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diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/sysfs.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/sysfs.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..290891c3fecb --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/sysfs.rst @@ -0,0 +1,418 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +===================================================== +sysfs - _The_ filesystem for exporting kernel objects +===================================================== + +Patrick Mochel <mochel@osdl.org> + +Mike Murphy <mamurph@cs.clemson.edu> + +:Revised: 16 August 2011 +:Original: 10 January 2003 + + +What it is: +~~~~~~~~~~~ + +sysfs is a ram-based filesystem initially based on ramfs. It provides +a means to export kernel data structures, their attributes, and the +linkages between them to userspace. + +sysfs is tied inherently to the kobject infrastructure. Please read +Documentation/kobject.txt for more information concerning the kobject +interface. + + +Using sysfs +~~~~~~~~~~~ + +sysfs is always compiled in if CONFIG_SYSFS is defined. You can access +it by doing:: + + mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys + + +Directory Creation +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +For every kobject that is registered with the system, a directory is +created for it in sysfs. That directory is created as a subdirectory +of the kobject's parent, expressing internal object hierarchies to +userspace. Top-level directories in sysfs represent the common +ancestors of object hierarchies; i.e. the subsystems the objects +belong to. + +Sysfs internally stores a pointer to the kobject that implements a +directory in the kernfs_node object associated with the directory. In +the past this kobject pointer has been used by sysfs to do reference +counting directly on the kobject whenever the file is opened or closed. +With the current sysfs implementation the kobject reference count is +only modified directly by the function sysfs_schedule_callback(). + + +Attributes +~~~~~~~~~~ + +Attributes can be exported for kobjects in the form of regular files in +the filesystem. Sysfs forwards file I/O operations to methods defined +for the attributes, providing a means to read and write kernel +attributes. + +Attributes should be ASCII text files, preferably with only one value +per file. It is noted that it may not be efficient to contain only one +value per file, so it is socially acceptable to express an array of +values of the same type. + +Mixing types, expressing multiple lines of data, and doing fancy +formatting of data is heavily frowned upon. Doing these things may get +you publicly humiliated and your code rewritten without notice. + + +An attribute definition is simply:: + + struct attribute { + char * name; + struct module *owner; + umode_t mode; + }; + + + int sysfs_create_file(struct kobject * kobj, const struct attribute * attr); + void sysfs_remove_file(struct kobject * kobj, const struct attribute * attr); + + +A bare attribute contains no means to read or write the value of the +attribute. Subsystems are encouraged to define their own attribute +structure and wrapper functions for adding and removing attributes for +a specific object type. + +For example, the driver model defines struct device_attribute like:: + + struct device_attribute { + struct attribute attr; + ssize_t (*show)(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr, + char *buf); + ssize_t (*store)(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr, + const char *buf, size_t count); + }; + + int device_create_file(struct device *, const struct device_attribute *); + void device_remove_file(struct device *, const struct device_attribute *); + +It also defines this helper for defining device attributes:: + + #define DEVICE_ATTR(_name, _mode, _show, _store) \ + struct device_attribute dev_attr_##_name = __ATTR(_name, _mode, _show, _store) + +For example, declaring:: + + static DEVICE_ATTR(foo, S_IWUSR | S_IRUGO, show_foo, store_foo); + +is equivalent to doing:: + + static struct device_attribute dev_attr_foo = { + .attr = { + .name = "foo", + .mode = S_IWUSR | S_IRUGO, + }, + .show = show_foo, + .store = store_foo, + }; + +Note as stated in include/linux/kernel.h "OTHER_WRITABLE? Generally +considered a bad idea." so trying to set a sysfs file writable for +everyone will fail reverting to RO mode for "Others". + +For the common cases sysfs.h provides convenience macros to make +defining attributes easier as well as making code more concise and +readable. The above case could be shortened