summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation/media-framework.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/media-framework.txt')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/media-framework.txt67
1 files changed, 67 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/media-framework.txt b/Documentation/media-framework.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1844c3f1072
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/media-framework.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+Linux kernel media framework
+============================
+
+This document describes the Linux kernel media framework, its data structures,
+functions and their usage.
+
+
+Introduction
+------------
+
+The media controller API is documented in DocBook format in
+Documentation/DocBook/v4l/media-controller.xml. This document will focus on
+the kernel-side implementation of the media framework.
+
+
+Media device
+------------
+
+A media device is represented by a struct media_device instance, defined in
+include/media/media-device.h. Allocation of the structure is handled by the
+media device driver, usually by embedding the media_device instance in a
+larger driver-specific structure.
+
+Drivers register media device instances by calling
+
+ media_device_register(struct media_device *mdev);
+
+The caller is responsible for initializing the media_device structure before
+registration. The following fields must be set:
+
+ - dev must point to the parent device (usually a pci_dev, usb_interface or
+ platform_device instance).
+
+ - model must be filled with the device model name as a NUL-terminated UTF-8
+ string. The device/model revision must not be stored in this field.
+
+The following fields are optional:
+
+ - serial is a unique serial number stored as a NUL-terminated ASCII string.
+ The field is big enough to store a GUID in text form. If the hardware
+ doesn't provide a unique serial number this field must be left empty.
+
+ - bus_info represents the location of the device in the system as a
+ NUL-terminated ASCII string. For PCI/PCIe devices bus_info must be set to
+ "PCI:" (or "PCIe:") followed by the value of pci_name(). For USB devices,
+ the usb_make_path() function must be used. This field is used by
+ applications to distinguish between otherwise identical devices that don't
+ provide a serial number.
+
+ - hw_revision is the hardware device revision in a driver-specific format.
+ When possible the revision should be formatted with the KERNEL_VERSION
+ macro.
+
+ - driver_version is formatted with the KERNEL_VERSION macro. The version
+ minor must be incremented when new features are added to the userspace API
+ without breaking binary compatibility. The version major must be
+ incremented when binary compatibility is broken.
+
+Upon successful registration a character device named media[0-9]+ is created.
+The device major and minor numbers are dynamic. The model name is exported as
+a sysfs attribute.
+
+Drivers unregister media device instances by calling
+
+ media_device_unregister(struct media_device *mdev);
+
+Unregistering a media device that hasn't been registered is *NOT* safe.