diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/video4linux/v4l2-framework.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/video4linux/v4l2-framework.txt | 362 |
1 files changed, 362 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/video4linux/v4l2-framework.txt b/Documentation/video4linux/v4l2-framework.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..60eaf54e7ef --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/video4linux/v4l2-framework.txt @@ -0,0 +1,362 @@ +Overview of the V4L2 driver framework +===================================== + +This text documents the various structures provided by the V4L2 framework and +their relationships. + + +Introduction +------------ + +The V4L2 drivers tend to be very complex due to the complexity of the +hardware: most devices have multiple ICs, export multiple device nodes in +/dev, and create also non-V4L2 devices such as DVB, ALSA, FB, I2C and input +(IR) devices. + +Especially the fact that V4L2 drivers have to setup supporting ICs to +do audio/video muxing/encoding/decoding makes it more complex than most. +Usually these ICs are connected to the main bridge driver through one or +more I2C busses, but other busses can also be used. Such devices are +called 'sub-devices'. + +For a long time the framework was limited to the video_device struct for +creating V4L device nodes and video_buf for handling the video buffers +(note that this document does not discuss the video_buf framework). + +This meant that all drivers had to do the setup of device instances and +connecting to sub-devices themselves. Some of this is quite complicated +to do right and many drivers never did do it correctly. + +There is also a lot of common code that could never be refactored due to +the lack of a framework. + +So this framework sets up the basic building blocks that all drivers +need and this same framework should make it much easier to refactor +common code into utility functions shared by all drivers. + + +Structure of a driver +--------------------- + +All drivers have the following structure: + +1) A struct for each device instance containing the device state. + +2) A way of initializing and commanding sub-devices (if any). + +3) Creating V4L2 device nodes (/dev/videoX, /dev/vbiX, /dev/radioX and + /dev/vtxX) and keeping track of device-node specific data. + +4) Filehandle-specific structs containing per-filehandle data. + +This is a rough schematic of how it all relates: + + device instances + | + +-sub-device instances + | + \-V4L2 device nodes + | + \-filehandle instances + + +Structure of the framework +-------------------------- + +The framework closely resembles the driver structure: it has a v4l2_device +struct for the device instance data, a v4l2_subdev struct to refer to +sub-device instances, the video_device struct stores V4L2 device node data +and in the future a v4l2_fh struct will keep track of filehandle instances +(this is not yet implemented). + + +struct v4l2_device +------------------ + +Each device instance is represented by a struct v4l2_device (v4l2-device.h). +Very simple devices can just allocate this struct, but most of the time you +would embed this struct inside a larger struct. + +You must register the device instance: + + v4l2_device_register(struct device *dev, struct v4l2_device *v4l2_dev); + +Registration will initialize the v4l2_device struct and link dev->driver_data +to v4l2_dev. Registration will also set v4l2_dev->name to a value derived from +dev (driver name followed by the bus_id, to be precise). You may change the +name after registration if you want. + +You unregister with: + + v4l2_device_unregister(struct v4l2_device *v4l2_dev); + +Unregistering will also automatically unregister all subdevs from the device. + +Sometimes you need to iterate over all devices registered by a specific +driver. This is usually the case if multiple device drivers use the same +hardware. E.g. the ivtvfb driver is a framebuffer driver that uses the ivtv +hardware. The same is true for alsa drivers for example. + +You can iterate over all registered devices as follows: + +static int callback(struct device *dev, void *p) +{ + struct v4l2_device *v4l2_dev = dev_get_drvdata(dev); + + /* test if this device was inited */ + if (v4l2_dev == NULL) + return 0; + ... + return 0; +} + +int iterate(void *p) +{ + struct device_driver *drv; + int err; + + /* Find driver 'ivtv' on the PCI bus. + pci_bus_type is a global. For USB busses use usb_bus_type. */ + drv = driver_find("ivtv", &pci_bus_type); + /* iterate over all ivtv device instances */ + err = driver_for_each_device(drv, NULL, p, callback); + put_driver(drv); + return err; +} + +Sometimes you need to keep a running counter of the device instance. This is +commonly used to map a device instance to an index of a module option array. + +The recommended approach is as follows: + +static atomic_t drv_instance = ATOMIC_INIT(0); + +static int __devinit drv_probe(struct pci_dev *dev, + const struct pci_device_id *pci_id) +{ + ... + state->instance = atomic_inc_return(&drv_instance) - 1; +} + + +struct v4l2_subdev +------------------ + +Many drivers need to communicate with sub-devices. These devices can do all +sort of tasks, but most commonly they handle audio and/or video muxing, +encoding or decoding. For webcams common sub-devices are sensors and camera +controllers. + +Usually these are I2C devices, but not necessarily. In order to provide the +driver with a consistent interface to these sub-devices the v4l2_subdev struct +(v4l2-subdev.h) was created. + +Each sub-device driver must have a v4l2_subdev struct. This struct can be +stand-alone for simple sub-devices or it might be embedded in a larger struct +if more state information needs to be stored. Usually there is a low-level +device struct (e.g. i2c_client) that contains the device data as setup +by the kernel. It is recommended to store that pointer in the private +data of v4l2_subdev using v4l2_set_subdevdata(). That makes it easy to go +from a v4l2_subdev to the actual low-level bus-specific device data. + +You also need a way to go from the low-level struct to v4l2_subdev. For the +common i2c_client struct the i2c_set_clientdata() call is used to store a +v4l2_subdev pointer, for other busses you may have to use other methods. + +From the bridge driver perspective you load the sub-device module and somehow +obtain the v4l2_subdev pointer. For i2c devices this is easy: you call +i2c_get_clientdata(). For other busses something similar needs to be done. +Helper functions exists for sub-devices on an I2C bus that do most of this +tricky work for you. + +Each v4l2_subdev contains function pointers that sub-device drivers can +implement (or leave NULL if it is not applicable). Since sub-devices can do +so many different things and you do not want to end up with a huge ops struct +of which only a handful of ops are commonly implemented, the function pointers +are sorted according to category and each category has its own ops struct. + +The top-level ops struct contains pointers to the category ops structs, which +may be NULL if the subdev driver does not support anything from that category. + +It looks like this: + +struct v4l2_subdev_core_ops { + int (*g_chip_ident)(struct v4l2_subdev *sd, struct v4l2_chip_ident *chip); + int (*log_status)(struct v4l2_subdev *sd); + int (*init)(struct v4l2_subdev *sd, u32 val); + ... +}; + +struct v4l2_subdev_tuner_ops { + ... +}; + +struct v4l2_subdev_audio_ops { + ... +}; + +struct v4l2_subdev_video_ops { + ... +}; + +struct v4l2_subdev_ops { + const struct v4l2_subdev_core_ops *core; + const struct v4l2_subdev_tuner_ops *tuner; + const struct v4l2_subdev_audio_ops *audio; + const struct v4l2_subdev_video_ops *video; +}; + +The core ops are common to all subdevs, the other categories are implemented +depending on the sub-device. E.g. a video device is unlikely to support the +audio ops and vice versa. + +This setup limits the number of function pointers while still making it easy +to add new ops and categories. + +A sub-device driver initializes the v4l2_subdev struct using: + + v4l2_subdev_init(subdev, &ops); + +Afterwards you need to initialize subdev->name with a unique name and set the +module owner. This is done for you if you use the i2c helper functions. + +A device (bridge) driver needs to register the v4l2_subdev with the +v4l2_device: + + int err = v4l2_device_register_subdev(device, subdev); + +This can fail if the subdev module disappeared before it could be registered. +After this function was called successfully the subdev->dev field points to +the v4l2_device. + +You can unregister a sub-device using: + + v4l2_device_unregister_subdev(subdev); + +Afterwards the subdev module can be unloaded and subdev->dev == NULL. + +You can call an ops function either directly: + + err = subdev->ops->core->g_chip_ident(subdev, &chip); + +but it is better and easier to use this macro: + + err = v4l2_subdev_call(subdev, core, g_chip_ident, &chip); + +The macro will to the right NULL pointer checks and returns -ENODEV if subdev +is NULL, -ENOIOCTLCMD if either subdev->core or subdev->core->g_chip_ident is +NULL, or the actual result of the subdev->ops->core->g_chip_ident