1 ============================================================================
5 Readme file for the Controller Area Network Protocol Family (aka SocketCAN)
9 1 Overview / What is SocketCAN
11 2 Motivation / Why using the socket API
15 3.2 local loopback of sent frames
16 3.3 network problem notifications
18 4 How to use SocketCAN
19 4.1 RAW protocol sockets with can_filters (SOCK_RAW)
20 4.1.1 RAW socket option CAN_RAW_FILTER
21 4.1.2 RAW socket option CAN_RAW_ERR_FILTER
22 4.1.3 RAW socket option CAN_RAW_LOOPBACK
23 4.1.4 RAW socket option CAN_RAW_RECV_OWN_MSGS
24 4.1.5 RAW socket option CAN_RAW_FD_FRAMES
25 4.1.6 RAW socket returned message flags
26 4.2 Broadcast Manager protocol sockets (SOCK_DGRAM)
27 4.2.1 Broadcast Manager operations
28 4.2.2 Broadcast Manager message flags
29 4.2.3 Broadcast Manager transmission timers
30 4.2.4 Broadcast Manager message sequence transmission
31 4.2.5 Broadcast Manager receive filter timers
32 4.2.6 Broadcast Manager multiplex message receive filter
33 4.3 connected transport protocols (SOCK_SEQPACKET)
34 4.4 unconnected transport protocols (SOCK_DGRAM)
36 5 SocketCAN core module
37 5.1 can.ko module params
39 5.3 writing own CAN protocol modules
43 6.2 local loopback of sent frames
44 6.3 CAN controller hardware filters
45 6.4 The virtual CAN driver (vcan)
46 6.5 The CAN network device driver interface
47 6.5.1 Netlink interface to set/get devices properties
48 6.5.2 Setting the CAN bit-timing
49 6.5.3 Starting and stopping the CAN network device
50 6.6 CAN FD (flexible data rate) driver support
51 6.7 supported CAN hardware
57 ============================================================================
59 1. Overview / What is SocketCAN
60 --------------------------------
62 The socketcan package is an implementation of CAN protocols
63 (Controller Area Network) for Linux. CAN is a networking technology
64 which has widespread use in automation, embedded devices, and
65 automotive fields. While there have been other CAN implementations
66 for Linux based on character devices, SocketCAN uses the Berkeley
67 socket API, the Linux network stack and implements the CAN device
68 drivers as network interfaces. The CAN socket API has been designed
69 as similar as possible to the TCP/IP protocols to allow programmers,
70 familiar with network programming, to easily learn how to use CAN
73 2. Motivation / Why using the socket API
74 ----------------------------------------
76 There have been CAN implementations for Linux before SocketCAN so the
77 question arises, why we have started another project. Most existing
78 implementations come as a device driver for some CAN hardware, they
79 are based on character devices and provide comparatively little
80 functionality. Usually, there is only a hardware-specific device
81 driver which provides a character device interface to send and
82 receive raw CAN frames, directly to/from the controller hardware.
83 Queueing of frames and higher-level transport protocols like ISO-TP
84 have to be implemented in user space applications. Also, most
85 character-device implementations support only one single process to
86 open the device at a time, similar to a serial interface. Exchanging
87 the CAN controller requires employment of another device driver and
88 often the need for adaption of large parts of the application to the
91 SocketCAN was designed to overcome all of these limitations. A new
92 protocol family has been implemented which provides a socket interface
93 to user space applications and which builds upon the Linux network
94 layer, enabling use all of the provided queueing functionality. A device
95 driver for CAN controller hardware registers itself with the Linux
96 network layer as a network device, so that CAN frames from the
97 controller can be passed up to the network layer and on to the CAN
98 protocol family module and also vice-versa. Also, the protocol family
99 module provides an API for transport protocol modules to register, so
100 that any number of transport protocols can be loaded or unloaded
101 dynamically. In fact, the can core module alone does not provide any
102 protocol and cannot be used without loading at least one additional
103 protocol module. Multiple sockets can be opened at the same time,
104 on different or the same protocol module and they can listen/send
105 frames on different or the same CAN IDs. Several sockets listening on
106 the same interface for frames with the same CAN ID are all passed the
107 same received matching CAN frames. An application wishing to
108 communicate using a specific transport protocol, e.g. ISO-TP, just
109 selects that protocol when opening the socket, and then can read and
110 write application data byte streams, without having to deal with
111 CAN-IDs, frames, etc.
113 Similar functionality visible from user-space could be provided by a
114 character device, too, but this would lead to a technically inelegant
115 solution for a couple of reasons:
117 * Intricate usage. Instead of passing a protocol argument to
118 socket(2) and using bind(2) to select a CAN interface and CAN ID, an
119 application would have to do all these operations using ioctl(2)s.
121 * Code duplication. A character device cannot make use of the Linux
122 network queueing code, so all that code would have to be duplicated
125 * Abstraction. In most existing character-device implementations, the
126 hardware-specific device driver for a CAN controller directly
127 provides the character device for the application to work with.
128 This is at least very unusual in Unix systems for both, char and
129 block devices. For example you don't have a character device for a
130 certain UART of a serial interface, a certain sound chip in your
131 computer, a SCSI or IDE controller providing access to your hard
132 disk or tape streamer device. Instead, you have abstraction layers
133 which provide a unified character or block device interface to the
134 application on the one hand, and a interface for hardware-specific
135 device drivers on the other hand. These abstractions are provided
136 by subsystems like the tty layer, the audio subsystem or the SCSI
137 and IDE subsystems for the devices mentioned above.
139 The easiest way to implement a CAN device driver is as a character
140 device without such a (complete) abstraction layer, as is done by most
141 existing drivers. The right way, however, would be to add such a
142 layer with all the functionality like registering for certain CAN
143 IDs, supporting several open file descriptors and (de)multiplexing
144 CAN frames between them, (sophisticated) queueing of CAN frames, and
145 providing an API for device drivers to register with. However, then
146 it would be no more difficult, or may be even easier, to use the
147 networking framework provided by the Linux kernel, and this is what
150 The use of the networking framework of the Linux kernel is just the
151 natural and most appropriate way to implement CAN for Linux.
