Merge tag 'intel-gpio-v6.10-1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/andy...
[linux-2.6-block.git] / Documentation / driver-api / gpio / legacy.rst
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1======================
2Legacy GPIO Interfaces
3======================
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4
5This provides an overview of GPIO access conventions on Linux.
6
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7These calls use the gpio_* naming prefix. No other calls should use that
8prefix, or the related __gpio_* prefix.
9
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10
11What is a GPIO?
12===============
13A "General Purpose Input/Output" (GPIO) is a flexible software-controlled
14digital signal. They are provided from many kinds of chip, and are familiar
15to Linux developers working with embedded and custom hardware. Each GPIO
16represents a bit connected to a particular pin, or "ball" on Ball Grid Array
17(BGA) packages. Board schematics show which external hardware connects to
18which GPIOs. Drivers can be written generically, so that board setup code
19passes such pin configuration data to drivers.
20
21System-on-Chip (SOC) processors heavily rely on GPIOs. In some cases, every
22non-dedicated pin can be configured as a GPIO; and most chips have at least
23several dozen of them. Programmable logic devices (like FPGAs) can easily
24provide GPIOs; multifunction chips like power managers, and audio codecs
25often have a few such pins to help with pin scarcity on SOCs; and there are
26also "GPIO Expander" chips that connect using the I2C or SPI serial busses.
27Most PC southbridges have a few dozen GPIO-capable pins (with only the BIOS
28firmware knowing how they're used).
29
30The exact capabilities of GPIOs vary between systems. Common options:
31
32 - Output values are writable (high=1, low=0). Some chips also have
33 options about how that value is driven, so that for example only one
34 value might be driven ... supporting "wire-OR" and similar schemes
1668be71 35 for the other value (notably, "open drain" signaling).
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36
37 - Input values are likewise readable (1, 0). Some chips support readback
38 of pins configured as "output", which is very useful in such "wire-OR"
39 cases (to support bidirectional signaling). GPIO controllers may have
7c2db759 40 input de-glitch/debounce logic, sometimes with software controls.
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41
42 - Inputs can often be used as IRQ signals, often edge triggered but
43 sometimes level triggered. Such IRQs may be configurable as system
44 wakeup events, to wake the system from a low power state.
45
46 - Usually a GPIO will be configurable as either input or output, as needed
47 by different product boards; single direction ones exist too.
48
49 - Most GPIOs can be accessed while holding spinlocks, but those accessed
50 through a serial bus normally can't. Some systems support both types.
51
52On a given board each GPIO is used for one specific purpose like monitoring
53MMC/SD card insertion/removal, detecting card writeprotect status, driving
54a LED, configuring a transceiver, bitbanging a serial bus, poking a hardware
55watchdog, sensing a switch, and so on.
56
57
58GPIO conventions
59================
60Note that this is called a "convention" because you don't need to do it this
61way, and it's no crime if you don't. There **are** cases where portability
62is not the main issue; GPIOs are often used for the kind of board-specific
63glue logic that may even change between board revisions, and can't ever be
64used on a board that's wired differently. Only least-common-denominator
65functionality can be very portable. Other features are platform-specific,
66and that can be critical for glue logic.
67
7c2db759 68Plus, this doesn't require any implementation framework, just an interface.
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69One platform might implement it as simple inline functions accessing chip
70registers; another might implement it by delegating through abstractions
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71used for several very different kinds of GPIO controller. (There is some
72optional code supporting such an implementation strategy, described later
73in this document, but drivers acting as clients to the GPIO interface must
74not care how it's implemented.)
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75
76That said, if the convention is supported on their platform, drivers should
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77use it when possible. Platforms must select GPIOLIB if GPIO functionality
78is strictly required. Drivers that can't work without
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79standard GPIO calls should have Kconfig entries which depend on GPIOLIB. The
80GPIO calls are available, either as "real code" or as optimized-away stubs,
81when drivers use the include file:
4c20386c 82
7560fa60 83 #include <linux/gpio.h>
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84
85If you stick to this convention then it'll be easier for other developers to
86see what your code is doing, and help maintain it.
87
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88Note that these operations include I/O barriers on platforms which need to
89use them; drivers don't need to add them explicitly.