ops. + +It is also possible to call all or a subset of the sub-devices: + + v4l2_device_call_all(dev, 0, core, g_chip_ident, &chip); + +Any subdev that does not support this ops is skipped and error results are +ignored. If you want to check for errors use this: + + err = v4l2_device_call_until_err(dev, 0, core, g_chip_ident, &chip); + +Any error except -ENOIOCTLCMD will exit the loop with that error. If no +errors (except -ENOIOCTLCMD) occured, then 0 is returned. + +The second argument to both calls is a group ID. If 0, then all subdevs are +called. If non-zero, then only those whose group ID match that value will +be called. Before a bridge driver registers a subdev it can set subdev->grp_id +to whatever value it wants (it's 0 by default). This value is owned by the +bridge driver and the sub-device driver will never modify or use it. + +The group ID gives the bridge driver more control how callbacks are called. +For example, there may be multiple audio chips on a board, each capable of +changing the volume. But usually only one will actually be used when the +user want to change the volume. You can set the group ID for that subdev to +e.g. AUDIO_CONTROLLER and specify that as the group ID value when calling +v4l2_device_call_all(). That ensures that it will only go to the subdev +that needs it. + +The advantage of using v4l2_subdev is that it is a generic struct and does +not contain any knowledge about the underlying hardware. So a driver might +contain several subdevs that use an I2C bus, but also a subdev that is +controlled through GPIO pins. This distinction is only relevant when setting +up the device, but once the subdev is registered it is completely transparent. + + +I2C sub-device drivers +---------------------- + +Since these drivers are so common, special helper functions are available to +ease the use of these drivers (v4l2-common.h). + +The recommended method of adding v4l2_subdev support to an I2C driver is to +embed the v4l2_subdev struct into the state struct that is created for each +I2C device instance. Very simple devices have no state struct and in that case +you can just create a v4l2_subdev directly. + +A typical state struct would look like this (where 'chipname' is replaced by +the name of the chip): + +struct chipname_state { + struct v4l2_subdev sd; + ... /* additional state fields */ +}; + +Initialize the v4l2_subdev struct as follows: + + v4l2_i2c_subdev_init(&state->sd, client, subdev_ops); + +This function will fill in all the fields of v4l2_subdev and ensure that the +v4l2_subdev and i2c_client both point to one another. + +You should also add a helper inline function to go from a v4l2_subdev pointer +to a chipname_state struct: + +static inline struct chipname_state *to_state(struct v4l2_subdev *sd) +{ + return container_of(sd, struct chipname_state, sd); +} + +Use this to go from the v4l2_subdev struct to the i2c_client struct: + + struct i2c_client *client = v4l2_get_subdevdata(sd); + +And this to go from an i2c_client to a v4l2_subdev struct: + + struct v4l2_subdev *sd = i2c_get_clientdata(client); + +Finally you need to make a command function to make driver->command() +call the right subdev_ops functions: + +static int subdev_command(struct i2c_client *client, unsigned cmd, void *arg) +{ + return v4l2_subdev_command(i2c_get_clientdata(client), cmd, arg); +} + +If driver->command is never used then you can leave this out. Eventually the +driver->command usage should be removed from v4l. + +Make sure to call v4l2_device_unregister_subdev(sd) when the remove() callback +is called. This will unregister the sub-device from the bridge driver. It is +safe to call this even if the sub-device was never registered. + + +The bridge driver also has some helper functions it can use: + +struct v4l2_subdev *sd = v4l2_i2c_new_subdev(adapter, "module_foo", "chipid", 0x36); + +This loads the given module (can be NULL if no module needs to be loaded) and +calls i2c_new_device() with the given i2c_adapter and chip/address arguments. +If all goes well, then it registers the subdev with the v4l2_device. It gets +the v4l2_device by calling i2c_get_adapdata(adapter), so you should make sure +that adapdata is set to v4l2_device when you setup the i2c_adapter in your +driver. + +You can also use v4l2_i2c_new_probed_subdev() which is very similar to +v4l2_i2c_new_subdev(), except that it has an array of possible I2C addresses +that it should probe. Internally it calls i2c_new_probed_device(). + +Both functions return NULL if something went wrong. + + +struct video_device +------------------- + +Not yet documented. |