1 The Linux Hardware Monitoring kernel API.
2 =========================================
9 This document describes the API that can be used by hardware monitoring
10 drivers that want to use the hardware monitoring framework.
12 This document does not describe what a hardware monitoring (hwmon) Driver or
13 Device is. It also does not describe the API which can be used by user space
14 to communicate with a hardware monitoring device. If you want to know this
15 then please read the following file: Documentation/hwmon/sysfs-interface.
17 For additional guidelines on how to write and improve hwmon drivers, please
18 also read Documentation/hwmon/submitting-patches.
22 Each hardware monitoring driver must #include <linux/hwmon.h> and, in most
23 cases, <linux/hwmon-sysfs.h>. linux/hwmon.h declares the following
24 register/unregister functions:
27 hwmon_device_register_with_groups(struct device *dev, const char *name,
29 const struct attribute_group **groups);
32 devm_hwmon_device_register_with_groups(struct device *dev,
33 const char *name, void *drvdata,
34 const struct attribute_group **groups);
37 hwmon_device_register_with_info(struct device *dev,
38 const char *name, void *drvdata,
39 const struct hwmon_chip_info *info,
40 const struct attribute_group **extra_groups);
43 devm_hwmon_device_register_with_info(struct device *dev,
46 const struct hwmon_chip_info *info,
47 const struct attribute_group **extra_groups);
49 void hwmon_device_unregister(struct device *dev);
50 void devm_hwmon_device_unregister(struct device *dev);
52 hwmon_device_register_with_groups registers a hardware monitoring device.
53 The first parameter of this function is a pointer to the parent device.
54 The name parameter is a pointer to the hwmon device name. The registration
55 function wil create a name sysfs attribute pointing to this name.
56 The drvdata parameter is the pointer to the local driver data.
57 hwmon_device_register_with_groups will attach this pointer to the newly
58 allocated hwmon device. The pointer can be retrieved by the driver using
59 dev_get_drvdata() on the hwmon device pointer. The groups parameter is
60 a pointer to a list of sysfs attribute groups. The list must be NULL terminated.
61 hwmon_device_register_with_groups creates the hwmon device with name attribute
62 as well as all sysfs attributes attached to the hwmon device.
63 This function returns a pointer to the newly created hardware monitoring device
64 or PTR_ERR for failure.
66 devm_hwmon_device_register_with_groups is similar to
67 hwmon_device_register_with_groups. However, it is device managed, meaning the
68 hwmon device does not have to be removed explicitly by the removal function.
70 hwmon_device_register_with_info is the most comprehensive and preferred means
71 to register a hardware monitoring device. It creates the standard sysfs
72 attributes in the hardware monitoring core, letting the driver focus on reading
73 from and writing to the chip instead of having to bother with sysfs attributes.
74 Its parameters are described in more detail below.
76 devm_hwmon_device_register_with_info is similar to
77 hwmon_device_register_with_info. However, it is device managed, meaning the
78 hwmon device does not have to be removed explicitly by the removal function.
80 hwmon_device_unregister deregisters a registered hardware monitoring device.
81 The parameter of this function is the pointer to the registered hardware
82 monitoring device structure. This function must be called from the driver
83 remove function if the hardware monitoring device was registered with
84 hwmon_device_register_with_groups or hwmon_device_register_with_info.
86 devm_hwmon_device_unregister does not normally have to be called. It is only
87 needed for error handling, and only needed if the driver probe fails after
88 the call to devm_hwmon_device_register_with_groups or
89 hwmon_device_register_with_info and if the automatic (device managed)
90 removal would be too late.
92 All supported hwmon device registration functions only accept valid device
93 names. Device names including invalid characters (whitespace, '*', or '-')
94 will be rejected. The 'name' parameter is mandatory.
96 Using devm_hwmon_device_register_with_info()
97 --------------------------------------------
99 hwmon_device_register_with_info() registers a hardware monitoring device.
100 The parameters to this function are
102 struct device *dev Pointer to parent device
103 const char *name Device name
104 void *drvdata Driver private data
105 const struct hwmon_chip_info *info
106 Pointer to chip description.
107 const struct attribute_group **extra_groups
108 Null-terminated list of additional non-standard
109 sysfs attribute groups.
111 This function returns a pointer to the created hardware monitoring device
112 on success and a negative error code for failure.
114 The hwmon_chip_info structure looks as follows.
116 struct hwmon_chip_info {
117 const struct hwmon_ops *ops;
118 const struct hwmon_channel_info **info;
121 It contains the following fields:
123 * ops: Pointer to device operations.
124 * info: NULL-terminated list of device channel descriptors.
126 The list of hwmon operations is defined as:
129 umode_t (*is_visible)(const void *, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
131 int (*read)(struct device *, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
132 u32 attr, int, long *);
133 int (*write)(struct device *, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
134 u32 attr, int, long);
137 It defines the following operations.
139 * is_visible: Pointer to a function to return the file mode for each supported
140 attribute. This function is mandatory.
142 * read: Pointer to a function for reading a value from the chip. This function
143 is optional, but must be provided if any readable attributes exist.
145 * write: Pointer to a function for writing a value to the chip. This function is
146 optional, but must be provided if any writeable attributes exist.
148 Each sensor channel is described with struct hwmon_channel_info, which is
151 struct hwmon_channel_info {
152 enum hwmon_sensor_types type;
156 It contains following fields:
158 * type: The hardware monitoring sensor type.