154 ---------------------
156 As described in chapter 2 it is the main goal of SocketCAN to
157 provide a socket interface to user space applications which builds
158 upon the Linux network layer. In contrast to the commonly known
159 TCP/IP and ethernet networking, the CAN bus is a broadcast-only(!)
160 medium that has no MAC-layer addressing like ethernet. The CAN-identifier
161 (can_id) is used for arbitration on the CAN-bus. Therefore the CAN-IDs
162 have to be chosen uniquely on the bus. When designing a CAN-ECU
163 network the CAN-IDs are mapped to be sent by a specific ECU.
164 For this reason a CAN-ID can be treated best as a kind of source address.
168 The network transparent access of multiple applications leads to the
169 problem that different applications may be interested in the same
170 CAN-IDs from the same CAN network interface. The SocketCAN core
171 module - which implements the protocol family CAN - provides several
172 high efficient receive lists for this reason. If e.g. a user space
173 application opens a CAN RAW socket, the raw protocol module itself
174 requests the (range of) CAN-IDs from the SocketCAN core that are
175 requested by the user. The subscription and unsubscription of
176 CAN-IDs can be done for specific CAN interfaces or for all(!) known
177 CAN interfaces with the can_rx_(un)register() functions provided to
178 CAN protocol modules by the SocketCAN core (see chapter 5).
179 To optimize the CPU usage at runtime the receive lists are split up
180 into several specific lists per device that match the requested
181 filter complexity for a given use-case.
183 3.2 local loopback of sent frames
185 As known from other networking concepts the data exchanging
186 applications may run on the same or different nodes without any
187 change (except for the according addressing information):
189 ___ ___ ___ _______ ___
190 | _ | | _ | | _ | | _ _ | | _ |
191 ||A|| ||B|| ||C|| ||A| |B|| ||C||
192 |___| |___| |___| |_______| |___|
194 -----------------(1)- CAN bus -(2)---------------
196 To ensure that application A receives the same information in the
197 example (2) as it would receive in example (1) there is need for
198 some kind of local loopback of the sent CAN frames on the appropriate
201 The Linux network devices (by default) just can handle the
202 transmission and reception of media dependent frames. Due to the
203 arbitration on the CAN bus the transmission of a low prio CAN-ID
204 may be delayed by the reception of a high prio CAN frame. To
205 reflect the correct* traffic on the node the loopback of the sent
206 data has to be performed right after a successful transmission. If
207 the CAN network interface is not capable of performing the loopback for
208 some reason the SocketCAN core can do this task as a fallback solution.
209 See chapter 6.2 for details (recommended).
211 The loopback functionality is enabled by default to reflect standard
212 networking behaviour for CAN applications. Due to some requests from
213 the RT-SocketCAN group the loopback optionally may be disabled for each
214 separate socket. See sockopts from the CAN RAW sockets in chapter 4.1.
216 * = you really like to have this when you're running analyser tools
217 like 'candump' or 'cansniffer' on the (same) node.
219 3.3 network problem notifications
221 The use of the CAN bus may lead to several problems on the physical
222 and media access control layer. Detecting and logging of these lower
223 layer problems is a vital requirement for CAN users to identify
224 hardware issues on the physical transceiver layer as well as
225 arbitration problems and error frames caused by the different
226 ECUs. The occurrence of detected errors are important for diagnosis
227 and have to be logged together with the exact timestamp. For this
228 reason the CAN interface driver can generate so called Error Message
229 Frames that can optionally be passed to the user application in the
230 same way as other CAN frames. Whenever an error on the physical layer
231 or the MAC layer is detected (e.g. by the CAN controller) the driver
232 creates an appropriate error message frame. Error messages frames can
233 be requested by the user application using the common CAN filter
234 mechanisms. Inside this filter definition the (interested) type of
235 errors may be selected. The reception of error messages is disabled
236 by default. The format of the CAN error message frame is briefly
237 described in the Linux header file "include/linux/can/error.h".
239 4. How to use SocketCAN
240 ------------------------
242 Like TCP/IP, you first need to open a socket for communicating over a
243 CAN network. Since SocketCAN implements a new protocol family, you
244 need to pass PF_CAN as the first argument to the socket(2) system
245 call. Currently, there are two CAN protocols to choose from, the raw
246 socket protocol and the broadcast manager (BCM). So to open a socket,
249 s = socket(PF_CAN, SOCK_RAW, CAN_RAW);
253 s = socket(PF_CAN, SOCK_DGRAM, CAN_BCM);
255 respectively. After the successful creation of the socket, you would
256 normally use the bind(2) system call to bind the socket to a CAN
257 interface (which is different from TCP/IP due to different addressing
258 - see chapter 3). After binding (CAN_RAW) or connecting (CAN_BCM)
259 the socket, you can read(2) and write(2) from/to the socket or use
260 send(2), sendto(2), sendmsg(2) and the recv* counterpart operations
261 on the socket as usual. There are also CAN specific socket options
264 The basic CAN frame structure and the sockaddr structure are defined
265 in include/linux/can.h:
268 canid_t can_id; /* 32 bit CAN_ID + EFF/RTR/ERR flags */
269 __u8 can_dlc; /* frame payload length in byte (0 .. 8) */
270 __u8 data[8] __attribute__((aligned(8)));
273 The alignment of the (linear) payload data[] to a 64bit boundary
274 allows the user to define their own structs and unions to easily access
275 the CAN payload. There is no given byteorder on the CAN bus by
276 default. A read(2) system call on a CAN_RAW socket transfers a
277 struct can_frame to the user space.
279 The sockaddr_can structure has an interface index like the
280 PF_PACKET socket, that also binds to a specific interface:
282 struct sockaddr_can {
283 sa_family_t can_family;
286 /* transport protocol class address info (e.g. ISOTP) */
287 struct { canid_t rx_id, tx_id; } tp;
289 /* reserved for future CAN protocols address information */
293 To determine the interface index an appropriate ioctl() has to
294 be used (example for CAN_RAW sockets without error checking):
297 struct sockaddr_can addr;
300 s = socket(PF_CAN, SOCK_RAW, CAN_RAW);
302 strcpy(ifr.ifr_name, "can0" );
303 ioctl(s, SIOCGIFINDEX, &ifr);
305 addr.can_family = AF_CAN;
306 addr.can_ifindex = ifr.ifr_ifindex;
308 bind(s, (struct sockaddr *)&addr, sizeof(addr));
312 To bind a socket to all(!) CAN interfaces the interface index must
313 be 0 (zero). In this case the socket receives CAN frames from every
314 enabled CAN interface. To determine the originating CAN interface
315 the system call recvfrom(2) may be used instead of read(2). To send
316 on a socket that is bound to 'any' interface sendto(2) is needed to
317 specify the outgoing interface.