90
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91
92Identifying GPIOs
93-----------------
94GPIOs are identified by unsigned integers in the range 0..MAX_INT. That
95reserves "negative" numbers for other purposes like marking signals as
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96"not available on this board", or indicating faults. Code that doesn't
97touch the underlying hardware treats these integers as opaque cookies.
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98
99Platforms define how they use those integers, and usually #define symbols
100for the GPIO lines so that board-specific setup code directly corresponds
101to the relevant schematics. In contrast, drivers should only use GPIO
102numbers passed to them from that setup code, using platform_data to hold
103board-specific pin configuration data (along with other board specific
104data they need). That avoids portability problems.
105
106So for example one platform uses numbers 32-159 for GPIOs; while another
107uses numbers 0..63 with one set of GPIO controllers, 64-79 with another
108type of GPIO controller, and on one particular board 80-95 with an FPGA.
109The numbers need not be contiguous; either of those platforms could also
110use numbers 2000-2063 to identify GPIOs in a bank of I2C GPIO expanders.
111
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112If you want to initialize a structure with an invalid GPIO number, use
113some negative number (perhaps "-EINVAL"); that will never be valid. To
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114test if such number from such a structure could reference a GPIO, you
115may use this predicate:
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116
117 int gpio_is_valid(int number);
118
119A number that's not valid will be rejected by calls which may request
120or free GPIOs (see below). Other numbers may also be rejected; for
c956126c 121example, a number might be valid but temporarily unused on a given board.
4c20386c 122
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123Whether a platform supports multiple GPIO controllers is a platform-specific
124implementation issue, as are whether that support can leave "holes" in the space
125of GPIO numbers, and whether new controllers can be added at runtime. Such issues
126can affect things including whether adjacent GPIO numbers are both valid.
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127
128Using GPIOs
129-----------
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130The first thing a system should do with a GPIO is allocate it, using
131the gpio_request() call; see later.
132
133One of the next things to do with a GPIO, often in board setup code when
7ee2c130 134setting up a platform_device using the GPIO, is mark its direction::
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135
136 /* set as input or output, returning 0 or negative errno */
137 int gpio_direction_input(unsigned gpio);
28735a72 138 int gpio_direction_output(unsigned gpio, int value);
4c20386c 139
d8a3515e 140The return value is zero for success, else a negative errno. It should
4c20386c 141be checked, since the get/set calls don't have error returns and since
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142misconfiguration is possible. You should normally issue these calls from
143a task context. However, for spinlock-safe GPIOs it's OK to use them
144before tasking is enabled, as part of early board setup.
4c20386c 145
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146For output GPIOs, the value provided becomes the initial output value.
147This helps avoid signal glitching during system startup.
148
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149For compatibility with legacy interfaces to GPIOs, setting the direction
150of a GPIO implicitly requests that GPIO (see below) if it has not been
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151requested already. That compatibility is being removed from the optional
152gpiolib framework.
7c2db759 153
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154Setting the direction can fail if the GPIO number is invalid, or when
155that particular GPIO can't be used in that mode. It's generally a bad
156idea to rely on boot firmware to have set the direction correctly, since
157it probably wasn't validated to do more than boot Linux. (Similarly,
158that board setup code probably needs to multiplex that pin as a GPIO,
159and configure pullups/pulldowns appropriately.)
160
161
162Spinlock-Safe GPIO access
163-------------------------
164Most GPIO controllers can be accessed with memory read/write instructions.
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165Those don't need to sleep, and can safely be done from inside hard
166(nonthreaded) IRQ handlers and similar contexts.
4c20386c 167
7d0b8064 168Use the following calls to access such GPIOs::
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169
170 /* GPIO INPUT: return zero or nonzero */
171 int gpio_get_value(unsigned gpio);
172
173 /* GPIO OUTPUT */
174 void gpio_set_value(unsigned gpio, int value);
175
176The values are boolean, zero for low, nonzero for high. When reading the
177value of an output pin, the value returned should be what's seen on the
178pin ... that won't always match the specified output value, because of
7c2db759 179issues including open-drain signaling and output latencies.
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180
181The get/set calls have no error returns because "invalid GPIO" should have
be1ff386 182been reported earlier from gpio_direction_*(). However, note that not all
4c20386c 183platforms can read the value of output pins; those that can't should always
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184return zero. Also, using these calls for GPIOs that can't safely be accessed
185without sleeping (see below) is an error.
