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 The parent device parameter cannot be NULL with non-NULL chip info. Its
75 parameters are described in more detail below.
77 devm_hwmon_device_register_with_info is similar to
78 hwmon_device_register_with_info. However, it is device managed, meaning the
79 hwmon device does not have to be removed explicitly by the removal function.
81 hwmon_device_unregister deregisters a registered hardware monitoring device.
82 The parameter of this function is the pointer to the registered hardware
83 monitoring device structure. This function must be called from the driver
84 remove function if the hardware monitoring device was registered with
85 hwmon_device_register_with_groups or hwmon_device_register_with_info.
87 devm_hwmon_device_unregister does not normally have to be called. It is only
88 needed for error handling, and only needed if the driver probe fails after
89 the call to devm_hwmon_device_register_with_groups or
90 hwmon_device_register_with_info and if the automatic (device managed)
91 removal would be too late.
93 All supported hwmon device registration functions only accept valid device
94 names. Device names including invalid characters (whitespace, '*', or '-')
95 will be rejected. The 'name' parameter is mandatory.
97 Using devm_hwmon_device_register_with_info()
98 --------------------------------------------
100 hwmon_device_register_with_info() registers a hardware monitoring device.
101 The parameters to this function are
103 struct device *dev Pointer to parent device
104 const char *name Device name
105 void *drvdata Driver private data
106 const struct hwmon_chip_info *info
107 Pointer to chip description.
108 const struct attribute_group **extra_groups
109 Null-terminated list of additional non-standard
110 sysfs attribute groups.
112 This function returns a pointer to the created hardware monitoring device
113 on success and a negative error code for failure.
115 The hwmon_chip_info structure looks as follows.
117 struct hwmon_chip_info {
118 const struct hwmon_ops *ops;
119 const struct hwmon_channel_info **info;
122 It contains the following fields:
124 * ops: Pointer to device operations.
125 * info: NULL-terminated list of device channel descriptors.
127 The list of hwmon operations is defined as:
130 umode_t (*is_visible)(const void *, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
132 int (*read)(struct device *, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
133 u32 attr, int, long *);
134 int (*write)(struct device *, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
135 u32 attr, int, long);
138 It defines the following operations.
140 * is_visible: Pointer to a function to return the file mode for each supported
141 attribute. This function is mandatory.
143 * read: Pointer to a function for reading a value from the chip. This function
144 is optional, but must be provided if any readable attributes exist.
146 * write: Pointer to a function for writing a value to the chip. This function is
147 optional, but must be provided if any writeable attributes exist.
149 Each sensor channel is described with struct hwmon_channel_info, which is
152 struct hwmon_channel_info {
153 enum hwmon_sensor_types type;
157 It contains following fields:
159 * type: The hardware monitoring sensor type.
160 Supported sensor types are
161 * hwmon_chip A virtual sensor type, used to describe attributes
162 * which are not bound to a specific input or output
163 * hwmon_temp Temperature sensor
164 * hwmon_in Voltage sensor
165 * hwmon_curr Current sensor
166 * hwmon_power Power sensor
167 * hwmon_energy Energy sensor
168 * hwmon_humidity Humidity sensor
169 * hwmon_fan Fan speed sensor
170 * hwmon_pwm PWM control
172 * config: Pointer to a 0-terminated list of configuration values for each
173 sensor of the given type. Each value is a combination of bit values
174 describing the attributes supposed by a single sensor.
176 As an example, here is the complete description file for a LM75 compatible
177 sensor chip. The chip has a single temperature sensor. The driver wants to
178 register with the thermal subsystem (HWMON_C_REGISTER_TZ), and it supports
179 the update_interval attribute (HWMON_C_UPDATE_INTERVAL). The chip supports
180 reading the temperature (HWMON_T_INPUT), it has a maximum temperature
181 register (HWMON_T_MAX) as well as a maximum temperature hysteresis register
184 static const u32 lm75_chip_config[] = {
185 HWMON_C_REGISTER_TZ | HWMON_C_UPDATE_INTERVAL,
189 static const struct hwmon_channel_info lm75_chip = {
191 .config = lm75_chip_config,
194 static const u32 lm75_temp_config[] = {
195 HWMON_T_INPUT | HWMON_T_MAX | HWMON_T_MAX_HYST,
199 static const struct hwmon_channel_info lm75_temp = {
201 .config = lm75_temp_config,
204 static const struct hwmon_channel_info *lm75_info[] = {
210 static const struct hwmon_ops lm75_hwmon_ops = {
211 .is_visible = lm75_is_visible,
216 static const struct hwmon_chip_info lm75_chip_info = {
217 .ops = &lm75_hwmon_ops,
221 A complete list of bit values indicating individual attribute support
222 is defined in include/linux/hwmon.h. Definition prefixes are as follows.