319 Reading CAN frames from a bound CAN_RAW socket (see above) consists
320 of reading a struct can_frame:
322 struct can_frame frame;
324 nbytes = read(s, &frame, sizeof(struct can_frame));
327 perror("can raw socket read");
331 /* paranoid check ... */
332 if (nbytes < sizeof(struct can_frame)) {
333 fprintf(stderr, "read: incomplete CAN frame\n");
337 /* do something with the received CAN frame */
339 Writing CAN frames can be done similarly, with the write(2) system call:
341 nbytes = write(s, &frame, sizeof(struct can_frame));
343 When the CAN interface is bound to 'any' existing CAN interface
344 (addr.can_ifindex = 0) it is recommended to use recvfrom(2) if the
345 information about the originating CAN interface is needed:
347 struct sockaddr_can addr;
349 socklen_t len = sizeof(addr);
350 struct can_frame frame;
352 nbytes = recvfrom(s, &frame, sizeof(struct can_frame),
353 0, (struct sockaddr*)&addr, &len);
355 /* get interface name of the received CAN frame */
356 ifr.ifr_ifindex = addr.can_ifindex;
357 ioctl(s, SIOCGIFNAME, &ifr);
358 printf("Received a CAN frame from interface %s", ifr.ifr_name);
360 To write CAN frames on sockets bound to 'any' CAN interface the
361 outgoing interface has to be defined certainly.
363 strcpy(ifr.ifr_name, "can0");
364 ioctl(s, SIOCGIFINDEX, &ifr);
365 addr.can_ifindex = ifr.ifr_ifindex;
366 addr.can_family = AF_CAN;
368 nbytes = sendto(s, &frame, sizeof(struct can_frame),
369 0, (struct sockaddr*)&addr, sizeof(addr));
371 Remark about CAN FD (flexible data rate) support:
373 Generally the handling of CAN FD is very similar to the formerly described
374 examples. The new CAN FD capable CAN controllers support two different
375 bitrates for the arbitration phase and the payload phase of the CAN FD frame
376 and up to 64 bytes of payload. This extended payload length breaks all the
377 kernel interfaces (ABI) which heavily rely on the CAN frame with fixed eight
378 bytes of payload (struct can_frame) like the CAN_RAW socket. Therefore e.g.
379 the CAN_RAW socket supports a new socket option CAN_RAW_FD_FRAMES that
380 switches the socket into a mode that allows the handling of CAN FD frames
381 and (legacy) CAN frames simultaneously (see section 4.1.5).
383 The struct canfd_frame is defined in include/linux/can.h:
386 canid_t can_id; /* 32 bit CAN_ID + EFF/RTR/ERR flags */
387 __u8 len; /* frame payload length in byte (0 .. 64) */
388 __u8 flags; /* additional flags for CAN FD */
389 __u8 __res0; /* reserved / padding */
390 __u8 __res1; /* reserved / padding */
391 __u8 data[64] __attribute__((aligned(8)));
394 The struct canfd_frame and the existing struct can_frame have the can_id,
395 the payload length and the payload data at the same offset inside their
396 structures. This allows to handle the different structures very similar.
397 When the content of a struct can_frame is copied into a struct canfd_frame
398 all structure elements can be used as-is - only the data[] becomes extended.
400 When introducing the struct canfd_frame it turned out that the data length
401 code (DLC) of the struct can_frame was used as a length information as the
402 length and the DLC has a 1:1 mapping in the range of 0 .. 8. To preserve
403 the easy handling of the length information the canfd_frame.len element
404 contains a plain length value from 0 .. 64. So both canfd_frame.len and
405 can_frame.can_dlc are equal and contain a length information and no DLC.
406 For details about the distinction of CAN and CAN FD capable devices and
407 the mapping to the bus-relevant data length code (DLC), see chapter 6.6.
409 The length of the two CAN(FD) frame structures define the maximum transfer
410 unit (MTU) of the CAN(FD) network interface and skbuff data length. Two
411 definitions are specified for CAN specific MTUs in include/linux/can.h :
413 #define CAN_MTU (sizeof(struct can_frame)) == 16 => 'legacy' CAN frame
414 #define CANFD_MTU (sizeof(struct canfd_frame)) == 72 => CAN FD frame
416 4.1 RAW protocol sockets with can_filters (SOCK_RAW)
418 Using CAN_RAW sockets is extensively comparable to the commonly
419 known access to CAN character devices. To meet the new possibilities
420 provided by the multi user SocketCAN approach, some reasonable
421 defaults are set at RAW socket binding time:
423 - The filters are set to exactly one filter receiving everything
424 - The socket only receives valid data frames (=> no error message frames)
425 - The loopback of sent CAN frames is enabled (see chapter 3.2)
426 - The socket does not receive its own sent frames (in loopback mode)
428 These default settings may be changed before or after binding the socket.
429 To use the referenced definitions of the socket options for CAN_RAW
430 sockets, include <linux/can/raw.h>.
432 4.1.1 RAW socket option CAN_RAW_FILTER
434 The reception of CAN frames using CAN_RAW sockets can be controlled
435 by defining 0 .. n filters with the CAN_RAW_FILTER socket option.
437 The CAN filter structure is defined in include/linux/can.h:
444 A filter matches, when
446 <received_can_id> & mask == can_id & mask
448 which is analogous to known CAN controllers hardware filter semantics.