4c20386c 186
f5de6111 187Platform-specific implementations are encouraged to optimize the two
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188calls to access the GPIO value in cases where the GPIO number (and for
189output, value) are constant. It's normal for them to need only a couple
190of instructions in such cases (reading or writing a hardware register),
191and not to need spinlocks. Such optimized calls can make bitbanging
192applications a lot more efficient (in both space and time) than spending
193dozens of instructions on subroutine calls.
194
195
196GPIO access that may sleep
197--------------------------
198Some GPIO controllers must be accessed using message based busses like I2C
199or SPI. Commands to read or write those GPIO values require waiting to
200get to the head of a queue to transmit a command and get its response.
201This requires sleeping, which can't be done from inside IRQ handlers.
7ee2c130 202To access such GPIOs, a different set of accessors is defined::
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203
204 /* GPIO INPUT: return zero or nonzero, might sleep */
205 int gpio_get_value_cansleep(unsigned gpio);
206
207 /* GPIO OUTPUT, might sleep */
208 void gpio_set_value_cansleep(unsigned gpio, int value);
209
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210Accessing such GPIOs requires a context which may sleep, for example
211a threaded IRQ handler, and those accessors must be used instead of
212spinlock-safe accessors without the cansleep() name suffix.
213
214Other than the fact that these accessors might sleep, and will work
215on GPIOs that can't be accessed from hardIRQ handlers, these calls act
216the same as the spinlock-safe calls.
217
7ee2c130 218**IN ADDITION** calls to setup and configure such GPIOs must be made
9c4ba946 219from contexts which may sleep, since they may need to access the GPIO
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220controller chip too (These setup calls are usually made from board
221setup or driver probe/teardown code, so this is an easy constraint.)::
9c4ba946 222
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223 gpio_direction_input()
224 gpio_direction_output()
225 gpio_request()
9c4ba946 226
7ee2c130 227 ## gpio_request_one()
9c4ba946 228
7ee2c130 229 gpio_free()
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230
231
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232Claiming and Releasing GPIOs
233----------------------------
7ee2c130 234To help catch system configuration errors, two calls are defined::
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235
236 /* request GPIO, returning 0 or negative errno.
237 * non-null labels may be useful for diagnostics.
238 */
239 int gpio_request(unsigned gpio, const char *label);
240
241 /* release previously-claimed GPIO */
242 void gpio_free(unsigned gpio);
243
244Passing invalid GPIO numbers to gpio_request() will fail, as will requesting
245GPIOs that have already been claimed with that call. The return value of
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246gpio_request() must be checked. You should normally issue these calls from
247a task context. However, for spinlock-safe GPIOs it's OK to request GPIOs
248before tasking is enabled, as part of early board setup.
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249
250These calls serve two basic purposes. One is marking the signals which
251are actually in use as GPIOs, for better diagnostics; systems may have
252several hundred potential GPIOs, but often only a dozen are used on any
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253given board. Another is to catch conflicts, identifying errors when
254(a) two or more drivers wrongly think they have exclusive use of that
255signal, or (b) something wrongly believes it's safe to remove drivers
256needed to manage a signal that's in active use. That is, requesting a
257GPIO can serve as a kind of lock.
4c20386c 258
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259Some platforms may also use knowledge about what GPIOs are active for
260power management, such as by powering down unused chip sectors and, more
261easily, gating off unused clocks.
262
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263For GPIOs that use pins known to the pinctrl subsystem, that subsystem should
264be informed of their use; a gpiolib driver's .request() operation may call
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265pinctrl_gpio_request(), and a gpiolib driver's .free() operation may call
266pinctrl_gpio_free(). The pinctrl subsystem allows a pinctrl_gpio_request()
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267to succeed concurrently with a pin or pingroup being "owned" by a device for
268pin multiplexing.
269
270Any programming of pin multiplexing hardware that is needed to route the
271GPIO signal to the appropriate pin should occur within a GPIO driver's
272.direction_input() or .direction_output() operations, and occur after any
273setup of an output GPIO's value. This allows a glitch-free migration from a
274pin's special function to GPIO. This is sometimes required when using a GPIO
275to implement a workaround on signals typically driven by a non-GPIO HW block.
276
277Some platforms allow some or all GPIO signals to be routed to different pins.