224 HWMON_C_xxxx Chip attributes, for use with hwmon_chip.
225 HWMON_T_xxxx Temperature attributes, for use with hwmon_temp.
226 HWMON_I_xxxx Voltage attributes, for use with hwmon_in.
227 HWMON_C_xxxx Current attributes, for use with hwmon_curr.
228 Notice the prefix overlap with chip attributes.
229 HWMON_P_xxxx Power attributes, for use with hwmon_power.
230 HWMON_E_xxxx Energy attributes, for use with hwmon_energy.
231 HWMON_H_xxxx Humidity attributes, for use with hwmon_humidity.
232 HWMON_F_xxxx Fan speed attributes, for use with hwmon_fan.
233 HWMON_PWM_xxxx PWM control attributes, for use with hwmon_pwm.
235 Driver callback functions
236 -------------------------
238 Each driver provides is_visible, read, and write functions. Parameters
239 and return values for those functions are as follows.
241 umode_t is_visible_func(const void *data, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
242 u32 attr, int channel)
245 data: Pointer to device private data structure.
246 type: The sensor type.
247 attr: Attribute identifier associated with a specific attribute.
248 For example, the attribute value for HWMON_T_INPUT would be
249 hwmon_temp_input. For complete mappings of bit fields to
250 attribute values please see include/linux/hwmon.h.
251 channel:The sensor channel number.
254 The file mode for this attribute. Typically, this will be 0 (the
255 attribute will not be created), S_IRUGO, or 'S_IRUGO | S_IWUSR'.
257 int read_func(struct device *dev, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
258 u32 attr, int channel, long *val)
261 dev: Pointer to the hardware monitoring device.
262 type: The sensor type.
263 attr: Attribute identifier associated with a specific attribute.
264 For example, the attribute value for HWMON_T_INPUT would be
265 hwmon_temp_input. For complete mappings please see
266 include/linux/hwmon.h.
267 channel:The sensor channel number.
268 val: Pointer to attribute value.
271 0 on success, a negative error number otherwise.
273 int write_func(struct device *dev, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
274 u32 attr, int channel, long val)
277 dev: Pointer to the hardware monitoring device.
278 type: The sensor type.
279 attr: Attribute identifier associated with a specific attribute.
280 For example, the attribute value for HWMON_T_INPUT would be
281 hwmon_temp_input. For complete mappings please see
282 include/linux/hwmon.h.
283 channel:The sensor channel number.
284 val: The value to write to the chip.
287 0 on success, a negative error number otherwise.
290 Driver-provided sysfs attributes
291 --------------------------------
293 If the hardware monitoring device is registered with
294 hwmon_device_register_with_info or devm_hwmon_device_register_with_info,
295 it is most likely not necessary to provide sysfs attributes. Only additional
296 non-standard sysfs attributes need to be provided when one of those registration
299 The header file linux/hwmon-sysfs.h provides a number of useful macros to
300 declare and use hardware monitoring sysfs attributes.
302 In many cases, you can use the exsting define DEVICE_ATTR to declare such
303 attributes. This is feasible if an attribute has no additional context. However,
304 in many cases there will be additional information such as a sensor index which
305 will need to be passed to the sysfs attribute handling function.
307 SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR and SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR_2 can be used to define attributes
308 which need such additional context information. SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR requires
309 one additional argument, SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR_2 requires two.
311 SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR defines a struct sensor_device_attribute variable.
312 This structure has the following fields.
314 struct sensor_device_attribute {
315 struct device_attribute dev_attr;
319 You can use to_sensor_dev_attr to get the pointer to this structure from the
320 attribute read or write function. Its parameter is the device to which the
321 attribute is attached.
323 SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR_2 defines a struct sensor_device_attribute_2 variable,
324 which is defined as follows.
326 struct sensor_device_attribute_2 {
327 struct device_attribute dev_attr;
332 Use to_sensor_dev_attr_2 to get the pointer to this structure. Its parameter
333 is the device to which the attribute is attached.