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_console_write) 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 two locks. A per-port spinlock, and an overall semaphore.
46 From the core driver perspective, the port->lock locks the following
51 port->state->xmit.head (circ_buf->head)
52 port->state->xmit.tail (circ_buf->tail)
54 The low level driver is free to use this lock to provide any additional
57 The port_sem semaphore is used to protect against ports being added/
58 removed or reconfigured at inappropriate times. Since v2.6.27, this
59 semaphore has been the 'mutex' member of the tty_port struct, and
60 commonly referred to as the port mutex.
66 The uart_ops structure is the main interface between serial_core and the
67 hardware specific driver. It contains all the methods to control the
71 This function tests whether the transmitter fifo and shifter
72 for the port described by 'port' is empty. If it is empty,
73 this function should return TIOCSER_TEMT, otherwise return 0.
74 If the port does not support this operation, then it should
78 Interrupts: caller dependent.
79 This call must not sleep
81 set_mctrl(port, mctrl)
82 This function sets the modem control lines for port described
83 by 'port' to the state described by mctrl. The relevant bits
85 - TIOCM_RTS RTS signal.
86 - TIOCM_DTR DTR signal.
87 - TIOCM_OUT1 OUT1 signal.
88 - TIOCM_OUT2 OUT2 signal.
89 - TIOCM_LOOP Set the port into loopback mode.
90 If the appropriate bit is set, the signal should be driven
91 active. If the bit is clear, the signal should be driven
94 Locking: port->lock taken.
95 Interrupts: locally disabled.
96 This call must not sleep
99 Returns the current state of modem control inputs. The state
100 of the outputs should not be returned, since the core keeps
101 track of their state. The state information should include:
102 - TIOCM_CAR state of DCD signal
103 - TIOCM_CTS state of CTS signal
104 - TIOCM_DSR state of DSR signal
105 - TIOCM_RI state of RI signal
106 The bit is set if the signal is currently driven active. If
107 the port does not support CTS, DCD or DSR, the driver should
108 indicate that the signal is permanently active. If RI is
109 not available, the signal should not be indicated as active.
111 Locking: port->lock taken.
112 Interrupts: locally disabled.
113 This call must not sleep
116 Stop transmitting characters. This might be due to the CTS
117 line becoming inactive or the tty layer indicating we want
118 to stop transmission due to an XOFF character.
120 The driver should stop transmitting characters as soon as
123 Locking: port->lock taken.
124 Interrupts: locally disabled.
125 This call must not sleep
128 Start transmitting characters.
130 Locking: port->lock taken.
131 Interrupts: locally disabled.
132 This call must not sleep
135 Notify the serial driver that input buffers for the line discipline are
136 close to full, and it should somehow signal that no more characters
137 should be sent to the serial port.
138 This will be called only if hardware assisted flow control is enabled.
140 Locking: serialized with .unthrottle() and termios modification by the
144 Notify the serial driver that characters can now be sent to the serial
145 port without fear of overrunning the input buffers of the line
147 This will be called only if hardware assisted flow control is enabled.
149 Locking: serialized with .throttle() and termios modification by the
153 Transmit a high priority character, even if the port is stopped.
154 This is used to implement XON/XOFF flow control and tcflow(). If
155 the serial driver does not implement this function, the tty core
156 will append the character to the circular buffer and then call
157 start_tx() / stop_tx() to flush the data out.
