[PATCH v6 5/9] rust: io: add IoRef and IoWrite types

From: Alexandre Courbot

Date: Mon Feb 16 2026 - 03:05:41 EST


I/O accesses are defined by the following properties:

- For reads, a start address, a width, and a type to interpret the read
value as,
- For writes, the same as above, and a value to write.

Introduce the `IoRef` trait, which allows implementing types to specify
the address a type expects to be accessed at, as well as the width of
the access, and the user-facing type used to perform the access.

This allows read operations to be made generic with the `read` method
over an `IoRef` argument.

Write operations need a value to write on top of the `IoRef`: fulfill
that purpose with the `IoWrite`, which is the combination of an `IoRef`
and a value of the type it expects. This allows write operations to be
made generic with the `write` method over a single `IoWrite` argument.

The main purpose of these new entities is to allow register types to be
written using these generic `read` and `write` methods of `Io`.

Co-developed-by: Gary Guo <gary@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Gary Guo <gary@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Alexandre Courbot <acourbot@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
rust/kernel/io.rs | 243 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 243 insertions(+)

diff --git a/rust/kernel/io.rs b/rust/kernel/io.rs
index b150743ffa4f..6da8593f7858 100644
--- a/rust/kernel/io.rs
+++ b/rust/kernel/io.rs
@@ -173,6 +173,160 @@ pub trait IoCapable<T> {
unsafe fn io_write(&self, value: T, address: usize);
}