449 The filter can be inverted in this semantic, when the CAN_INV_FILTER
450 bit is set in can_id element of the can_filter structure. In
451 contrast to CAN controller hardware filters the user may set 0 .. n
452 receive filters for each open socket separately:
454 struct can_filter rfilter[2];
456 rfilter[0].can_id = 0x123;
457 rfilter[0].can_mask = CAN_SFF_MASK;
458 rfilter[1].can_id = 0x200;
459 rfilter[1].can_mask = 0x700;
461 setsockopt(s, SOL_CAN_RAW, CAN_RAW_FILTER, &rfilter, sizeof(rfilter));
463 To disable the reception of CAN frames on the selected CAN_RAW socket:
465 setsockopt(s, SOL_CAN_RAW, CAN_RAW_FILTER, NULL, 0);
467 To set the filters to zero filters is quite obsolete as to not read
468 data causes the raw socket to discard the received CAN frames. But
469 having this 'send only' use-case we may remove the receive list in the
470 Kernel to save a little (really a very little!) CPU usage.
472 4.1.2 RAW socket option CAN_RAW_ERR_FILTER
474 As described in chapter 3.4 the CAN interface driver can generate so
475 called Error Message Frames that can optionally be passed to the user
476 application in the same way as other CAN frames. The possible
477 errors are divided into different error classes that may be filtered
478 using the appropriate error mask. To register for every possible
479 error condition CAN_ERR_MASK can be used as value for the error mask.
480 The values for the error mask are defined in linux/can/error.h .
482 can_err_mask_t err_mask = ( CAN_ERR_TX_TIMEOUT | CAN_ERR_BUSOFF );
484 setsockopt(s, SOL_CAN_RAW, CAN_RAW_ERR_FILTER,
485 &err_mask, sizeof(err_mask));
487 4.1.3 RAW socket option CAN_RAW_LOOPBACK
489 To meet multi user needs the local loopback is enabled by default
490 (see chapter 3.2 for details). But in some embedded use-cases
491 (e.g. when only one application uses the CAN bus) this loopback
492 functionality can be disabled (separately for each socket):
494 int loopback = 0; /* 0 = disabled, 1 = enabled (default) */
496 setsockopt(s, SOL_CAN_RAW, CAN_RAW_LOOPBACK, &loopback, sizeof(loopback));
498 4.1.4 RAW socket option CAN_RAW_RECV_OWN_MSGS
500 When the local loopback is enabled, all the sent CAN frames are
501 looped back to the open CAN sockets that registered for the CAN
502 frames' CAN-ID on this given interface to meet the multi user
503 needs. The reception of the CAN frames on the same socket that was
504 sending the CAN frame is assumed to be unwanted and therefore
505 disabled by default. This default behaviour may be changed on
508 int recv_own_msgs = 1; /* 0 = disabled (default), 1 = enabled */
510 setsockopt(s, SOL_CAN_RAW, CAN_RAW_RECV_OWN_MSGS,
511 &recv_own_msgs, sizeof(recv_own_msgs));
513 4.1.5 RAW socket option CAN_RAW_FD_FRAMES
515 CAN FD support in CAN_RAW sockets can be enabled with a new socket option
516 CAN_RAW_FD_FRAMES which is off by default. When the new socket option is
517 not supported by the CAN_RAW socket (e.g. on older kernels), switching the
518 CAN_RAW_FD_FRAMES option returns the error -ENOPROTOOPT.
520 Once CAN_RAW_FD_FRAMES is enabled the application can send both CAN frames
521 and CAN FD frames. OTOH the application has to handle CAN and CAN FD frames
522 when reading from the socket.
524 CAN_RAW_FD_FRAMES enabled: CAN_MTU and CANFD_MTU are allowed
525 CAN_RAW_FD_FRAMES disabled: only CAN_MTU is allowed (default)
528 [ remember: CANFD_MTU == sizeof(struct canfd_frame) ]
530 struct canfd_frame cfd;
532 nbytes = read(s, &cfd, CANFD_MTU);
534 if (nbytes == CANFD_MTU) {
535 printf("got CAN FD frame with length %d\n", cfd.len);
536 /* cfd.flags contains valid data */
537 } else if (nbytes == CAN_MTU) {
538 printf("got legacy CAN frame with length %d\n", cfd.len);
539 /* cfd.flags is undefined */
541 fprintf(stderr, "read: invalid CAN(FD) frame\n");
545 /* the content can be handled independently from the received MTU size */
547 printf("can_id: %X data length: %d data: ", cfd.can_id, cfd.len);
548 for (i = 0; i < cfd.len; i++)
549 printf("%02X ", cfd.data[i]);
551 When reading with size CANFD_MTU only returns CAN_MTU bytes that have
552 been received from the socket a legacy CAN frame has been read into the
553 provided CAN FD structure. Note that the canfd_frame.flags data field is
554 not specified in the struct can_frame and therefore it is only valid in
555 CANFD_MTU sized CAN FD frames.
557 Implementation hint for new CAN applications:
559 To build a CAN FD aware application use struct canfd_frame as basic CAN
560 data structure for CAN_RAW based applications. When the application is
561 executed on an older Linux kernel and switching the CAN_RAW_FD_FRAMES
562 socket option returns an error: No problem. You'll get legacy CAN frames
563 or CAN FD frames and can process them the same way.
565 When sending to CAN devices make sure that the device is capable to handle
566 CAN FD frames by checking if the device maximum transfer unit is CANFD_MTU.
567 The CAN device MTU can be retrieved e.g. with a SIOCGIFMTU ioctl() syscall.
569 4.1.6 RAW socket returned message flags
571 When using recvmsg() call, the msg->msg_flags may contain following flags:
573 MSG_DONTROUTE: set when the received frame was created on the local host.
575 MSG_CONFIRM: set when the frame was sent via the socket it is received on.
576 This flag can be interpreted as a 'transmission confirmation' when the
577 CAN driver supports the echo of frames on driver level, see 3.2 and 6.2.
578 In order to receive such messages, CAN_RAW_RECV_OWN_MSGS must be set.
580 4.2 Broadcast Manager protocol sockets (SOCK_DGRAM)
582 The Broadcast Manager protocol provides a command based configuration
583 interface to filter and send (e.g. cyclic) CAN messages in kernel space.
585 Receive filters can be used to down sample frequent messages; detect events
586 such as message contents changes, packet length changes, and do time-out
587 monitoring of received messages.
589 Periodic transmission tasks of CAN frames or a sequence of CAN frames can be
590 created and modified at runtime; both the message content and the two
591 possible transmit intervals can be altered.