278Similarly, other aspects of the GPIO or pin may need to be configured, such as
279pullup/pulldown. Platform software should arrange that any such details are
280configured prior to gpio_request() being called for those GPIOs, e.g. using
281the pinctrl subsystem's mapping table, so that GPIO users need not be aware
282of these details.
4c20386c 283
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284Also note that it's your responsibility to have stopped using a GPIO
285before you free it.
286
3e45f1d1 287Considering in most cases GPIOs are actually configured right after they
7ee2c130 288are claimed, three additional calls are defined::
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289
290 /* request a single GPIO, with initial configuration specified by
291 * 'flags', identical to gpio_request() wrt other arguments and
292 * return value
293 */
294 int gpio_request_one(unsigned gpio, unsigned long flags, const char *label);
295
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296where 'flags' is currently defined to specify the following properties:
297
298 * GPIOF_DIR_IN - to configure direction as input
299 * GPIOF_DIR_OUT - to configure direction as output
300
301 * GPIOF_INIT_LOW - as output, set initial level to LOW
302 * GPIOF_INIT_HIGH - as output, set initial level to HIGH
303
304since GPIOF_INIT_* are only valid when configured as output, so group valid
305combinations as:
306
307 * GPIOF_IN - configure as input
308 * GPIOF_OUT_INIT_LOW - configured as output, initial level LOW
309 * GPIOF_OUT_INIT_HIGH - configured as output, initial level HIGH
310
3e45f1d1 311Further more, to ease the claim/release of multiple GPIOs, 'struct gpio' is
7ee2c130 312introduced to encapsulate all three fields as::
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313
314 struct gpio {
315 unsigned gpio;
316 unsigned long flags;
317 const char *label;
318 };
319
7ee2c130 320A typical example of usage::
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321
322 static struct gpio leds_gpios[] = {
323 { 32, GPIOF_OUT_INIT_HIGH, "Power LED" }, /* default to ON */
324 { 33, GPIOF_OUT_INIT_LOW, "Green LED" }, /* default to OFF */
325 { 34, GPIOF_OUT_INIT_LOW, "Red LED" }, /* default to OFF */
326 { 35, GPIOF_OUT_INIT_LOW, "Blue LED" }, /* default to OFF */
327 { ... },
328 };
329
330 err = gpio_request_one(31, GPIOF_IN, "Reset Button");
331 if (err)
332 ...
333
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334
335GPIOs mapped to IRQs
336--------------------
337GPIO numbers are unsigned integers; so are IRQ numbers. These make up
338two logically distinct namespaces (GPIO 0 need not use IRQ 0). You can
7ee2c130 339map between them using calls like::
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340
341 /* map GPIO numbers to IRQ numbers */
342 int gpio_to_irq(unsigned gpio);
343
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344Those return either the corresponding number in the other namespace, or
345else a negative errno code if the mapping can't be done. (For example,
7c2db759 346some GPIOs can't be used as IRQs.) It is an unchecked error to use a GPIO
be1ff386 347number that wasn't set up as an input using gpio_direction_input(), or
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348to use an IRQ number that didn't originally come from gpio_to_irq().
349
350These two mapping calls are expected to cost on the order of a single
351addition or subtraction. They're not allowed to sleep.
352
353Non-error values returned from gpio_to_irq() can be passed to request_irq()
354or free_irq(). They will often be stored into IRQ resources for platform
355devices, by the board-specific initialization code. Note that IRQ trigger
356options are part of the IRQ interface, e.g. IRQF_TRIGGER_FALLING, as are
357system wakeup capabilities.
358
4c20386c 359
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360Emulating Open Drain Signals
361----------------------------
362Sometimes shared signals need to use "open drain" signaling, where only the
363low signal level is actually driven. (That term applies to CMOS transistors;
364"open collector" is used for TTL.) A pullup resistor causes the high signal
365level. This is sometimes called a "wire-AND"; or more practically, from the
366negative logic (low=true) perspective this is a "wire-OR".
367
368One common example of an open drain signal is a shared active-low IRQ line.
369Also, bidirectional data bus signals sometimes use open drain signals.
370
371Some GPIO controllers directly support open drain outputs; many don't. When
372you need open drain signaling but your hardware doesn't directly support it,
373there's a common idiom you can use to emulate it with any GPIO pin that can
374be used as either an input or an output:
375
376 LOW: gpio_direction_output(gpio, 0) ... this drives the signal
377 and overrides the pullup.
