[PATCH v6 1/3] driver core: add device_enumeration_failure_notify() helper
From: Akshay Gujar
Date: Sun Aug 02 2026 - 19:35:07 EST
Hotpluggable buses may detect that a device is physically present, but
enumeration can fail early due to protocol-level errors. Such failures
are currently only visible via kernel log messages, with no structured
notification to userspace.
Introduce device_enumeration_failure_notify(), a helper in the driver
core that emits a KOBJ_CHANGE uevent with
DEVICE_ENUMERATION_FAILURE=<failed_id>
The emitting device and the identifier are separate arguments because
the device being enumerated usually does not exist yet. The event is
emitted from a device the bus driver has already registered, and the
identifier names the port or slot that failed.
Signed-off-by: Akshay Gujar <Akshay.Gujar@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/base/core.c | 35 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
include/linux/device.h | 2 ++
2 files changed, 37 insertions(+)
diff --git a/drivers/base/core.c b/drivers/base/core.c
index 4d026682944f2..af6901799df58 100644
--- a/drivers/base/core.c
+++ b/drivers/base/core.c
@@ -3830,6 +3830,41 @@ int device_add(struct device *dev)
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(device_add);
+/**
+ * device_enumeration_failure_notify - notify userspace of enumeration failure
+ * @dev: device to emit the uevent from
+ * @failed_id: bus-specific identifier of the port or slot that failed to
+ * enumerate, e.g. the port device name for USB
+ *
+ * Emit a KOBJ_CHANGE uevent from @dev carrying
+ * DEVICE_ENUMERATION_FAILURE=@failed_id.
+ *
+ * Return: 0 on success, a negative error code otherwise.
+ *
+ * See Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-uevent for more details.
+ */
+int device_enumeration_failure_notify(struct device *dev,
+ const char *failed_id)
+{
+ char *envp[2] = { NULL, NULL };
+ int ret;
+
+ if (!failed_id || !*failed_id)
+ return -EINVAL;
+
+ envp[0] = kasprintf(GFP_KERNEL, "DEVICE_ENUMERATION_FAILURE=%s",
+ failed_id);
+
+ if (!envp[0])
+ return -ENOMEM;
+
+ ret = kobject_uevent_env(&dev->kobj, KOBJ_CHANGE, envp);
+ kfree(envp[0]);
+
+ return ret;
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(device_enumeration_failure_notify);
+
/**
* device_register - register a device with the system.
* @dev: pointer to the device structure
diff --git a/include/linux/device.h b/include/linux/device.h
index 7b2baffdd2f55..7dc9b2316ea24 100644
--- a/include/linux/device.h
+++ b/include/linux/device.h
@@ -1394,4 +1394,6 @@ static inline bool device_link_test(const struct device_link *link, u32 flags)
#define MODULE_ALIAS_CHARDEV_MAJOR(major) \
MODULE_ALIAS("char-major-" __stringify(major) "-*")
+int device_enumeration_failure_notify(struct device *dev, const char *failed_id);
+
#endif /* _DEVICE_H_ */
--
2.19.0