593 A BCM socket is not intended for sending individual CAN frames using the
594 struct can_frame as known from the CAN_RAW socket. Instead a special BCM
595 configuration message is defined. The basic BCM configuration message used
596 to communicate with the broadcast manager and the available operations are
597 defined in the linux/can/bcm.h include. The BCM message consists of a
598 message header with a command ('opcode') followed by zero or more CAN frames.
599 The broadcast manager sends responses to user space in the same form:
601 struct bcm_msg_head {
602 __u32 opcode; /* command */
603 __u32 flags; /* special flags */
604 __u32 count; /* run 'count' times with ival1 */
605 struct timeval ival1, ival2; /* count and subsequent interval */
606 canid_t can_id; /* unique can_id for task */
607 __u32 nframes; /* number of can_frames following */
608 struct can_frame frames[0];
611 The aligned payload 'frames' uses the same basic CAN frame structure defined
612 at the beginning of section 4 and in the include/linux/can.h include. All
613 messages to the broadcast manager from user space have this structure.
615 Note a CAN_BCM socket must be connected instead of bound after socket
616 creation (example without error checking):
619 struct sockaddr_can addr;
622 s = socket(PF_CAN, SOCK_DGRAM, CAN_BCM);
624 strcpy(ifr.ifr_name, "can0");
625 ioctl(s, SIOCGIFINDEX, &ifr);
627 addr.can_family = AF_CAN;
628 addr.can_ifindex = ifr.ifr_ifindex;
630 connect(s, (struct sockaddr *)&addr, sizeof(addr))
634 The broadcast manager socket is able to handle any number of in flight
635 transmissions or receive filters concurrently. The different RX/TX jobs are
636 distinguished by the unique can_id in each BCM message. However additional
637 CAN_BCM sockets are recommended to communicate on multiple CAN interfaces.
638 When the broadcast manager socket is bound to 'any' CAN interface (=> the
639 interface index is set to zero) the configured receive filters apply to any
640 CAN interface unless the sendto() syscall is used to overrule the 'any' CAN
641 interface index. When using recvfrom() instead of read() to retrieve BCM
642 socket messages the originating CAN interface is provided in can_ifindex.
644 4.2.1 Broadcast Manager operations
646 The opcode defines the operation for the broadcast manager to carry out,
647 or details the broadcast managers response to several events, including
650 Transmit Operations (user space to broadcast manager):
652 TX_SETUP: Create (cyclic) transmission task.
654 TX_DELETE: Remove (cyclic) transmission task, requires only can_id.
656 TX_READ: Read properties of (cyclic) transmission task for can_id.
658 TX_SEND: Send one CAN frame.
660 Transmit Responses (broadcast manager to user space):
662 TX_STATUS: Reply to TX_READ request (transmission task configuration).
664 TX_EXPIRED: Notification when counter finishes sending at initial interval
665 'ival1'. Requires the TX_COUNTEVT flag to be set at TX_SETUP.
667 Receive Operations (user space to broadcast manager):
669 RX_SETUP: Create RX content filter subscription.
671 RX_DELETE: Remove RX content filter subscription, requires only can_id.
673 RX_READ: Read properties of RX content filter subscription for can_id.
675 Receive Responses (broadcast manager to user space):
677 RX_STATUS: Reply to RX_READ request (filter task configuration).
679 RX_TIMEOUT: Cyclic message is detected to be absent (timer ival1 expired).
681 RX_CHANGED: BCM message with updated CAN frame (detected content change).
682 Sent on first message received or on receipt of revised CAN messages.
684 4.2.2 Broadcast Manager message flags
686 When sending a message to the broadcast manager the 'flags' element may
687 contain the following flag definitions which influence the behaviour:
689 SETTIMER: Set the values of ival1, ival2 and count
691 STARTTIMER: Start the timer with the actual values of ival1, ival2
692 and count. Starting the timer leads simultaneously to emit a CAN frame.
694 TX_COUNTEVT: Create the message TX_EXPIRED when count expires
696 TX_ANNOUNCE: A change of data by the process is emitted immediately.
698 TX_CP_CAN_ID: Copies the can_id from the message header to each
699 subsequent frame in frames. This is intended as usage simplification. For
700 TX tasks the unique can_id from the message header may differ from the
701 can_id(s) stored for transmission in the subsequent struct can_frame(s).
703 RX_FILTER_ID: Filter by can_id alone, no frames required (nframes=0).
705 RX_CHECK_DLC: A change of the DLC leads to an RX_CHANGED.
707 RX_NO_AUTOTIMER: Prevent automatically starting the timeout monitor.
709 RX_ANNOUNCE_RESUME: If passed at RX_SETUP and a receive timeout occured, a
710 RX_CHANGED message will be generated when the (cyclic) receive restarts.
712 TX_RESET_MULTI_IDX: Reset the index for the multiple frame transmission.
714 RX_RTR_FRAME: Send reply for RTR-request (placed in op->frames[0]).
716 4.2.3 Broadcast Manager transmission timers
718 Periodic transmission configurations may use up to two interval timers.
719 In this case the BCM sends a number of messages ('count') at an interval
720 'ival1', then continuing to send at another given interval 'ival2'. When
721 only one timer is needed 'count' is set to zero and only 'ival2' is used.
722 When SET_TIMER and START_TIMER flag were set the timers are activated.
723 The timer values can be altered at runtime when only SET_TIMER is set.
725 4.2.4 Broadcast Manager message sequence transmission
727 Up to 256 CAN frames can be transmitted in a sequence in the case of a cyclic
728 TX task configuration. The number of CAN frames is provided in the 'nframes'
729 element of the BCM message head. The defined number of CAN frames are added
730 as array to the TX_SETUP BCM configuration message.
732 /* create a struct to set up a sequence of four CAN frames */
734 struct bcm_msg_head msg_head;
735 struct can_frame frame[4];
742 write(s, &mytxmsg, sizeof(mytxmsg));
744 With every transmission the index in the array of CAN frames is increased
745 and set to zero at index overflow.