378
379 HIGH: gpio_direction_input(gpio) ... this turns off the output,
380 so the pullup (or some other device) controls the signal.
381
382If you are "driving" the signal high but gpio_get_value(gpio) reports a low
383value (after the appropriate rise time passes), you know some other component
384is driving the shared signal low. That's not necessarily an error. As one
385common example, that's how I2C clocks are stretched: a slave that needs a
386slower clock delays the rising edge of SCK, and the I2C master adjusts its
387signaling rate accordingly.
388
4c20386c 389
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390GPIO controllers and the pinctrl subsystem
391------------------------------------------
392
393A GPIO controller on a SOC might be tightly coupled with the pinctrl
394subsystem, in the sense that the pins can be used by other functions
395together with an optional gpio feature. We have already covered the
396case where e.g. a GPIO controller need to reserve a pin or set the
7ee2c130 397direction of a pin by calling any of::
f23f1516 398
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399 pinctrl_gpio_request()
400 pinctrl_gpio_free()
401 pinctrl_gpio_direction_input()
402 pinctrl_gpio_direction_output()
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403
404But how does the pin control subsystem cross-correlate the GPIO
405numbers (which are a global business) to a certain pin on a certain
406pin controller?
407
408This is done by registering "ranges" of pins, which are essentially
409cross-reference tables. These are described in
5513b411 410Documentation/driver-api/pin-control.rst
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411
412While the pin allocation is totally managed by the pinctrl subsystem,
413gpio (under gpiolib) is still maintained by gpio drivers. It may happen
414that different pin ranges in a SoC is managed by different gpio drivers.
415
416This makes it logical to let gpio drivers announce their pin ranges to
a9a1d2a7 417the pin ctrl subsystem before it will call 'pinctrl_gpio_request' in order
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418to request the corresponding pin to be prepared by the pinctrl subsystem
419before any gpio usage.
420
421For this, the gpio controller can register its pin range with pinctrl
422subsystem. There are two ways of doing it currently: with or without DT.
423
424For with DT support refer to Documentation/devicetree/bindings/gpio/gpio.txt.
425
426For non-DT support, user can call gpiochip_add_pin_range() with appropriate
427parameters to register a range of gpio pins with a pinctrl driver. For this
428exact name string of pinctrl device has to be passed as one of the
429argument to this routine.
430
431
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432What do these conventions omit?
433===============================
434One of the biggest things these conventions omit is pin multiplexing, since
435this is highly chip-specific and nonportable. One platform might not need
436explicit multiplexing; another might have just two options for use of any
437given pin; another might have eight options per pin; another might be able
438to route a given GPIO to any one of several pins. (Yes, those examples all
439come from systems that run Linux today.)
440
441Related to multiplexing is configuration and enabling of the pullups or
442pulldowns integrated on some platforms. Not all platforms support them,
443or support them in the same way; and any given board might use external
444pullups (or pulldowns) so that the on-chip ones should not be used.
7c2db759 445(When a circuit needs 5 kOhm, on-chip 100 kOhm resistors won't do.)
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446Likewise drive strength (2 mA vs 20 mA) and voltage (1.8V vs 3.3V) is a
447platform-specific issue, as are models like (not) having a one-to-one
448correspondence between configurable pins and GPIOs.
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449
450There are other system-specific mechanisms that are not specified here,
451like the aforementioned options for input de-glitching and wire-OR output.
452Hardware may support reading or writing GPIOs in gangs, but that's usually
f5de6111 453configuration dependent: for GPIOs sharing the same bank. (GPIOs are
4c20386c 454commonly grouped in banks of 16 or 32, with a given SOC having several such
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455banks.) Some systems can trigger IRQs from output GPIOs, or read values
456from pins not managed as GPIOs. Code relying on such mechanisms will
457necessarily be nonportable.
4c20386c 458
7c2db759 459Dynamic definition of GPIOs is not currently standard; for example, as
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460a side effect of configuring an add-on board with some GPIO expanders.
461
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462
463GPIO implementor's framework (OPTIONAL)
464=======================================
465As noted earlier, there is an optional implementation framework making it
466easier for platforms to support different kinds of GPIO controller using
d8f388d8 467the same programming interface. This framework is called "gpiolib".