159 Do not transmit if ch == '\0' (__DISABLED_CHAR).
162 Interrupts: caller dependent.
165 Stop receiving characters; the port is in the process of
168 Locking: port->lock taken.
169 Interrupts: locally disabled.
170 This call must not sleep
173 Enable the modem status interrupts.
175 This method may be called multiple times. Modem status
176 interrupts should be disabled when the shutdown method is
179 Locking: port->lock taken.
180 Interrupts: locally disabled.
181 This call must not sleep
184 Control the transmission of a break signal. If ctl is
185 nonzero, the break signal should be transmitted. The signal
186 should be terminated when another call is made with a zero
189 Locking: caller holds tty_port->mutex
192 Grab any interrupt resources and initialise any low level driver
193 state. Enable the port for reception. It should not activate
194 RTS nor DTR; this will be done via a separate call to set_mctrl.
196 This method will only be called when the port is initially opened.
198 Locking: port_sem taken.
199 Interrupts: globally disabled.
202 Disable the port, disable any break condition that may be in
203 effect, and free any interrupt resources. It should not disable
204 RTS nor DTR; this will have already been done via a separate
207 Drivers must not access port->state once this call has completed.
209 This method will only be called when there are no more users of
212 Locking: port_sem taken.
213 Interrupts: caller dependent.
216 Flush any write buffers, reset any DMA state and stop any
217 ongoing DMA transfers.
219 This will be called whenever the port->state->xmit circular
222 Locking: port->lock taken.
223 Interrupts: locally disabled.
224 This call must not sleep
226 set_termios(port,termios,oldtermios)
227 Change the port parameters, including word length, parity, stop
228 bits. Update read_status_mask and ignore_status_mask to indicate
229 the types of events we are interested in receiving. Relevant
230 termios->c_cflag bits are:
233 PARENB - parity enable
234 PARODD - odd parity (when PARENB is in force)
235 CREAD - enable reception of characters (if not set,
236 still receive characters from the port, but
238 CRTSCTS - if set, enable CTS status change reporting
239 CLOCAL - if not set, enable modem status change
241 Relevant termios->c_iflag bits are:
242 INPCK - enable frame and parity error events to be
243 passed to the TTY layer.
245 PARMRK - both of these enable break events to be
246 passed to the TTY layer.
248 IGNPAR - ignore parity and framing errors
249 IGNBRK - ignore break errors, If IGNPAR is also
250 set, ignore overrun errors as well.
251 The interaction of the iflag bits is as follows (parity error
252 given as an example):
253 Parity error INPCK IGNPAR
254 n/a 0 n/a character received, marked as
256 None 1 n/a character received, marked as
258 Yes 1 0 character received, marked as
260 Yes 1 1 character discarded
262 Other flags may be used (eg, xon/xoff characters) if your
263 hardware supports hardware "soft" flow control.
265 Locking: caller holds tty_port->mutex
266 Interrupts: caller dependent.
267 This call must not sleep
269 set_ldisc(port,termios)
270 Notifier for discipline change. See Documentation/serial/tty.txt.
272 Locking: caller holds tty_port->mutex
274 pm(port,state,oldstate)
275 Perform any power management related activities on the specified
276 port. State indicates the new state (defined by
277 enum uart_pm_state), oldstate indicates the previous state.
279 This function should not be used to grab any resources.
281 This will be called when the port is initially opened and finally
282 closed, except when the port is also the system console. This
283 will occur even if CONFIG_PM is not set.
286 Interrupts: caller dependent.
289 Return a pointer to a string constant describing the specified
290 port, or return NULL, in which case the string 'unknown' is
294 Interrupts: caller dependent.
297 Release any memory and IO region resources currently in use by
301 Interrupts: caller dependent.
304 Request any memory and IO region resources required by the port.
305 If any fail, no resources should be registered when this function
306 returns, and it should return -EBUSY on failure.
309 Interrupts: caller dependent.
311 config_port(port,type)
312 Perform any autoconfiguration steps required for the port. `type`
313 contains a bit mask of the required configuration. UART_CONFIG_TYPE
314 indicates that the port requires detection and identification.
315 port->type should be set to the type found, or PORT_UNKNOWN if
316 no port was detected.
318 UART_CONFIG_IRQ indicates autoconfiguration of the interrupt signal,
319 which should be probed using standard kernel autoprobing techniques.
320 This is not necessary on platforms where ports have interrupts
321 internally hard wired (eg, system on a chip implementations).
324 Interrupts: caller dependent.
326 verify_port(port,serinfo)
327 Verify the new serial port information contained within serinfo is
328 suitable for this port type.
