[PATCH v9 4/5] firmware: document the extensible driver data API

[Luis R. Rodriguez]

This documents the driver data API.

Signed-off-by: Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
 Documentation/driver-api/firmware/driver_data.rst  | 167 +++++++++++++++++++++
 Documentation/driver-api/firmware/index.rst        |   1 +
 Documentation/driver-api/firmware/introduction.rst |  16 ++
 .../driver-api/firmware/request_firmware.rst       |   2 +
 4 files changed, 186 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Documentation/driver-api/firmware/driver_data.rst

diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/driver_data.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/driver_data.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..be7c7ff99151
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/driver_data.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,167 @@
+.. _driver_data:
+
+===============
+driver_data API
+===============
+
+The driver data APIs provides a flexible API for general driver data file
+lookups. Its flexibility aims at mitigating collateral evolutions on the kernel
+as new functionality is introduced.
+
+Driver data modes of operation
+==============================
+
+There are two types of modes of operation for driver data requests:
+
+  * synchronous  - driver_data_request_sync()
+  * asynchronous - driver_data_request_async()
+
+Synchronous requests expect requests to be done immediately, asynchronous
+requests enable requests to be scheduled for a later time.
+
+Driver data request parameters
+==============================
+
+Variations of types of driver data requests are specified by a driver data
+request parameter data structure. The flexibility of the API is provided by
+expanding the request parameters as new functionality is needed, without
+loosely modifying or adding new exported APIs.
+
+driver_data_sync_cbs
+--------------------
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/driver_data.h
+   :functions: driver_data_sync_cbs
+
+driver_data_async_cbs
+---------------------
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/driver_data.h
+   :functions: driver_data_async_cbs
+
+driver_data_cbs
+---------------
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/driver_data.h
+   :functions: driver_data_cbs
+
+driver_data_reqs
+----------------
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/driver_data.h
+   :functions: driver_data_reqs
+
+driver_data_req_params
+----------------------
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/driver_data.h
+   :functions: driver_data_req_params
+
+Synchronous driver data requests
+================================
+
+Synchronous driver data requests will wait until the driver data is found or
+until an error is returned.
+
+driver_data_request_sync
+------------------------
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/base/firmware_class.c
+   :functions: driver_data_request_sync
+
+Asynchronous driver data requests
+=================================
+
+Asynchronous driver data requests allow driver code to not have to wait
+until the driver data or an error is returned. Function callbacks are
+required so that when the firmware or an error is found the driver is
+informed through the callbacks. Asynchronous driver data requests cannot
+be called from atomic contexts.
+
+driver_data_request_async
+-------------------------
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/base/firmware_class.c
+   :functions: driver_data_request_async
+
+Reference counting and releasing the driver data file
+=====================================================
+
+The device and module are bumped with reference counts during the driver data
+requests. This prevents removal of the device and module making the driver data
+request call until the driver data request callbacks have completed, either
+synchronously or asynchronously. When synchronous requests are made the
+firmware_class is refcounted. When asynchronous requests are made the caller's
+module is refcounted. Asynchronous requests do not refcount the firmware_class
+module.
+
+The driver data request API enables callers to provide a callback for both
+synchronous and asynchronous requests and since consumption can be expected
+in these callbacks it frees it for you by default after callback handlers
+are issued. If you wish to keep the driver data around after your callbacks
+you must specify this through the driver data request parameter data structure.
+
+Driver data private internal functionality
+==========================================
+
+This section documents functionality not exposed to users, but important in
+understanding how the driver data internals work.
+
+driver_data_mode
+----------------
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/base/firmware_class.c
+   :functions: driver_data_mode
+
+driver_data_priv_reqs
+---------------------
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/base/firmware_class.c
+   :functions: driver_data_priv_reqs
+
+driver_data_priv_params
+-----------------------
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/base/firmware_class.c
+   :functions: driver_data_priv_params
+
+driver_data_params
+------------------
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/base/firmware_class.c
+   :functions: driver_data_params
+
+Testing the driver_data API
+===========================
+
+The driver data API has a selftest driver: lib/test_driver_data.c. The
+test_driver_data enables you to build your tests in userspace by exposing knobs
+of the exported API in userspace and enabling userspace to configure and
+trigger a kernel call. This lets us build most possible test cases of
+the kernel APIs from userspace.
+
+The test_driver_data also enables multiple test triggers to be created
+enabling testing to be done in parallel, one test interface per test case.
+
+To test an async call one could do::
+
+        echo anything > /lib/firmware/test-driver_data.bin
+        echo -n 1 >  /sys/devices/virtual/misc/test_driver_data0/config_async
+        echo -n 1 >  /sys/devices/virtual/misc/test_driver_data0/trigger_config
+
+A series of tests have been written to test the driver data API thoroughly.
+A respective test case is expected to bet written as new features get added.
+For details of existing tests run::
+
+        tools/testing/selftests/firmware/driver_data.sh -l
+
+To see all available options::
+
+        tools/testing/selftests/firmware/driver_data.sh --help
+
+To run a test 0010 case 40 times::
+
+        tools/testing/selftests/firmware/driver_data.sh -c 0010 40
+
+Note that driver_data.sh uses its own temporary custom path for creating and
+looking for driver data files, it does this to not overwrite any production
+files you might have which may share the same names used by the test shell
+script driver_data.sh. If you are not using the driver_data.sh script your
+default path will be used.
+
+Tracking development enhancements and ideas
+===========================================
+
+To help track ongoing development for firmware_class and related items to
+firmware_class refer to the kernel newbies wiki page [0].
+
+[0] http://kernelnewbies.org/KernelProjects/firmware-class-enhancements
diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/index.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/index.rst
index 29da39ec4b8a..70a3dea0c5de 100644
--- a/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/index.rst
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ Linux Firmware API
    core
    request_firmware
    other_interfaces
+   driver_data
 
 .. only::  subproject and html
 
diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/introduction.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/introduction.rst
index 211cb44eb972..c1173bac0dbb 100644
--- a/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/introduction.rst
+++ b/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/introduction.rst
@@ -25,3 +25,19 @@ are already using asynchronous initialization mechanisms which will not
 stall or delay boot. Even if loading firmware does not take a lot of time
 processing firmware might, and this can still delay boot or initialization,
 as such mechanisms such as asynchronous probe can help supplement drivers.
+
+Two APIs
+========
+
+Two APIs are provided for firmware:
+
+* Old firmware API - :ref:`request_firmware`
+* Flexible driver data API - :ref:`driver_data`
+
+We have historically extended the firmware API by adding new routines or at
+times extending existing routines with more or less arguments. This doesn't
+scale well, when new arguments are added to existing routines it means we need
+to traverse the kernel with a slew of collateral evolutions to adjust old
+driver users.  The driver data API is an extensible API enabling extensions to
+be added by avoiding unnecessary collateral evolutions as features get added.
+New features and development should be added through the driver_data API.
diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/request_firmware.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/request_firmware.rst
index 1c2c4967cd43..b31938244b7f 100644
--- a/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/request_firmware.rst
+++ b/Documentation/driver-api/firmware/request_firmware.rst
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+.. _request_firmware:
+
 ====================
 request_firmware API
 ====================
-- 
2.11.0