq() in the setup call and pass
181 handle_bad_irq() as flow handler parameter in gpiochip_irqchip_add() if it is
182 expected for GPIO driver that irqchip .set_type() callback have to be called
183 before using/enabling GPIO IRQ. Then set the handler to handle_level_irq()
184 and/or handle_edge_irq() in the irqchip .set_type() callback depending on
185 what your controller supports.
187 It is legal for any IRQ consumer to request an IRQ from any irqchip no matter
188 if that is a combined GPIO+IRQ driver. The basic premise is that gpio_chip and
189 irq_chip are orthogonal, and offering their services independent of each
192 gpiod_to_irq() is just a convenience function to figure out the IRQ for a
193 certain GPIO line and should not be relied upon to have been called before
196 So always prepare the hardware and make it ready for action in respective
197 callbacks from the GPIO and irqchip APIs. Do not rely on gpiod_to_irq() having
200 This orthogonality leads to ambiguities that we need to solve: if there is
201 competition inside the subsystem which side is using the resource (a certain
202 GPIO line and register for example) it needs to deny certain operations and
203 keep track of usage inside of the gpiolib subsystem. This is why the API
209 Input GPIOs can be used as IRQ signals. When this happens, a driver is requested
210 to mark the GPIO as being used as an IRQ:
212 int gpiochip_lock_as_irq(struct gpio_chip *chip, unsigned int offset)
214 This will prevent the use of non-irq related GPIO APIs until the GPIO IRQ lock
217 void gpiochip_unlock_as_irq(struct gpio_chip *chip, unsigned int offset)
219 When implementing an irqchip inside a GPIO driver, these two functions should
220 typically be called in the .startup() and .shutdown() callbacks from the
223 Real-Time compliance for GPIO IRQ chips
224 ---------------------------------------
226 Any provider of irqchips needs to be carefully tailored to support Real Time
227 preemption. It is desireable that all irqchips in the GPIO subsystem keep this
228 in mind and does the proper testing to assure they are real time-enabled.
229 So, pay attention on above " RT_FULL:" notes, please.
230 The following is a checklist to follow when preparing a driver for real
233 - ensure spinlock_t is not used as part irq_chip implementation;
234 - ensure that sleepable APIs are not used as part irq_chip implementation.
235 If sleepable APIs have to be used, these can be done from the .irq_bus_lock()
236 and .irq_bus_unlock() callbacks;
237 - Chained GPIO irqchips: ensure spinlock_t or any sleepable APIs are not used
238 from chained IRQ handler;
239 - Generic chained GPIO irqchips: take care about generic_handle_irq() calls and
240 apply corresponding W/A;
241 - Chained GPIO irqchips: get rid of chained IRQ handler and use generic irq
242 handler if possible :)
243 - regmap_mmio: Sry, but you are in trouble :( if MMIO regmap is used as for
244 GPIO IRQ chip implementation;
245 - Test your driver with the appropriate in-kernel real time test cases for both
249 Requesting self-owned GPIO pins
250 -------------------------------
252 Sometimes it is useful to allow a GPIO chip driver to request its own GPIO
253 descriptors through the gpiolib API. Using gpio_request() for this purpose
254 does not help since it pins the module to the kernel forever (it calls
255 try_module_get()). A GPIO driver can use the following functions instead
256 to request and free descriptors without being pinned to the kernel forever.
258 struct gpio_desc *gpiochip_request_own_desc(struct gpio_desc *desc,
261 void gpiochip_free_own_desc(struct gpio_desc *desc)
263 Descriptors requested with gpiochip_request_own_desc() must be released with
264 gpiochip_free_own_desc().
266 These functions must be used with care since they do not affect module use
267 count. Do not use the functions to request gpio descriptors not owned by the
270 [1] http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-omap/msg120425.html
271 [2] https://lkml.org/lkml/2015/9/25/494
272 [3] https://lkml.org/lkml/2015/9/25/495