[PATCH v6 07/16] iio: core: add hierarchical channel relationships

From: Rodrigo Alencar via B4 Relay

Date: Thu Jun 18 2026 - 09:31:31 EST


From: Rodrigo Alencar <rodrigo.alencar@xxxxxxxxxx>

Add parent-child relationship between iio channels by creating a parent
pointer field in iio_chan_spec struct and exposing a sysfs attribute that
returns the parent channel label.

Signed-off-by: Rodrigo Alencar <rodrigo.alencar@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/iio/industrialio-core.c | 44 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
include/linux/iio/iio.h | 5 +++++
2 files changed, 49 insertions(+)

diff --git a/drivers/iio/industrialio-core.c b/drivers/iio/industrialio-core.c
index 9373006235c8..3d12269f26f4 100644
--- a/drivers/iio/industrialio-core.c
+++ b/drivers/iio/industrialio-core.c
@@ -854,6 +854,21 @@ static ssize_t iio_read_channel_label(struct device *dev,
to_iio_dev_attr(attr)->c, buf);
}

+static ssize_t iio_read_channel_parent(struct device *dev,
+ struct device_attribute *attr,
+ char *buf)
+{
+ const struct iio_chan_spec *parent = to_iio_dev_attr(attr)->c->parent;
+ int len;
+
+ len = __iio_chan_prefix_emit(parent, IIO_SEPARATE, buf, PAGE_SIZE - 1);
+ if (len < 0)
+ return len;
+
+ buf[len - 1] = '\n'; /* replace underscore termination with newline */
+ return len;
+}
+
static ssize_t iio_read_channel_info(struct device *dev,
struct device_attribute *attr,
char *buf)
@@ -1263,6 +1278,30 @@ static int iio_device_add_channel_label(struct iio_dev *indio_dev,
return 1;
}

+static int iio_device_add_channel_parent(struct iio_dev *indio_dev,
+ struct iio_chan_spec const *chan)
+{
+ struct iio_dev_opaque *iio_dev_opaque = to_iio_dev_opaque(indio_dev);
+ int ret;
+
+ if (!chan->parent)
+ return 0;
+
+ ret = __iio_add_chan_devattr("parent",
+ chan,
+ &iio_read_channel_parent,
+ NULL,
+ 0,
+ IIO_SEPARATE,
+ &indio_dev->dev,
+ NULL,
+ &iio_dev_opaque->channel_attr_list);
+ if (ret < 0)
+ return ret;
+
+ return 1;
+}
+
static int iio_device_add_info_mask_type(struct iio_dev *indio_dev,
struct iio_chan_spec const *chan,
enum iio_shared_by shared_by,
@@ -1401,6 +1440,11 @@ static int iio_device_add_channel_sysfs(struct iio_dev *indio_dev,
return ret;
attrcount += ret;

+ ret = iio_device_add_channel_parent(indio_dev, chan);
+ if (ret < 0)
+ return ret;
+ attrcount += ret;
+
if (chan->ext_info) {
unsigned int i = 0;

diff --git a/include/linux/iio/iio.h b/include/linux/iio/iio.h
index 1c7d12af22da..9470ab8eb726 100644
--- a/include/linux/iio/iio.h
+++ b/include/linux/iio/iio.h
@@ -264,6 +264,10 @@ struct iio_scan_type {
* @ext_info: Array of extended info attributes for this channel.
* The array is NULL terminated, the last element should
* have its name field set to NULL.
+ * @parent: Optional pointer to the parent channel spec for
+ * hierarchical channel relationships. When set, a read-only
+ * "parent" sysfs attribute is created containing the
+ * parent channel's sysfs name prefix (e.g. "in_voltage0").
* @extend_name: Allows labeling of channel attributes with an
* informative name. Note this has no effect codes etc,
* unlike modifiers.
@@ -309,6 +313,7 @@ struct iio_chan_spec {
const struct iio_event_spec *event_spec;
unsigned int num_event_specs;
const struct iio_chan_spec_ext_info *ext_info;
+ const struct iio_chan_spec *parent;
const char *extend_name;
const char *datasheet_name;
unsigned int modified:1;

--
2.43.0