to: + +static struct device_attribute dev_attr_foo = __ATTR_RW(foo); + +the list of helpers available to define your wrapper function is: + +__ATTR_RO(name): + assumes default name_show and mode 0444 +__ATTR_WO(name): + assumes a name_store only and is restricted to mode + 0200 that is root write access only. +__ATTR_RO_MODE(name, mode): + fore more restrictive RO access currently + only use case is the EFI System Resource Table + (see drivers/firmware/efi/esrt.c) +__ATTR_RW(name): + assumes default name_show, name_store and setting + mode to 0644. +__ATTR_NULL: + which sets the name to NULL and is used as end of list + indicator (see: kernel/workqueue.c) + +Subsystem-Specific Callbacks +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +When a subsystem defines a new attribute type, it must implement a +set of sysfs operations for forwarding read and write calls to the +show and store methods of the attribute owners:: + + struct sysfs_ops { + ssize_t (*show)(struct kobject *, struct attribute *, char *); + ssize_t (*store)(struct kobject *, struct attribute *, const char *, size_t); + }; + +[ Subsystems should have already defined a struct kobj_type as a +descriptor for this type, which is where the sysfs_ops pointer is +stored. See the kobject documentation for more information. ] + +When a file is read or written, sysfs calls the appropriate method +for the type. The method then translates the generic struct kobject +and struct attribute pointers to the appropriate pointer types, and +calls the associated methods. + + +To illustrate:: + + #define to_dev(obj) container_of(obj, struct device, kobj) + #define to_dev_attr(_attr) container_of(_attr, struct device_attribute, attr) + + static ssize_t dev_attr_show(struct kobject *kobj, struct attribute *attr, + char *buf) + { + struct device_attribute *dev_attr = to_dev_attr(attr); + struct device *dev = to_dev(kobj); + ssize_t ret = -EIO; + + if (dev_attr->show) + ret = dev_attr->show(dev, dev_attr, buf); + if (ret >= (ssize_t)PAGE_SIZE) { + printk("dev_attr_show: %pS returned bad count\n", + dev_attr->show); + } + return ret; + } + + + +Reading/Writing Attribute Data +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +To read or write attributes, show() or store() methods must be +specified when declaring the attribute. The method types should be as +simple as those defined for device attributes:: + + ssize_t (*show)(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr, char *buf); + ssize_t (*store)(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr, + const char *buf, size_t count); + +IOW, they should take only an object, an attribute, and a buffer as parameters. + + +sysfs allocates a buffer of size (PAGE_SIZE) and passes it to the +method. Sysfs will call the method exactly once for each read or +write. This forces the following behavior on the method +implementations: + +- On read(2), the show() method should fill the entire buffer. + Recall that an attribute should only be exporting one value, or an + array of similar values, so this shouldn't be that expensive. + + This allows userspace to do partial reads and forward seeks + arbitrarily over the entire file at will. If userspace seeks back to + zero or does a pread(2) with an offset of '0' the show() method will + be called again, rearmed, to fill the buffer. + +- On write(2), sysfs expects the entire buffer to be passed during the + first write. Sysfs then passes the entire buffer to the store() method. + A terminating null is added after the data on stores. This makes + functions like sysfs_streq() safe to use. + + When writing sysfs files, userspace processes should first read the + entire file, modify the values it wishes to change, then write the + entire buffer back. + + Attribute method implementations should operate on an identical + buffer when reading and writing values. + +Other notes: + +- Writing causes the show() method to be rearmed regardless of current + file position. + +- The buffer will always be PAGE_SIZE bytes in length. On i386, this + is 4096. + +- show() methods should return the number of bytes printed into the + buffer. This is the return value of scnprintf(). + +- show() must not use snprintf() when formatting the value to be + returned to user space. If you can guarantee that an overflow + will never happen you can use sprintf() otherwise you must use + scnprintf(). + +- store() should return the number of bytes used from the buffer. If the + entire buffer has been used, just return the count argument. + +- show() or store() can always return errors. If a bad value comes + through, be sure to return an error. + +- The object passed to the methods will be pinned in memory via sysfs + referencing counting its embedded object. However, the physical + entity (e.g. device) the object represents may not be present. Be + sure to have a way to check this, if necessary. + + +A very simple (and naive) implementation of a device attribute is:: + + static ssize_t show_name(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr, + char *buf) + { + return scnprintf(buf, PAGE_SIZE, "%s\n", dev->name); + } + + static ssize_t store_name(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr, + const char *buf, size_t count) + { + snprintf(dev->name, sizeof(dev->name), "%.