331 Interrupts: caller dependent.
334 Perform any port specific IOCTLs. IOCTL commands must be defined
335 using the standard numbering system found in <asm/ioctl.h>
338 Interrupts: caller dependent.
341 Called by kgdb to perform the minimal hardware initialization needed
342 to support poll_put_char() and poll_get_char(). Unlike ->startup()
343 this should not request interrupts.
345 Locking: tty_mutex and tty_port->mutex taken.
348 poll_put_char(port,ch)
349 Called by kgdb to write a single character directly to the serial
350 port. It can and should block until there is space in the TX FIFO.
353 Interrupts: caller dependent.
354 This call must not sleep
357 Called by kgdb to read a single character directly from the serial
358 port. If data is available, it should be returned; otherwise
359 the function should return NO_POLL_CHAR immediately.
362 Interrupts: caller dependent.
363 This call must not sleep
368 uart_update_timeout(port,cflag,baud)
369 Update the FIFO drain timeout, port->timeout, according to the
370 number of bits, parity, stop bits and baud rate.
372 Locking: caller is expected to take port->lock
375 uart_get_baud_rate(port,termios,old,min,max)
376 Return the numeric baud rate for the specified termios, taking
377 account of the special 38400 baud "kludge". The B0 baud rate
378 is mapped to 9600 baud.
380 If the baud rate is not within min..max, then if old is non-NULL,
381 the original baud rate will be tried. If that exceeds the
382 min..max constraint, 9600 baud will be returned. termios will
383 be updated to the baud rate in use.
385 Note: min..max must always allow 9600 baud to be selected.
387 Locking: caller dependent.
390 uart_get_divisor(port,baud)
391 Return the divisor (baud_base / baud) for the specified baud
392 rate, appropriately rounded.
394 If 38400 baud and custom divisor is selected, return the
395 custom divisor instead.
397 Locking: caller dependent.
400 uart_match_port(port1,port2)
401 This utility function can be used to determine whether two
402 uart_port structures describe the same port.
407 uart_write_wakeup(port)
408 A driver is expected to call this function when the number of
409 characters in the transmit buffer have dropped below a threshold.
411 Locking: port->lock should be held.
414 uart_register_driver(drv)
415 Register a uart driver with the core driver. We in turn register
416 with the tty layer, and initialise the core driver per-port state.
418 drv->port should be NULL, and the per-port structures should be
419 registered using uart_add_one_port after this call has succeeded.
424 uart_unregister_driver()
425 Remove all references to a driver from the core driver. The low
426 level driver must have removed all its ports via the
427 uart_remove_one_port() if it registered them with uart_add_one_port().
438 uart_remove_one_port()
443 It is intended some day to drop the 'unused' entries from uart_port, and
444 allow low level drivers to register their own individual uart_port's with
445 the core. This will allow drivers to use uart_port as a pointer to a
446 structure containing both the uart_port entry with their own extensions,
450 struct uart_port port;
454 Modem control lines via GPIO
455 ----------------------------
457 Some helpers are provided in order to set/get modem control lines via GPIO.
459 mctrl_gpio_init(port, idx):
460 This will get the {cts,rts,...}-gpios from device tree if they are
461 present and request them, set direction etc, and return an
462 allocated structure. devm_* functions are used, so there's no need
463 to call mctrl_gpio_free().
464 As this sets up the irq handling make sure to not handle changes to the
465 gpio input lines in your driver, too.
467 mctrl_gpio_free(dev, gpios):
468 This will free the requested gpios in mctrl_gpio_init().
469 As devm_* functions are used, there's generally no need to call
472 mctrl_gpio_to_gpiod(gpios, gidx)
473 This returns the gpio_desc structure associated to the modem line
476 mctrl_gpio_set(gpios, mctrl):
477 This will sets the gpios according to the mctrl state.
479 mctrl_gpio_get(gpios, mctrl):
480 This will update mctrl with the gpios values.
482 mctrl_gpio_enable_ms(gpios):
483 Enables irqs and handling of changes to the ms lines.
485 mctrl_gpio_disable_ms(gpios):
486 Disables irqs and handling of changes to the ms lines.