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468
469As a debugging aid, if debugfs is available a /sys/kernel/debug/gpio file
470will be found there. That will list all the controllers registered through
471this framework, and the state of the GPIOs currently in use.
472
473
474Controller Drivers: gpio_chip
475-----------------------------
476In this framework each GPIO controller is packaged as a "struct gpio_chip"
477with information common to each controller of that type:
478
479 - methods to establish GPIO direction
480 - methods used to access GPIO values
481 - flag saying whether calls to its methods may sleep
482 - optional debugfs dump method (showing extra state like pullup config)
483 - label for diagnostics
484
485There is also per-instance data, which may come from device.platform_data:
486the number of its first GPIO, and how many GPIOs it exposes.
487
488The code implementing a gpio_chip should support multiple instances of the
489controller, possibly using the driver model. That code will configure each
490gpio_chip and issue gpiochip_add(). Removing a GPIO controller should be
491rare; use gpiochip_remove() when it is unavoidable.
492
493Most often a gpio_chip is part of an instance-specific structure with state
494not exposed by the GPIO interfaces, such as addressing, power management,
bfc9dcab 495and more. Chips such as codecs will have complex non-GPIO state.
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496
497Any debugfs dump method should normally ignore signals which haven't been
498requested as GPIOs. They can use gpiochip_is_requested(), which returns
499either NULL or the label associated with that GPIO when it was requested.
500
501
502Platform Support
503----------------
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504To force-enable this framework, a platform's Kconfig will "select" GPIOLIB,
505else it is up to the user to configure support for GPIO.
7c2db759 506
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507If neither of these options are selected, the platform does not support
508GPIOs through GPIO-lib and the code cannot be enabled by the user.
509
7c2db759 510Trivial implementations of those functions can directly use framework
7ee2c130 511code, which always dispatches through the gpio_chip::
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512
513 #define gpio_get_value __gpio_get_value
514 #define gpio_set_value __gpio_set_value
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515
516Fancier implementations could instead define those as inline functions with
517logic optimizing access to specific SOC-based GPIOs. For example, if the
518referenced GPIO is the constant "12", getting or setting its value could
519cost as little as two or three instructions, never sleeping. When such an
520optimization is not possible those calls must delegate to the framework
521code, costing at least a few dozen instructions. For bitbanged I/O, such
522instruction savings can be significant.
523
524For SOCs, platform-specific code defines and registers gpio_chip instances
525for each bank of on-chip GPIOs. Those GPIOs should be numbered/labeled to
526match chip vendor documentation, and directly match board schematics. They
527may well start at zero and go up to a platform-specific limit. Such GPIOs
528are normally integrated into platform initialization to make them always be
529available, from arch_initcall() or earlier; they can often serve as IRQs.
530
531
532Board Support
533-------------
534For external GPIO controllers -- such as I2C or SPI expanders, ASICs, multi
535function devices, FPGAs or CPLDs -- most often board-specific code handles
536registering controller devices and ensures that their drivers know what GPIO
537numbers to use with gpiochip_add(). Their numbers often start right after
538platform-specific GPIOs.
539
540For example, board setup code could create structures identifying the range
541of GPIOs that chip will expose, and passes them to each GPIO expander chip
542using platform_data. Then the chip driver's probe() routine could pass that
543data to gpiochip_add().
544
545Initialization order can be important. For example, when a device relies on
546an I2C-based GPIO, its probe() routine should only be called after that GPIO
547becomes available. That may mean the device should not be registered until
548calls for that GPIO can work. One way to address such dependencies is for
549such gpio_chip controllers to provide setup() and teardown() callbacks to
550board specific code; those board specific callbacks would register devices
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551once all the necessary resources are available, and remove them later when
552the GPIO controller device becomes unavailable.
553
554
555Sysfs Interface for Userspace (OPTIONAL)
556========================================
557Platforms which use the "gpiolib" implementors framework may choose to
558configure a sysfs user interface to GPIOs. This is different from the
559debugfs interface, since it provides control over GPIO direction and
560value instead of just showing a gpio state summary. Plus, it could be
561present on production systems without debugging support.
562
19f59460 563Given appropriate hardware documentation for the system, userspace could
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564know for example that GPIO #23 controls the write protect line used to
565protect boot loader segments in flash memory. System upgrade procedures
566may need to temporarily remove that protection, first importing a GPIO,
567then changing its output state, then updating the code before re-enabling
568the write protection. In normal use, GPIO #23 would never be touched,
569and the kernel would have no need to know about it.
