xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/devctl.4 (revision cbd30a72ca196976c1c700400ecd424baa1b9c16)
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25.\" $FreeBSD$
26.\"
27.Dd March 26, 2014
28.Dt DEVCTL 4
29.Os
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm devctl
32.Nd "device event reporting and device control interface"
33.Sh DESCRIPTION
34The
35.Nm
36device is used to report device events from the kernel.
37Future versions will allow for some device control as well.
38.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
39This design allows only one reader for
40.Pa /dev/devctl .
41This is not desirable
42in the long run, but will get a lot of hair out of this implementation.
43Maybe we should make this device a clonable device.
44.Pp
45Also note: we specifically do not attach a device to the
46.Vt device_t
47tree
48to avoid potential chicken and egg problems.
49One could argue that all of this belongs to the root node.
50One could also further argue that the
51.Xr sysctl 3
52interface that we have now might more properly be an
53.Xr ioctl 2
54interface.
55.Pp
56.Dv SIGIO
57support is included in the driver.
58However, the author is not sure that the
59.Dv SIGIO
60support is done correctly.
61It was copied from a driver that had
62.Dv SIGIO
63support that likely has not been
64tested since
65.Fx 3.4
66or
67.Fx 2.2.8 !
68.Pp
69The read channel for this device is used to report changes to
70userland in realtime.
71We return one record at a time.
72If you try to read this device a character at a time, you will lose
73the rest of the data.
74Listening programs are expected to cope.
75.Pp
76The sysctl
77.Va hw.bus.devctl_queue
78can be used to control queue length.
79It is set to 0 to disable
80.Nm
81when no
82.Xr devd 8
83is running.
84.Sh PROTOCOL
85The
86.Nm
87device
88uses an
89.Tn ASCII
90protocol.
91The driver returns one record at a time to its readers.
92Each record is terminated with a newline.
93The first character of the record is the event type.
94.Pp
95.Bl -column -compact "Type" "Description"
96.Em "Type	Description"
97!	A notify event, such as a link state change.
98+	Device node in tree attached.
99-	Device node in tree detached.
100?	Unknown device detected.
101.El
102.Ss Message Formats
103Except for the first character in the record, attach and detach
104messages have the same format.
105.Pp
106.D1 Ar T Ns Ar dev Li at Ar parent Li on Ar location
107.Pp
108.Bl -column -compact "location" "Description"
109.Em "Part	Description"
110.It Ar T Ta "+ or -"
111.It Ar dev Ta "The device name that was attached/detached."
112.It Ar parent Ta "The device name of the parent bus that attached the device."
113.It Ar location Ta "Bus specific location information."
114.El
115.Pp
116The nomatch messages can be used to load devices driver.
117If you load a device driver, then one of two things can happen.
118If the device driver attaches to something, you will get a device
119attached message.
120If it does not, then nothing will happen.
121.Pp
122The attach and detach messages arrive after the event.
123This means one cannot use the attach message to load an alternate
124driver.
125The attach message driver has already claimed this device.
126One cannot use the detach messages to flush data to the device.
127The device is already gone.
128.Sh SEE ALSO
129.Xr devd 8
130