747 4.2.5 Broadcast Manager receive filter timers
749 The timer values ival1 or ival2 may be set to non-zero values at RX_SETUP.
750 When the SET_TIMER flag is set the timers are enabled:
752 ival1: Send RX_TIMEOUT when a received message is not received again within
753 the given time. When START_TIMER is set at RX_SETUP the timeout detection
754 is activated directly - even without a former CAN frame reception.
756 ival2: Throttle the received message rate down to the value of ival2. This
757 is useful to reduce messages for the application when the signal inside the
758 CAN frame is stateless as state changes within the ival2 periode may get
761 4.2.6 Broadcast Manager multiplex message receive filter
763 To filter for content changes in multiplex message sequences an array of more
764 than one CAN frames can be passed in a RX_SETUP configuration message. The
765 data bytes of the first CAN frame contain the mask of relevant bits that
766 have to match in the subsequent CAN frames with the received CAN frame.
767 If one of the subsequent CAN frames is matching the bits in that frame data
768 mark the relevant content to be compared with the previous received content.
769 Up to 257 CAN frames (multiplex filter bit mask CAN frame plus 256 CAN
770 filters) can be added as array to the TX_SETUP BCM configuration message.
772 /* usually used to clear CAN frame data[] - beware of endian problems! */
773 #define U64_DATA(p) (*(unsigned long long*)(p)->data)
776 struct bcm_msg_head msg_head;
777 struct can_frame frame[5];
780 msg.msg_head.opcode = RX_SETUP;
781 msg.msg_head.can_id = 0x42;
782 msg.msg_head.flags = 0;
783 msg.msg_head.nframes = 5;
784 U64_DATA(&msg.frame[0]) = 0xFF00000000000000ULL; /* MUX mask */
785 U64_DATA(&msg.frame[1]) = 0x01000000000000FFULL; /* data mask (MUX 0x01) */
786 U64_DATA(&msg.frame[2]) = 0x0200FFFF000000FFULL; /* data mask (MUX 0x02) */
787 U64_DATA(&msg.frame[3]) = 0x330000FFFFFF0003ULL; /* data mask (MUX 0x33) */
788 U64_DATA(&msg.frame[4]) = 0x4F07FC0FF0000000ULL; /* data mask (MUX 0x4F) */
790 write(s, &msg, sizeof(msg));
792 4.3 connected transport protocols (SOCK_SEQPACKET)
793 4.4 unconnected transport protocols (SOCK_DGRAM)
796 5. SocketCAN core module
797 -------------------------
799 The SocketCAN core module implements the protocol family
800 PF_CAN. CAN protocol modules are loaded by the core module at
801 runtime. The core module provides an interface for CAN protocol
802 modules to subscribe needed CAN IDs (see chapter 3.1).
804 5.1 can.ko module params
806 - stats_timer: To calculate the SocketCAN core statistics
807 (e.g. current/maximum frames per second) this 1 second timer is
808 invoked at can.ko module start time by default. This timer can be
809 disabled by using stattimer=0 on the module commandline.
811 - debug: (removed since SocketCAN SVN r546)
815 As described in chapter 3.1 the SocketCAN core uses several filter
816 lists to deliver received CAN frames to CAN protocol modules. These
817 receive lists, their filters and the count of filter matches can be
818 checked in the appropriate receive list. All entries contain the
819 device and a protocol module identifier:
821 foo@bar:~$ cat /proc/net/can/rcvlist_all
823 receive list 'rx_all':
827 device can_id can_mask function userdata matches ident
828 vcan0 000 00000000 f88e6370 f6c6f400 0 raw
831 In this example an application requests any CAN traffic from vcan0.
833 rcvlist_all - list for unfiltered entries (no filter operations)
834 rcvlist_eff - list for single extended frame (EFF) entries
835 rcvlist_err - list for error message frames masks
836 rcvlist_fil - list for mask/value filters
837 rcvlist_inv - list for mask/value filters (inverse semantic)
838 rcvlist_sff - list for single standard frame (SFF) entries
840 Additional procfs files in /proc/net/can
842 stats - SocketCAN core statistics (rx/tx frames, match ratios, ...)
843 reset_stats - manual statistic reset
844 version - prints the SocketCAN core version and the ABI version
846 5.3 writing own CAN protocol modules
848 To implement a new protocol in the protocol family PF_CAN a new
849 protocol has to be defined in include/linux/can.h .
850 The prototypes and definitions to use the SocketCAN core can be
851 accessed by including include/linux/can/core.h .
852 In addition to functions that register the CAN protocol and the
853 CAN device notifier chain there are functions to subscribe CAN
854 frames received by CAN interfaces and to send CAN frames:
856 can_rx_register - subscribe CAN frames from a specific interface
857 can_rx_unregister - unsubscribe CAN frames from a specific interface
858 can_send - transmit a CAN frame (optional with local loopback)
860 For details see the kerneldoc documentation in net/can/af_can.c or
861 the source code of net/can/raw.c or net/can/bcm.c .
863 6. CAN network drivers
864 ----------------------
866 Writing a CAN network device driver is much easier than writing a
867 CAN character device driver. Similar to other known network device
868 drivers you mainly have to deal with:
870 - TX: Put the CAN frame from the socket buffer to the CAN controller.
871 - RX: Put the CAN frame from the CAN controller to the socket buffer.
873 See e.g. at Documentation/networking/netdevices.txt . The differences
874 for writing CAN network device driver are described below:
878 dev->type = ARPHRD_CAN; /* the netdevice hardware type */
879 dev->flags = IFF_NOARP; /* CAN has no arp */
881 dev->mtu = CAN_MTU; /* sizeof(struct can_frame) -> legacy CAN interface */
883 or alternative, when the controller supports CAN with flexible data rate:
884 dev->mtu = CANFD_MTU; /* sizeof(struct canfd_frame) -> CAN FD interface */
886 The struct can_frame or struct canfd_frame is the payload of each socket
887 buffer (skbuff) in the protocol family PF_CAN.
889 6.2 local loopback of sent frames
891 As described in chapter 3.2 the CAN network device driver should
892 support a local loopback functionality similar to the local echo
893 e.g. of tty devices. In this case the driver flag IFF_ECHO has to be
894 set to prevent the PF_CAN core from locally echoing sent frames
895 (aka loopback) as fallback solution:
897 dev->flags = (IFF_NOARP | IFF_ECHO);
899 6.3 CAN controller hardware filters
901 To reduce the interrupt load on deep embedded systems some CAN
902 controllers support the filtering of CAN IDs or ranges of CAN IDs.