570
571Again depending on appropriate hardware documentation, on some systems
572userspace GPIO can be used to determine system configuration data that
573standard kernels won't know about. And for some tasks, simple userspace
574GPIO drivers could be all that the system really needs.
575
576Note that standard kernel drivers exist for common "LEDs and Buttons"
577GPIO tasks: "leds-gpio" and "gpio_keys", respectively. Use those
578instead of talking directly to the GPIOs; they integrate with kernel
579frameworks better than your userspace code could.
580
581
582Paths in Sysfs
583--------------
584There are three kinds of entry in /sys/class/gpio:
585
586 - Control interfaces used to get userspace control over GPIOs;
587
588 - GPIOs themselves; and
589
590 - GPIO controllers ("gpio_chip" instances).
591
592That's in addition to standard files including the "device" symlink.
593
594The control interfaces are write-only:
595
596 /sys/class/gpio/
597
598 "export" ... Userspace may ask the kernel to export control of
599 a GPIO to userspace by writing its number to this file.
600
601 Example: "echo 19 > export" will create a "gpio19" node
602 for GPIO #19, if that's not requested by kernel code.
603
604 "unexport" ... Reverses the effect of exporting to userspace.
605
606 Example: "echo 19 > unexport" will remove a "gpio19"
607 node exported using the "export" file.
608
609GPIO signals have paths like /sys/class/gpio/gpio42/ (for GPIO #42)
610and have the following read/write attributes:
611
612 /sys/class/gpio/gpioN/
613
614 "direction" ... reads as either "in" or "out". This value may
615 normally be written. Writing as "out" defaults to
616 initializing the value as low. To ensure glitch free
617 operation, values "low" and "high" may be written to
618 configure the GPIO as an output with that initial value.
619
620 Note that this attribute *will not exist* if the kernel
621 doesn't support changing the direction of a GPIO, or
622 it was exported by kernel code that didn't explicitly
623 allow userspace to reconfigure this GPIO's direction.
624
625 "value" ... reads as either 0 (low) or 1 (high). If the GPIO
626 is configured as an output, this value may be written;
627 any nonzero value is treated as high.
628
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629 If the pin can be configured as interrupt-generating interrupt
630 and if it has been configured to generate interrupts (see the
631 description of "edge"), you can poll(2) on that file and
632 poll(2) will return whenever the interrupt was triggered. If
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633 you use poll(2), set the events POLLPRI. If you use select(2),
634 set the file descriptor in exceptfds. After poll(2) returns,
635 either lseek(2) to the beginning of the sysfs file and read the
636 new value or close the file and re-open it to read the value.
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638 "edge" ... reads as either "none", "rising", "falling", or
639 "both". Write these strings to select the signal edge(s)
640 that will make poll(2) on the "value" file return.
641
642 This file exists only if the pin can be configured as an
643 interrupt generating input pin.
644
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645 "active_low" ... reads as either 0 (false) or 1 (true). Write
646 any nonzero value to invert the value attribute both
647 for reading and writing. Existing and subsequent
648 poll(2) support configuration via the edge attribute
649 for "rising" and "falling" edges will follow this
650 setting.
651
bfc9dcab 652GPIO controllers have paths like /sys/class/gpio/gpiochip42/ (for the
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653controller implementing GPIOs starting at #42) and have the following
654read-only attributes:
655
656 /sys/class/gpio/gpiochipN/
657
658 "base" ... same as N, the first GPIO managed by this chip
659
660 "label" ... provided for diagnostics (not always unique)
661
662 "ngpio" ... how many GPIOs this manges (N to N + ngpio - 1)
663
664Board documentation should in most cases cover what GPIOs are used for
665what purposes. However, those numbers are not always stable; GPIOs on
666a daughtercard might be different depending on the base board being used,
667or other cards in the stack. In such cases, you may need to use the
668gpiochip nodes (possibly in conjunction with schematics) to determine
669the correct GPIO number to use for a given signal.
670
671
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672API Reference
673=============
674
675The functions listed in this section are deprecated. The GPIO descriptor based
676API should be used in new code.
677
678.. kernel-doc:: drivers/gpio/gpiolib-legacy.c
679 :export: