xref: /linux/Documentation/usb/functionfs.rst (revision 55d0969c451159cff86949b38c39171cab962069)
1====================
2How FunctionFS works
3====================
4
5Overview
6========
7
8From kernel point of view it is just a composite function with some
9unique behaviour.  It may be added to an USB configuration only after
10the user space driver has registered by writing descriptors and
11strings (the user space program has to provide the same information
12that kernel level composite functions provide when they are added to
13the configuration).
14
15This in particular means that the composite initialisation functions
16may not be in init section (ie. may not use the __init tag).
17
18From user space point of view it is a file system which when
19mounted provides an "ep0" file.  User space driver need to
20write descriptors and strings to that file.  It does not need
21to worry about endpoints, interfaces or strings numbers but
22simply provide descriptors such as if the function was the
23only one (endpoints and strings numbers starting from one and
24interface numbers starting from zero).  The FunctionFS changes
25them as needed also handling situation when numbers differ in
26different configurations.
27
28For more information about FunctionFS descriptors see :doc:`functionfs-desc`
29
30When descriptors and strings are written "ep#" files appear
31(one for each declared endpoint) which handle communication on
32a single endpoint.  Again, FunctionFS takes care of the real
33numbers and changing of the configuration (which means that
34"ep1" file may be really mapped to (say) endpoint 3 (and when
35configuration changes to (say) endpoint 2)).  "ep0" is used
36for receiving events and handling setup requests.
37
38When all files are closed the function disables itself.
39
40What I also want to mention is that the FunctionFS is designed in such
41a way that it is possible to mount it several times so in the end
42a gadget could use several FunctionFS functions. The idea is that
43each FunctionFS instance is identified by the device name used
44when mounting.
45
46One can imagine a gadget that has an Ethernet, MTP and HID interfaces
47where the last two are implemented via FunctionFS.  On user space
48level it would look like this::
49
50  $ insmod g_ffs.ko idVendor=<ID> iSerialNumber=<string> functions=mtp,hid
51  $ mkdir /dev/ffs-mtp && mount -t functionfs mtp /dev/ffs-mtp
52  $ ( cd /dev/ffs-mtp && mtp-daemon ) &
53  $ mkdir /dev/ffs-hid && mount -t functionfs hid /dev/ffs-hid
54  $ ( cd /dev/ffs-hid && hid-daemon ) &
55
56On kernel level the gadget checks ffs_data->dev_name to identify
57whether its FunctionFS is designed for MTP ("mtp") or HID ("hid").
58
59If no "functions" module parameters is supplied, the driver accepts
60just one function with any name.
61
62When "functions" module parameter is supplied, only functions
63with listed names are accepted. In particular, if the "functions"
64parameter's value is just a one-element list, then the behaviour
65is similar to when there is no "functions" at all; however,
66only a function with the specified name is accepted.
67
68The gadget is registered only after all the declared function
69filesystems have been mounted and USB descriptors of all functions
70have been written to their ep0's.
71
72Conversely, the gadget is unregistered after the first USB function
73closes its endpoints.
74
75DMABUF interface
76================
77
78FunctionFS additionally supports a DMABUF based interface, where the
79userspace can attach DMABUF objects (externally created) to an endpoint,
80and subsequently use them for data transfers.
81
82A userspace application can then use this interface to share DMABUF
83objects between several interfaces, allowing it to transfer data in a
84zero-copy fashion, for instance between IIO and the USB stack.
85
86As part of this interface, three new IOCTLs have been added. These three
87IOCTLs have to be performed on a data endpoint (ie. not ep0). They are:
88
89  ``FUNCTIONFS_DMABUF_ATTACH(int)``
90    Attach the DMABUF object, identified by its file descriptor, to the
91    data endpoint. Returns zero on success, and a negative errno value
92    on error.
93
94  ``FUNCTIONFS_DMABUF_DETACH(int)``
95    Detach the given DMABUF object, identified by its file descriptor,
96    from the data endpoint. Returns zero on success, and a negative
97    errno value on error. Note that closing the endpoint's file
98    descriptor will automatically detach all attached DMABUFs.
99
100  ``FUNCTIONFS_DMABUF_TRANSFER(struct usb_ffs_dmabuf_transfer_req *)``
101    Enqueue the previously attached DMABUF to the transfer queue.
102    The argument is a structure that packs the DMABUF's file descriptor,
103    the size in bytes to transfer (which should generally correspond to
104    the size of the DMABUF), and a 'flags' field which is unused
105    for now. Returns zero on success, and a negative errno value on
106    error.
107