903 These hardware filter capabilities vary from controller to
904 controller and have to be identified as not feasible in a multi-user
905 networking approach. The use of the very controller specific
906 hardware filters could make sense in a very dedicated use-case, as a
907 filter on driver level would affect all users in the multi-user
908 system. The high efficient filter sets inside the PF_CAN core allow
909 to set different multiple filters for each socket separately.
910 Therefore the use of hardware filters goes to the category 'handmade
911 tuning on deep embedded systems'. The author is running a MPC603e
912 @133MHz with four SJA1000 CAN controllers from 2002 under heavy bus
913 load without any problems ...
915 6.4 The virtual CAN driver (vcan)
917 Similar to the network loopback devices, vcan offers a virtual local
918 CAN interface. A full qualified address on CAN consists of
920 - a unique CAN Identifier (CAN ID)
921 - the CAN bus this CAN ID is transmitted on (e.g. can0)
923 so in common use cases more than one virtual CAN interface is needed.
925 The virtual CAN interfaces allow the transmission and reception of CAN
926 frames without real CAN controller hardware. Virtual CAN network
927 devices are usually named 'vcanX', like vcan0 vcan1 vcan2 ...
928 When compiled as a module the virtual CAN driver module is called vcan.ko
930 Since Linux Kernel version 2.6.24 the vcan driver supports the Kernel
931 netlink interface to create vcan network devices. The creation and
932 removal of vcan network devices can be managed with the ip(8) tool:
934 - Create a virtual CAN network interface:
935 $ ip link add type vcan
937 - Create a virtual CAN network interface with a specific name 'vcan42':
938 $ ip link add dev vcan42 type vcan
940 - Remove a (virtual CAN) network interface 'vcan42':
943 6.5 The CAN network device driver interface
945 The CAN network device driver interface provides a generic interface
946 to setup, configure and monitor CAN network devices. The user can then
947 configure the CAN device, like setting the bit-timing parameters, via
948 the netlink interface using the program "ip" from the "IPROUTE2"
949 utility suite. The following chapter describes briefly how to use it.
950 Furthermore, the interface uses a common data structure and exports a
951 set of common functions, which all real CAN network device drivers
952 should use. Please have a look to the SJA1000 or MSCAN driver to
953 understand how to use them. The name of the module is can-dev.ko.
955 6.5.1 Netlink interface to set/get devices properties
957 The CAN device must be configured via netlink interface. The supported
958 netlink message types are defined and briefly described in
959 "include/linux/can/netlink.h". CAN link support for the program "ip"
960 of the IPROUTE2 utility suite is available and it can be used as shown
963 - Setting CAN device properties:
965 $ ip link set can0 type can help
966 Usage: ip link set DEVICE type can
967 [ bitrate BITRATE [ sample-point SAMPLE-POINT] ] |
968 [ tq TQ prop-seg PROP_SEG phase-seg1 PHASE-SEG1
969 phase-seg2 PHASE-SEG2 [ sjw SJW ] ]
971 [ loopback { on | off } ]
972 [ listen-only { on | off } ]
973 [ triple-sampling { on | off } ]
975 [ restart-ms TIME-MS ]
978 Where: BITRATE := { 1..1000000 }
979 SAMPLE-POINT := { 0.000..0.999 }
982 PHASE-SEG1 := { 1..8 }
983 PHASE-SEG2 := { 1..8 }
985 RESTART-MS := { 0 | NUMBER }
987 - Display CAN device details and statistics:
989 $ ip -details -statistics link show can0
990 2: can0: <NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP,ECHO> mtu 16 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP qlen 10
992 can <TRIPLE-SAMPLING> state ERROR-ACTIVE restart-ms 100
993 bitrate 125000 sample_point 0.875
994 tq 125 prop-seg 6 phase-seg1 7 phase-seg2 2 sjw 1
995 sja1000: tseg1 1..16 tseg2 1..8 sjw 1..4 brp 1..64 brp-inc 1
997 re-started bus-errors arbit-lost error-warn error-pass bus-off
999 RX: bytes packets errors dropped overrun mcast
1000 140859 17608 17457 0 0 0
1001 TX: bytes packets errors dropped carrier collsns
1004 More info to the above output:
1007 Shows the list of selected CAN controller modes: LOOPBACK,
1008 LISTEN-ONLY, or TRIPLE-SAMPLING.
1010 "state ERROR-ACTIVE"
1011 The current state of the CAN controller: "ERROR-ACTIVE",
1012 "ERROR-WARNING", "ERROR-PASSIVE", "BUS-OFF" or "STOPPED"
1015 Automatic restart delay time. If set to a non-zero value, a
1016 restart of the CAN controller will be triggered automatically
1017 in case of a bus-off condition after the specified delay time
1018 in milliseconds. By default it's off.
1020 "bitrate 125000 sample-point 0.875"
1021 Shows the real bit-rate in bits/sec and the sample-point in the
1022 range 0.000..0.999. If the calculation of bit-timing parameters
1023 is enabled in the kernel (CONFIG_CAN_CALC_BITTIMING=y), the
1024 bit-timing can be defined by setting the "bitrate" argument.
1025 Optionally the "sample-point" can be specified. By default it's
1026 0.000 assuming CIA-recommended sample-points.
1028 "tq 125 prop-seg 6 phase-seg1 7 phase-seg2 2 sjw 1"
1029 Shows the time quanta in ns, propagation segment, phase buffer
1030 segment 1 and 2 and the synchronisation jump width in units of
1031 tq. They allow to define the CAN bit-timing in a hardware
1032 independent format as proposed by the Bosch CAN 2.0 spec (see
1033 chapter 8 of http://www.semiconductors.bosch.de/pdf/can2spec.pdf).
1035 "sja1000: tseg1 1..16 tseg2 1..8 sjw 1..4 brp 1..64 brp-inc 1
1037 Shows the bit-timing constants of the CAN controller, here the
1038 "sja1000". The minimum and maximum values of the time segment 1
1039 and 2, the synchronisation jump width in units of tq, the
1040 bitrate pre-scaler and the CAN system clock frequency in Hz.
