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diff --git a/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/lirc_device_interface.xml b/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/lirc_device_interface.xml new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..0413234023d --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/lirc_device_interface.xml @@ -0,0 +1,235 @@ +<section id="lirc_dev"> +<title>LIRC Device Interface</title> + + +<section id="lirc_dev_intro"> +<title>Introduction</title> + +<para>The LIRC device interface is a bi-directional interface for +transporting raw IR data between userspace and kernelspace. Fundamentally, +it is just a chardev (/dev/lircX, for X = 0, 1, 2, ...), with a number +of standard struct file_operations defined on it. With respect to +transporting raw IR data to and fro, the essential fops are read, write +and ioctl.</para> + +<para>Example dmesg output upon a driver registering w/LIRC:</para> + <blockquote> + <para>$ dmesg |grep lirc_dev</para> + <para>lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, major 248</para> + <para>rc rc0: lirc_dev: driver ir-lirc-codec (mceusb) registered at minor = 0</para> + </blockquote> + +<para>What you should see for a chardev:</para> + <blockquote> + <para>$ ls -l /dev/lirc*</para> + <para>crw-rw---- 1 root root 248, 0 Jul 2 22:20 /dev/lirc0</para> + </blockquote> +</section> + +<section id="lirc_read"> +<title>LIRC read fop</title> + +<para>The lircd userspace daemon reads raw IR data from the LIRC chardev. The +exact format of the data depends on what modes a driver supports, and what +mode has been selected. lircd obtains supported modes and sets the active mode +via the ioctl interface, detailed at <xref linkend="lirc_ioctl"/>. The generally +preferred mode is LIRC_MODE_MODE2, in which packets containing an int value +describing an IR signal are read from the chardev.</para> + +<para>See also <ulink url="http://www.lirc.org/html/technical.html">http://www.lirc.org/html/technical.html</ulink> for more info.</para> +</section> + +<section id="lirc_write"> +<title>LIRC write fop</title> + +<para>The data written to the chardev is a pulse/space sequence of integer +values. Pulses and spaces are only marked implicitly by their position. The +data must start and end with a pulse, therefore, the data must always include +an unevent number of samples. The write function must block until the data has +been transmitted by the hardware.</para> +</section> + +<section id="lirc_ioctl"> +<title>LIRC ioctl fop</title> + +<para>The LIRC device's ioctl definition is bound by the ioctl function +definition of struct file_operations, leaving us with an unsigned int +for the ioctl command and an unsigned long for the arg. For the purposes +of ioctl portability across 32-bit and 64-bit, these values are capped +to their 32-bit sizes.</para> + +<para>The following ioctls can be used to change specific hardware settings. +In general each driver should have a default set of settings. The driver +implementation is expected to re-apply the default settings when the device +is closed by user-space, so that every application opening the device can rely +on working with the default settings initially.</para> + +<variablelist> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_GET_FEATURES</term> + <listitem> + <para>Obviously, get the underlying hardware device's features. If a driver + does not announce support of certain features, calling of the corresponding + ioctls is undefined.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_GET_SEND_MODE</term> + <listitem> + <para>Get supported transmit mode. Only LIRC_MODE_PULSE is supported by lircd.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_GET_REC_MODE</term> + <listitem> + <para>Get supported receive modes. Only LIRC_MODE_MODE2 and LIRC_MODE_LIRCCODE + are supported by lircd.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_GET_SEND_CARRIER</term> + <listitem> + <para>Get carrier frequency (in Hz) currently used for transmit.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_GET_REC_CARRIER</term> + <listitem> + <para>Get carrier frequency (in Hz) currently used for IR reception.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_{G,S}ET_{SEND,REC}_DUTY_CYCLE</term> + <listitem> + <para>Get/set the duty cycle (from 0 to 100) of the carrier signal. Currently, + no special meaning is defined for 0 or 100, but this could be used to switch + off carrier generation in the future, so these values should be reserved.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_GET_REC_RESOLUTION</term> + <listitem> + <para>Some receiver have maximum resolution which is defined by internal + sample rate or data format limitations. E.g. it's common that signals can + only be reported in 50 microsecond steps. This integer value is used by + lircd to automatically adjust the aeps tolerance value in the lircd + config file.