*s", + (int)min(count, sizeof(dev->name) - 1), buf); + return count; + } + + static DEVICE_ATTR(name, S_IRUGO, show_name, store_name); + + +(Note that the real implementation doesn't allow userspace to set the +name for a device.) + + +Top Level Directory Layout +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The sysfs directory arrangement exposes the relationship of kernel +data structures. + +The top level sysfs directory looks like:: + + block/ + bus/ + class/ + dev/ + devices/ + firmware/ + net/ + fs/ + +devices/ contains a filesystem representation of the device tree. It maps +directly to the internal kernel device tree, which is a hierarchy of +struct device. + +bus/ contains flat directory layout of the various bus types in the +kernel. Each bus's directory contains two subdirectories:: + + devices/ + drivers/ + +devices/ contains symlinks for each device discovered in the system +that point to the device's directory under root/. + +drivers/ contains a directory for each device driver that is loaded +for devices on that particular bus (this assumes that drivers do not +span multiple bus types). + +fs/ contains a directory for some filesystems. Currently each +filesystem wanting to export attributes must create its own hierarchy +below fs/ (see ./fuse.txt for an example). + +dev/ contains two directories char/ and block/. Inside these two +directories there are symlinks named <major>:<minor>. These symlinks +point to the sysfs directory for the given device. /sys/dev provides a +quick way to lookup the sysfs interface for a device from the result of +a stat(2) operation. + +More information can driver-model specific features can be found in +Documentation/driver-api/driver-model/. + + +TODO: Finish this section. + + +Current Interfaces +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The following interface layers currently exist in sysfs: + + +devices (include/linux/device.h) +-------------------------------- +Structure:: + + struct device_attribute { + struct attribute attr; + ssize_t (*show)(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr, + char *buf); + ssize_t (*store)(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr, + const char *buf, size_t count); + }; + +Declaring:: + + DEVICE_ATTR(_name, _mode, _show, _store); + +Creation/Removal:: + + int device_create_file(struct device *dev, const struct device_attribute * attr); + void device_remove_file(struct device *dev, const struct device_attribute * attr); + + +bus drivers (include/linux/device.h) +------------------------------------ +Structure:: + + struct bus_attribute { + struct attribute attr; + ssize_t (*show)(struct bus_type *, char * buf); + ssize_t (*store)(struct bus_type *, const char * buf, size_t count); + }; + +Declaring:: + + static BUS_ATTR_RW(name); + static BUS_ATTR_RO(name); + static BUS_ATTR_WO(name); + +Creation/Removal:: + + int bus_create_file(struct bus_type *, struct bus_attribute *); + void bus_remove_file(struct bus_type *, struct bus_attribute *); + + +device drivers (include/linux/device.h) +--------------------------------------- + +Structure:: + + struct driver_attribute { + struct attribute attr; + ssize_t (*show)(struct device_driver *, char * buf); + ssize_t (*store)(struct device_driver *, const char * buf, + size_t count); + }; + +Declaring:: + + DRIVER_ATTR_RO(_name) + DRIVER_ATTR_RW(_name) + +Creation/Removal:: + + int driver_create_file(struct device_driver *, const struct driver_attribute *); + void driver_remove_file(struct device_driver *, const struct driver_attribute *); + + +Documentation +~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The sysfs directory structure and the attributes in each directory define an +ABI between the kernel and user space. As for any ABI, it is important that +this ABI is stable and properly documented. All new sysfs attributes must be +documented in Documentation/ABI. See also Documentation/ABI/README for more +information. |