Date:   Mon, 10 Apr 2017 19:53:30 -0300
From:   Helen Koike <helen.koike@...labora.com>
To:     linux-media@...r.kernel.org
Cc:     Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@...asonboard.com>,
        Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@....samsung.com>,
        Sakari Ailus <sakari.ailus@....fi>,
        Hans Verkuil <hverkuil@...all.nl>,
        Jeremy Gebben <jgebben@...eaurora.org>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: [media] vimc: API proposal, configuring the topology from user space


Hi,

Continuing the discussion about the API of the vimc driver, I made some 
changes
based on the previous comments, please see below and let me know your 
opinion about it.

Helen

/***********************
Configfs considerations:
************************/
Informal definitions:
	subsystem: the root driver folder in user space (/configfs/vimc)
	item: aka a folder in user space
	attributes: aka files in the folder
	group: aka a folder that can contain subfolders (parent and child relation)
	default group: aka a subfolder that is created automatically when the 
"parent" folder is created
		it is not considered a child in terms of rmdir

* Performing rmdir in a group will fail if it contain children that are 
not default groups, i.e, if the
folder contain subfolders that are default group, then it can be removed 
with rmdir, if the
subfolders were created with mkdir, then rmdir in the parent will fail.

* Configfs has the notion of committable item but it is not implemented 
yet. A committable item is an item
that can be in one of two parent folders called: live and pending. The 
idea is to create and modify the item
in the pending directory and then to move the item through a rename to 
the live directory where
it can't be modified. This seems to be a nice feature for vimc, but as 
it is not available yet the
proposal below won't be based on this.

* Groups can be dynamically created/destroyed by the driver whenever it 
wants. Afaik attributes can only
be created when the group or item is created and symlinks can only be 
create from user space, i.e, the
driver don't know how to create/destroy attributes or symlinks in anytime.

/***********************
The API:
************************/

In short, a topology like this one: http://goo.gl/Y7eUfu
Would look like this filesystem tree: https://goo.gl/mEOmOf

v3 core changes:
- I removed the use of symlinks as I wans't able to see how to do it nicely.
- I use the names of the folders created by user space to retrieve 
information at mkdir time
- hotplug file in each entity
- hotplug file in each device
- reset file in each device

* The /configfs/vimc subsystem
empty when the driver is loaded

* Create a device
Userspace can create a new vimc device with:

	$ mkdir /configfs/vimc/any_name
	Example:
	$ mkdir /configfs/vimc/vimc0
	$ ls -l /configfs/vimc/vimc0
	hotplug
	reset
	entities/
	links/

entities/ and links/ folder are default groups, thus they don't prevent 
rmdir vimc0/, but
rmdir will fail if it has any child inside entities/ or links/.
hotplug is used to plug and unplug the device, it can read "plugged" or 
"unplugged" and user can
write "plug" or "unplug" to change its state.
Changing hotplug state will never fail as the configfs tree will always 
be in a valid state.
reset is used to easily destroy all the topology without the need to 
walk through all the children
to perform rmdir, writing 1 to reset file will set hotplug to 
"unplugged" and erase all folders
under entities/ and links/.

* Create an entity
Userspace can create a new entity with:

	$ mkdir /configfs/vimc/vimc0/entities/<role>:<name>
	Example:
	$ mkdir /configfs/vimc/vimc0/entities/sensor:SensorA
	$ ls -l /configfs/vimc/vimc0/entities/sensor:SensorA
	hotplug
	pad:source:0/

The name of the folder needs to be in the format <role>:<name> or it 
will be rejected, this allows the
creation of the right pads according to its role at mkdir time, 
eliminating the previously proposed role
and name files.
hotplug is used to plug and unplug the hw block, it can read "plugged" 
or "unplugged" and user can
write "plug" or "unplug" to change its state. As we don't support this 
yet in the media core, changing it
will only be allowed if /configfs/vimc/vimc0/hotplug is "unplugged".
hotplug file is "unplugged" by default.
Pads will be created as default groups with the name in the format 
pad:<direction>:<pad_number> and it
will be an empty folder.
If the hw block supports different number of pads, we could expose two 
files:
sinks
sources
where the user space can write the desired number of sink and source 
pads and the driver will dynamically
create the folders pad:<direction>:<pad_number>

* Create a link
User space can create a link between two entities with:

	$ mkdir 
/configfs/vimc/vimc0/links/<entity_src_name>:<pad_n>-><entity_sink_name>:<pad_n>
	Example:
	$ mkdir /configfs/vimc/vimc0/links/DebayerA:1->Scaler:0
	$ ls -l /configfs/vimc/vimc0/links/DebayerA:1->Scaler:0
	flags

mkdir will be rejected if folder is not on the format 
<entity_src_name>:<pad_n>-><entity_sink_name>:<pad_n>.
mkdir will be rejected if either <entity_src_name> or <entity_sink_name> 
are not found in /configfs/vimc/vimc0/entities/
The link will only be created if both entities are in "plugged" state.
When an entity is removed from /configfs/vimc/vimc0/entities/ with 
rmdir, its corresponding link folders at
/configfs/vimc/vimc0/links will be automatically removed.
If one of the entities changes from "plugged" to "unplugged", the link 
is only removed from the media
representation, the link folder won't be removed.
flags can be one of "", "enabled", "immutable", "dynamic", 
"dynamic,enabled".
flags cannot be changed if the link was already created in the media 
controller, to alter it unplug the
device through /configfs/vimc/vimc0/hotplug or unplug one of the source 
or sink entities connected to the
link through its hotplug file.
flags are of type "" by default.

Powered by blists - more mailing lists