Message-Id: <20260121-color-format-v6-21-7b81a771cd0b@collabora.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2026 14:45:47 +0100
From: Nicolas Frattaroli <nicolas.frattaroli@...labora.com>
To: Harry Wentland <harry.wentland@....com>, Leo Li <sunpeng.li@....com>, 
 Rodrigo Siqueira <siqueira@...lia.com>, 
 Alex Deucher <alexander.deucher@....com>, 
 Christian König <christian.koenig@....com>, 
 David Airlie <airlied@...il.com>, Simona Vetter <simona@...ll.ch>, 
 Maarten Lankhorst <maarten.lankhorst@...ux.intel.com>, 
 Maxime Ripard <mripard@...nel.org>, Thomas Zimmermann <tzimmermann@...e.de>, 
 Andrzej Hajda <andrzej.hajda@...el.com>, 
 Neil Armstrong <neil.armstrong@...aro.org>, Robert Foss <rfoss@...nel.org>, 
 Laurent Pinchart <Laurent.pinchart@...asonboard.com>, 
 Jonas Karlman <jonas@...boo.se>, Jernej Skrabec <jernej.skrabec@...il.com>, 
 Sandy Huang <hjc@...k-chips.com>, 
 Heiko Stübner <heiko@...ech.de>, 
 Andy Yan <andy.yan@...k-chips.com>, 
 Jani Nikula <jani.nikula@...ux.intel.com>, 
 Rodrigo Vivi <rodrigo.vivi@...el.com>, 
 Joonas Lahtinen <joonas.lahtinen@...ux.intel.com>, 
 Tvrtko Ursulin <tursulin@...ulin.net>, Dmitry Baryshkov <lumag@...nel.org>, 
 Sascha Hauer <s.hauer@...gutronix.de>, Rob Herring <robh@...nel.org>, 
 Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>
Cc: kernel@...labora.com, amd-gfx@...ts.freedesktop.org, 
 dri-devel@...ts.freedesktop.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, 
 linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org, linux-rockchip@...ts.infradead.org, 
 intel-gfx@...ts.freedesktop.org, intel-xe@...ts.freedesktop.org, 
 linux-doc@...r.kernel.org, 
 Nicolas Frattaroli <nicolas.frattaroli@...labora.com>
Subject: [PATCH v6 21/21] drm/bridge: Document bridge chain format
 selection

The bridge chain format selection behaviour was, until now,
undocumented. With the addition of the "color format" DRM property, it's
not sufficiently complex enough that documentation is warranted,
especially for driver authors trying to do the right thing.

Add a high-level overview of how the process is supposed to work, and
mention what the display driver is supposed to do if it wants to make
use of this functionality.

Signed-off-by: Nicolas Frattaroli <nicolas.frattaroli@...labora.com>
---
 Documentation/gpu/drm-kms-helpers.rst |  6 ++++++
 drivers/gpu/drm/drm_bridge.c          | 39 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 45 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/gpu/drm-kms-helpers.rst b/Documentation/gpu/drm-kms-helpers.rst
index 781129f78b06..47c4f593cf9d 100644
--- a/Documentation/gpu/drm-kms-helpers.rst
+++ b/Documentation/gpu/drm-kms-helpers.rst
@@ -181,6 +181,12 @@ Bridge Operations
 .. kernel-doc:: drivers/gpu/drm/drm_bridge.c
    :doc: bridge operations
 
+Bridge Chain Format Selection
+-----------------------------
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/gpu/drm/drm_bridge.c
+   :doc: bridge chain format selection
+
 Bridge Connector Helper
 -----------------------
 
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_bridge.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_bridge.c
index b0dfa03dbb81..a155b8aa4a3d 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_bridge.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_bridge.c
@@ -198,6 +198,45 @@
  * driver.
  */
 
+/**
+ * DOC: bridge chain format selection
+ *
+ * A bridge chain, from display output processor to connector, may contain
+ * bridges capable of converting between bus formats on their inputs, and
+ * output formats on their outputs. For example, a bridge may be able to convert
+ * from RGB to YCbCr 4:4:4, and pass through YCbCr 4:2:0 as-is, but not convert
+ * from RGB to YCbCr 4:2:0. This means not all input formats map to all output
+ * formats.
+ *
+ * Further adding to this, a desired output color format, as specified with the
+ * "color format" DRM property, might not correspond to what the display driver
+ * should set at its output 1:1. The bridge chain it feeds into may only be able
+ * to reach the desired output format, if a conversion from a different starting
+ * format is performed.
+ *
+ * To deal with this complexity, the recursive bridge chain bus format selection
+ * logic starts with the last bridge in the chain, usually the connector, and
+ * then recursively walks the chain of bridges backwards to the first bridge,
+ * trying to find a path.
+ *
+ * For a display driver to work in such a scenario, it should read the first
+ * bridge's bridge state to figure out which bus format the chain resolved to.
+ * If the first bridge's input format resolved to %MEDIA_BUS_FMT_FIXED, then its
+ * output format should be used.
+ *
+ * Special handling is done for HDMI as it relates to format selection. Instead
+ * of directly using the "color format" DRM property for bridge chains that end
+ * in HDMI bridges, the bridge chain format selection logic will trust the logic
+ * that set the HDMI output format. For the common HDMI state helper
+ * functionality, this means that %DRM_COLOR_FORMAT_AUTO will allow fallbacks to
+ * YCBCr 4:2:0 if the bandwidth requirements would otherwise be too high but the
+ * mode and connector allow it.
+ *
+ * For bridge chains that do not end in an HDMI bridge, %DRM_COLOR_FORMAT_AUTO
+ * will be satisfied with the first output format on the last bridge for which
+ * it can find a path back to the first bridge.
+ */
+
 /* Protect bridge_list and bridge_lingering_list */
 static DEFINE_MUTEX(bridge_lock);
 static LIST_HEAD(bridge_list);

-- 
2.52.0

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