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_GET_M{IN,AX}_TIMEOUT</term> + <listitem> + <para>Some devices have internal timers that can be used to detect when + there's no IR activity for a long time. This can help lircd in detecting + that a IR signal is finished and can speed up the decoding process. + Returns an integer value with the minimum/maximum timeout that can be + set. Some devices have a fixed timeout, in that case both ioctls will + return the same value even though the timeout cannot be changed.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_GET_M{IN,AX}_FILTER_{PULSE,SPACE}</term> + <listitem> + <para>Some devices are able to filter out spikes in the incoming signal + using given filter rules. These ioctls return the hardware capabilities + that describe the bounds of the possible filters. Filter settings depend + on the IR protocols that are expected. lircd derives the settings from + all protocols definitions found in its config file.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_GET_LENGTH</term> + <listitem> + <para>Retrieves the code length in bits (only for LIRC_MODE_LIRCCODE). + Reads on the device must be done in blocks matching the bit count. + The bit could should be rounded up so that it matches full bytes.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_SET_{SEND,REC}_MODE</term> + <listitem> + <para>Set send/receive mode. Largely obsolete for send, as only + LIRC_MODE_PULSE is supported.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_SET_{SEND,REC}_CARRIER</term> + <listitem> + <para>Set send/receive carrier (in Hz).</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_SET_TRANSMITTER_MASK</term> + <listitem> + <para>This enables the given set of transmitters. The first transmitter + is encoded by the least significant bit, etc. When an invalid bit mask + is given, i.e. a bit is set, even though the device does not have so many + transitters, then this ioctl returns the number of available transitters + and does nothing otherwise.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_SET_REC_TIMEOUT</term> + <listitem> + <para>Sets the integer value for IR inactivity timeout (cf. + LIRC_GET_MIN_TIMEOUT and LIRC_GET_MAX_TIMEOUT). A value of 0 (if + supported by the hardware) disables all hardware timeouts and data should + be reported as soon as possible. If the exact value cannot be set, then + the next possible value _greater_ than the given value should be set.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_SET_REC_TIMEOUT_REPORTS</term> + <listitem> + <para>Enable (1) or disable (0) timeout reports in LIRC_MODE_MODE2. By + default, timeout reports should be turned off.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_SET_REC_FILTER_{,PULSE,SPACE}</term> + <listitem> + <para>Pulses/spaces shorter than this are filtered out by hardware. If + filters cannot be set independently for pulse/space, the corresponding + ioctls must return an error and LIRC_SET_REC_FILTER shall be used instead.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_SET_MEASURE_CARRIER_MODE</term> + <listitem> + <para>Enable (1)/disable (0) measure mode. If enabled, from the next key + press on, the driver will send LIRC_MODE2_FREQUENCY packets. By default + this should be turned off.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_SET_REC_{DUTY_CYCLE,CARRIER}_RANGE</term> + <listitem> + <para>To set a range use LIRC_SET_REC_DUTY_CYCLE_RANGE/LIRC_SET_REC_CARRIER_RANGE + with the lower bound first and later LIRC_SET_REC_DUTY_CYCLE/LIRC_SET_REC_CARRIER + with the upper bound.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_NOTIFY_DECODE</term> + <listitem> + <para>This ioctl is called by lircd whenever a successful decoding of an + incoming IR signal could be done. This can be used by supporting hardware + to give visual feedback to the user e.g. by flashing a LED.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> + <varlistentry> + <term>LIRC_SETUP_{START,END}</term> + <listitem> + <para>Setting of several driver parameters can be optimized by encapsulating + the according ioctl calls with LIRC_SETUP_START/LIRC_SETUP_END. When a + driver receives a LIRC_SETUP_START ioctl it can choose to not commit + further setting changes to the hardware until a LIRC_SETUP_END is received. + But this is open to the driver implementation and every driver must also + handle parameter changes which are not encapsulated by LIRC_SETUP_START + and LIRC_SETUP_END. Drivers can also choose to ignore these ioctls.</para> + </listitem> + </varlistentry> +</variablelist> + +</section> +</section> |