[PATCH v7 0/2] spi: add new_device/delete_device sysfs interface
From: Vishwaroop A
Date: Mon Jul 27 2026 - 23:06:11 EST
Add I2C-style new_device/delete_device sysfs attributes to SPI host
controllers, allowing userspace to instantiate and remove SPI devices
at runtime without device-tree changes.
Patch 1 adds the new_device/delete_device attributes and the supporting
infrastructure (userspace_clients list, dead flag).
Patch 2 adds the ABI and user-facing documentation.
Sent as a fresh top-level thread per Mark's feedback on v6.
Changes since v6:
- new_device_store(): reject empty device names (leading-space input
like " 0"). Previously produced an empty modalias that could
never bind a driver. (Mark)
- Move sysfs userspace group registration out of the automatic
ctlr->dev.groups path and into an explicit sysfs_create_group()
call at the end of spi_register_controller(), after the queue,
boardinfo matching and DT/ACPI enumeration have all completed.
Torn down with sysfs_remove_group() at the start of
spi_unregister_controller() so kernfs_drain naturally serialises
with in-flight sysfs stores. (Mark)
- Drop userspace_clients_lock; reuse the existing add_lock for the
userspace_clients list and the dead flag. new_device_store() now
calls __spi_add_device() directly under add_lock (add_lock is
already the lock the controller uses to serialise device adds),
which lets the dead check, __spi_add_device() and list insertion
happen atomically. delete_device_store() also takes add_lock.
new_device is annotated DEVICE_ATTR_IGNORE_LOCKDEP alongside
delete_device to silence the false-positive class-level splat
(kernfs_drain has per-node scope, so no real ABBA). (Jon)
- kernel-doc / inline comment updates for the new struct fields
(@userspace_clients now protected by @add_lock, new
@userspace_registered, updated @dead).
Changes since v5:
- Rebased on next-20260727 (v7.2-rc5); applies cleanly.
- kernel-doc entries for the new struct spi_controller /
struct spi_device fields.
- new_device_store(): reject chip_select > U8_MAX to avoid silent
truncation in spi_set_chipselect(); parse with %u instead of %hu.
- new_device_store(): reject mode bits outside SPI_MODE_USER_MASK
(mirrors spidev's SPI_IOC_WR_MODE32 filter).
- new_device_store(): drop the unused 'n' / '%n' from sscanf().
Changes since v4:
- Removed spi_unregister_device() call from new_device_store()'s
ctlr->dead teardown path; it raced with
device_for_each_child(__unregister) in spi_unregister_controller().
Changes since v3:
- Replaced holding add_lock across __spi_add_device() + list
insertion by a ctlr->dead flag checked under add_lock, so
add_lock is only held while doing list bookkeeping and can
be released before device_del().
Changes since v2:
- Gated sysfs attributes and locking on CONFIG_SPI_DYNAMIC.
Changes since v1:
- Added locking to prevent races between new_device_store() and
concurrent spi_unregister_controller().
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-spi/cover.1784000000.git.va@xxxxxxxxxx/ # v6
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-spi/20260517201602.498135-1-va@xxxxxxxxxx/ # v5
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-tegra/909f0c92-d110-4253-903e-5c81e21e12c9@xxxxxxxxxx/
Vishwaroop A (2):
spi: add new_device/delete_device sysfs interface
docs: spi: add documentation for userspace device instantiation
.../ABI/testing/sysfs-class-spi-master | 34 +++
Documentation/spi/index.rst | 1 +
Documentation/spi/instantiating-devices.rst | 88 +++++++
drivers/spi/spi.c | 270 +++++++++++++++++-
include/linux/spi/spi.h | 23 ++
5 files changed, 410 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-spi-master
create mode 100644 Documentation/spi/instantiating-devices.rst
base-commit: 0d33d21e47d9dc66f91e44da3fc9220c74d93df7
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2.17.1