+/// Reference to an I/O location, describing the offset, width, and return type of an access.
+///
+/// This trait is the key abstraction allowing [`Io::read`], [`Io::write`], and [`Io::update`]
+/// to work uniformly with both raw `usize` offsets (for primitive types like `u32`) and typed
+/// references.
+///
+/// An `IoRef<T>` carries three pieces of information:
+///
+/// - The offset to access (returned by [`IoRef::offset`]),
+/// - The width of the access (determined by [`IoRef::IoType`]),
+/// - The type `T` in which data is returned or provided.
+///
+/// `T` and `IoType` may differ: for instance, a typed register has `T` = the register type with
+/// its bitfields, and `IoType` = its backing primitive (e.g. `u32`), with `From`/`Into`
+/// conversions between them.
+///
+/// An `IoRef` can be passed directly to [`Io::read`] or [`Io::try_read`] to obtain a value, or
+/// turned into an [`IoWrite`] via [`IoRef::set`] to be passed to [`Io::write`] or
+/// [`Io::try_write`].
+pub trait IoRef<T>: Copy
+where
+ T: From<Self::IoType> + Into<Self::IoType>,
+{
+ /// Size (`u8`, `u16`, etc) of the I/O performed on this reference.
+ type IoType;
+
+ /// Returns the offset of this reference.
+ fn offset(self) -> usize;
+
+ /// Turns this reference into an [`IoWrite`] with the initial `value`.
+ fn set(self, value: T) -> IoWrite<T, Self> {
+ IoWrite {
+ value,
+ reference: self,
+ }
+ }
+
+ /// Turns this reference into an [`IoWrite`] with the initial value `0`.
+ fn zeroed(self) -> IoWrite<T, Self>
+ where
+ T: Zeroable,
+ {
+ self.set(pin_init::zeroed())
+ }
+
+ /// Turns this reference into an [`IoWrite`] with the initial [`Default`] value of `T`.
+ fn default(self) -> IoWrite<T, Self>
+ where
+ T: Default,
+ {
+ self.set(Default::default())
+ }
+
+ /// Turns this reference into an [`IoWrite`] initialized from `0` and transformed by `f`.
+ ///
+ /// This is a shortcut for `self.zeroed().update(f)`.
+ fn init<F>(self, f: F) -> IoWrite<T, Self>
+ where
+ T: Zeroable,
+ F: FnOnce(T) -> T,
+ {
+ self.zeroed().update(f)
+ }
+
+ /// Turns this reference into an [`IoWrite`] initialized from `0` and transformed by `f`.
+ ///
+ /// `f` is expected to return a [`Result<T>`].
+ ///
+ /// This is a shortcut for `self.zeroed().try_update(f)`.
+ fn try_init<F, E>(self, f: F) -> Result<IoWrite<T, Self>, E>
+ where
+ T: Zeroable,
+ F: FnOnce(T) -> Result<T, E>,
+ {
+ self.zeroed().try_update(f)
+ }
+
+ /// Turns this reference into an [`IoWrite`] initialized from [`Default`] and transformed
+ /// by `f`.
+ ///
+ /// This is a shortcut for `self.default().update(f)`.
+ fn init_default<F>(self, f: F) -> IoWrite<T, Self>
+ where
+ T: Default,
+ F: FnOnce(T) -> T,
+ {
+ self.default().update(f)
+ }
+
+ /// Turns this reference into an [`IoWrite`] initialized from [`Default`] and transformed by
+ /// `f`.
+ ///
+ /// `f` is expected to return a [`Result<T>`].
+ ///
+ /// This is a shortcut for `self.default().try_update(f)`.
+ fn try_init_default<F, E>(self, f: F) -> Result<IoWrite<T, Self>, E>
+ where
+ T: Default,
+ F: FnOnce(T) -> Result<T, E>,
+ {
+ self.default().try_update(f)
+ }
+}
+
+/// A pending I/O write operation, bundling a value with the [`IoRef`] it should be written to.
+///
+/// Created by [`IoRef::set`], [`IoRef::zeroed`], [`IoRef::default`], [`IoRef::init`], or
+/// [`IoRef::init_default`], and consumed by [`Io::write`] or [`Io::try_write`] to perform the
+/// actual write.
+///
+/// The value can be modified before writing using [`IoWrite::update`] or [`IoWrite::try_update`],
+/// enabling a builder pattern:
+///
+/// ```ignore
+/// io.write(REGISTER.init(|v| v.with_field(x)));
+/// ```
+pub struct IoWrite<T, R>
+where
+ R: IoRef<T>,
+ T: From<R::IoType> + Into<R::IoType>,
+{
+ value: T,
+ reference: R,
+}
+
+impl<R, T> IoWrite<T, R>
+where
+ R: IoRef<T>,
+ T: From<R::IoType> + Into<R::IoType>,
+{
+ /// Transforms the value to be written by applying `f`, returning the modified [`IoWrite`].
+ #[inline(always)]
+ pub fn update<F>(mut self, f: F) -> Self
+ where
+ F: FnOnce(T) -> T,
+ {
+ self.value = f(self.value);
+
+ self
+ }
+
+ /// Transforms the value to be written by applying `f`, returning the modified [`IoWrite`] on
+ /// success.
+ #[inline(always)]
+ pub fn try_update<F, E>(mut self, f: F) -> Result<Self, E>
+ where
+ F: FnOnce(T) -> Result<T, E>,
+ {
+ self.value = f(self.value)?;
+
+ Ok(self)
+ }
+}
+
/// Types implementing this trait (e.g. MMIO BARs or PCI config regions)
/// can perform I/O operations on regions of memory.
///
@@ -406,6 +560,95 @@ fn write64(&self, value: u64, offset: usize)
// SAFETY: `address` has been validated by `io_addr_assert`.
unsafe { self.io_write(value, address) }
}
+
+ /// Generic fallible read with runtime bounds check.
+ #[inline(always)]
+ fn try_read<T, R>(&self, r: R) -> Result<T>
+ where
+ T: From<R::IoType> + Into<R::IoType>,
+ R: IoRef<T>,
+ Self: IoCapable<R::IoType>,
+ {
+ let address = self.io_addr::<R::IoType>(r.offset())?;
+
+ // SAFETY: `address` has been validated by `io_addr`.
+ Ok(T::from(unsafe { self.io_read(address) }))
+ }
+
+ /// Generic fallible write with runtime bounds check.
+ #[inline(always)]
+ fn try_write<T, R>(&self, access: IoWrite<T, R>) -> Result
+ where
+ T: From<R::IoType> + Into<R::IoType>,
+ R: IoRef<T>,
+ Self: IoCapable<R::IoType>,
+ {
+ let address = self.io_addr::<R::IoType>(access.reference.offset())?;
+
+ // SAFETY: `address` has been validated by `io_addr`.
+ unsafe { self.io_write(access.value.into(), address) };
+ Ok(())
+ }
+
+ /// Generic fallible update with runtime bounds check.
+ ///
+ /// Caution: this does not perform any synchronization. Race conditions can occur in case of
+ /// concurrent access.
+ #[inline(always)]
+ fn try_update<T, R, F>(&self, r: R, f: F) -> Result
+ where
+ T: From<R::IoType> + Into<R::IoType>,
+ R: IoRef<T>,
+ Self: IoCapable<R::IoType>,
+ F: FnOnce(T) -> T,
+ {
+ let v = self.try_read(r)?;
+ self.try_write(r.set(f(v)))
+ }
+
+ /// Generic infallible read with compile-time bounds check.
+ #[inline(always)]
+ fn read<T, R>(&self, r: R) -> T
+ where
+ T: From<R::IoType> + Into<R::IoType>,
+ R: IoRef<T>,
+ Self: IoKnownSize + IoCapable<R::IoType>,
+ {
+ let address = self.io_addr_assert::<R::IoType>(r.offset());
+
+ // SAFETY: `address` has been validated by `io_addr_assert`.
+ T::from(unsafe { self.io_read(address) })
+ }
+
+ /// Generic infallible write with compile-time bounds check.
+ #[inline(always)]
+ fn write<T, R>(&self, access: IoWrite<T, R>)
+ where
+ R: IoRef<T>,
+ T: From<R::IoType> + Into<R::IoType>,
+ Self: IoKnownSize + IoCapable<R::IoType>,
+ {
+ let address = self.io_addr_assert::<R::IoType>(access.reference.offset());
+
+ // SAFETY: `address` has been validated by `io_addr_assert`.
+ unsafe { self.io_write(access.value.into(), address) }
+ }
+
+ /// Generic infallible update with compile-time bounds check.
+ ///
+ /// Caution: this does not perform any synchronization. Race conditions can occur in case of
+ /// concurrent access.
+ #[inline(always)]
+ fn update<T, R, F>(&self, r: R, f: F)
+ where
+ T: From<R::IoType> + Into<R::IoType>,
+ R: IoRef<T>,
+ Self: IoKnownSize + IoCapable<R::IoType> + Sized,
+ F: FnOnce(T) -> T,
+ {
+ let v = self.read(r);
+ self.write(r.set(f(v)));
+ }
}

/// Trait for types with a known size at compile time.

--
2.53.0