1041 These constants could be used for user-defined (non-standard)
1042 bit-timing calculation algorithms in user-space.
1044 "re-started bus-errors arbit-lost error-warn error-pass bus-off"
1045 Shows the number of restarts, bus and arbitration lost errors,
1046 and the state changes to the error-warning, error-passive and
1047 bus-off state. RX overrun errors are listed in the "overrun"
1048 field of the standard network statistics.
1050 6.5.2 Setting the CAN bit-timing
1052 The CAN bit-timing parameters can always be defined in a hardware
1053 independent format as proposed in the Bosch CAN 2.0 specification
1054 specifying the arguments "tq", "prop_seg", "phase_seg1", "phase_seg2"
1057 $ ip link set canX type can tq 125 prop-seg 6 \
1058 phase-seg1 7 phase-seg2 2 sjw 1
1060 If the kernel option CONFIG_CAN_CALC_BITTIMING is enabled, CIA
1061 recommended CAN bit-timing parameters will be calculated if the bit-
1062 rate is specified with the argument "bitrate":
1064 $ ip link set canX type can bitrate 125000
1066 Note that this works fine for the most common CAN controllers with
1067 standard bit-rates but may *fail* for exotic bit-rates or CAN system
1068 clock frequencies. Disabling CONFIG_CAN_CALC_BITTIMING saves some
1069 space and allows user-space tools to solely determine and set the
1070 bit-timing parameters. The CAN controller specific bit-timing
1071 constants can be used for that purpose. They are listed by the
1074 $ ip -details link show can0
1076 sja1000: clock 8000000 tseg1 1..16 tseg2 1..8 sjw 1..4 brp 1..64 brp-inc 1
1078 6.5.3 Starting and stopping the CAN network device
1080 A CAN network device is started or stopped as usual with the command
1081 "ifconfig canX up/down" or "ip link set canX up/down". Be aware that
1082 you *must* define proper bit-timing parameters for real CAN devices
1083 before you can start it to avoid error-prone default settings:
1085 $ ip link set canX up type can bitrate 125000
1087 A device may enter the "bus-off" state if too many errors occurred on
1088 the CAN bus. Then no more messages are received or sent. An automatic
1089 bus-off recovery can be enabled by setting the "restart-ms" to a
1090 non-zero value, e.g.:
1092 $ ip link set canX type can restart-ms 100
1094 Alternatively, the application may realize the "bus-off" condition
1095 by monitoring CAN error message frames and do a restart when
1096 appropriate with the command:
1098 $ ip link set canX type can restart
1100 Note that a restart will also create a CAN error message frame (see
1103 6.6 CAN FD (flexible data rate) driver support
1105 CAN FD capable CAN controllers support two different bitrates for the
1106 arbitration phase and the payload phase of the CAN FD frame. Therefore a
1107 second bit timing has to be specified in order to enable the CAN FD bitrate.
1109 Additionally CAN FD capable CAN controllers support up to 64 bytes of
1110 payload. The representation of this length in can_frame.can_dlc and
1111 canfd_frame.len for userspace applications and inside the Linux network
1112 layer is a plain value from 0 .. 64 instead of the CAN 'data length code'.
1113 The data length code was a 1:1 mapping to the payload length in the legacy
1114 CAN frames anyway. The payload length to the bus-relevant DLC mapping is
1115 only performed inside the CAN drivers, preferably with the helper
1116 functions can_dlc2len() and can_len2dlc().
1118 The CAN netdevice driver capabilities can be distinguished by the network
1119 devices maximum transfer unit (MTU):
1121 MTU = 16 (CAN_MTU) => sizeof(struct can_frame) => 'legacy' CAN device
1122 MTU = 72 (CANFD_MTU) => sizeof(struct canfd_frame) => CAN FD capable device
1124 The CAN device MTU can be retrieved e.g. with a SIOCGIFMTU ioctl() syscall.
1125 N.B. CAN FD capable devices can also handle and send legacy CAN frames.
1127 FIXME: Add details about the CAN FD controller configuration when available.
1129 6.7 Supported CAN hardware
1131 Please check the "Kconfig" file in "drivers/net/can" to get an actual
1132 list of the support CAN hardware. On the SocketCAN project website
1133 (see chapter 7) there might be further drivers available, also for
1134 older kernel versions.
1136 7. SocketCAN resources
1137 -----------------------
1139 The Linux CAN / SocketCAN project ressources (project site / mailing list)
1140 are referenced in the MAINTAINERS file in the Linux source tree.
1141 Search for CAN NETWORK [LAYERS|DRIVERS].
1146 Oliver Hartkopp (PF_CAN core, filters, drivers, bcm, SJA1000 driver)
1147 Urs Thuermann (PF_CAN core, kernel integration, socket interfaces, raw, vcan)
1148 Jan Kizka (RT-SocketCAN core, Socket-API reconciliation)
1149 Wolfgang Grandegger (RT-SocketCAN core & drivers, Raw Socket-API reviews,
1150 CAN device driver interface, MSCAN driver)
1151 Robert Schwebel (design reviews, PTXdist integration)
1152 Marc Kleine-Budde (design reviews, Kernel 2.6 cleanups, drivers)
1153 Benedikt Spranger (reviews)
1154 Thomas Gleixner (LKML reviews, coding style, posting hints)
1155 Andrey Volkov (kernel subtree structure, ioctls, MSCAN driver)
1156 Matthias Brukner (first SJA1000 CAN netdevice implementation Q2/2003)
1157 Klaus Hitschler (PEAK driver integration)
1158 Uwe Koppe (CAN netdevices with PF_PACKET approach)
1159 Michael Schulze (driver layer loopback requirement, RT CAN drivers review)
1160 Pavel Pisa (Bit-timing calculation)
1161 Sascha Hauer (SJA1000 platform driver)
1162 Sebastian Haas (SJA1000 EMS PCI driver)
1163 Markus Plessing (SJA1000 EMS PCI driver)
1164 Per Dalen (SJA1000 Kvaser PCI driver)
1165 Sam Ravnborg (reviews, coding style, kbuild help)