159 Supported sensor types are
160 * hwmon_chip A virtual sensor type, used to describe attributes
161 * which are not bound to a specific input or output
162 * hwmon_temp Temperature sensor
163 * hwmon_in Voltage sensor
164 * hwmon_curr Current sensor
165 * hwmon_power Power sensor
166 * hwmon_energy Energy sensor
167 * hwmon_humidity Humidity sensor
168 * hwmon_fan Fan speed sensor
169 * hwmon_pwm PWM control
171 * config: Pointer to a 0-terminated list of configuration values for each
172 sensor of the given type. Each value is a combination of bit values
173 describing the attributes supposed by a single sensor.
175 As an example, here is the complete description file for a LM75 compatible
176 sensor chip. The chip has a single temperature sensor. The driver wants to
177 register with the thermal subsystem (HWMON_C_REGISTER_TZ), and it supports
178 the update_interval attribute (HWMON_C_UPDATE_INTERVAL). The chip supports
179 reading the temperature (HWMON_T_INPUT), it has a maximum temperature
180 register (HWMON_T_MAX) as well as a maximum temperature hysteresis register
183 static const u32 lm75_chip_config[] = {
184 HWMON_C_REGISTER_TZ | HWMON_C_UPDATE_INTERVAL,
188 static const struct hwmon_channel_info lm75_chip = {
190 .config = lm75_chip_config,
193 static const u32 lm75_temp_config[] = {
194 HWMON_T_INPUT | HWMON_T_MAX | HWMON_T_MAX_HYST,
198 static const struct hwmon_channel_info lm75_temp = {
200 .config = lm75_temp_config,
203 static const struct hwmon_channel_info *lm75_info[] = {
209 static const struct hwmon_ops lm75_hwmon_ops = {
210 .is_visible = lm75_is_visible,
215 static const struct hwmon_chip_info lm75_chip_info = {
216 .ops = &lm75_hwmon_ops,
220 A complete list of bit values indicating individual attribute support
221 is defined in include/linux/hwmon.h. Definition prefixes are as follows.
223 HWMON_C_xxxx Chip attributes, for use with hwmon_chip.
224 HWMON_T_xxxx Temperature attributes, for use with hwmon_temp.
225 HWMON_I_xxxx Voltage attributes, for use with hwmon_in.
226 HWMON_C_xxxx Current attributes, for use with hwmon_curr.
227 Notice the prefix overlap with chip attributes.
228 HWMON_P_xxxx Power attributes, for use with hwmon_power.
229 HWMON_E_xxxx Energy attributes, for use with hwmon_energy.
230 HWMON_H_xxxx Humidity attributes, for use with hwmon_humidity.
231 HWMON_F_xxxx Fan speed attributes, for use with hwmon_fan.
232 HWMON_PWM_xxxx PWM control attributes, for use with hwmon_pwm.
234 Driver callback functions
235 -------------------------
237 Each driver provides is_visible, read, and write functions. Parameters
238 and return values for those functions are as follows.
240 umode_t is_visible_func(const void *data, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
241 u32 attr, int channel)
244 data: Pointer to device private data structure.
245 type: The sensor type.
246 attr: Attribute identifier associated with a specific attribute.
247 For example, the attribute value for HWMON_T_INPUT would be
248 hwmon_temp_input. For complete mappings of bit fields to
249 attribute values please see include/linux/hwmon.h.
250 channel:The sensor channel number.
253 The file mode for this attribute. Typically, this will be 0 (the
254 attribute will not be created), S_IRUGO, or 'S_IRUGO | S_IWUSR'.
256 int read_func(struct device *dev, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
257 u32 attr, int channel, long *val)
260 dev: Pointer to the hardware monitoring device.
261 type: The sensor type.
262 attr: Attribute identifier associated with a specific attribute.
263 For example, the attribute value for HWMON_T_INPUT would be
264 hwmon_temp_input. For complete mappings please see
265 include/linux/hwmon.h.
266 channel:The sensor channel number.
267 val: Pointer to attribute value.
270 0 on success, a negative error number otherwise.
272 int write_func(struct device *dev, enum hwmon_sensor_types type,
273 u32 attr, int channel, long val)
276 dev: Pointer to the hardware monitoring device.
277 type: The sensor type.
278 attr: Attribute identifier associated with a specific attribute.
279 For example, the attribute value for HWMON_T_INPUT would be
280 hwmon_temp_input. For complete mappings please see
281 include/linux/hwmon.h.
282 channel:The sensor channel number.
283 val: The value to write to the chip.
286 0 on success, a negative error number otherwise.
289 Driver-provided sysfs attributes
290 --------------------------------
292 If the hardware monitoring device is registered with
293 hwmon_device_register_with_info or devm_hwmon_device_register_with_info,
294 it is most likely not necessary to provide sysfs attributes. Only additional
295 non-standard sysfs attributes need to be provided when one of those registration
298 The header file linux/hwmon-sysfs.h provides a number of useful macros to
299 declare and use hardware monitoring sysfs attributes.
301 In many cases, you can use the exsting define DEVICE_ATTR to declare such
302 attributes. This is feasible if an attribute has no additional context. However,
303 in many cases there will be additional information such as a sensor index which
304 will need to be passed to the sysfs attribute handling function.
306 SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR and SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR_2 can be used to define attributes
307 which need such additional context information. SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR requires
308 one additional argument, SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR_2 requires two.
310 SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR defines a struct sensor_device_attribute variable.
311 This structure has the following fields.
313 struct sensor_device_attribute {
314 struct device_attribute dev_attr;
318 You can use to_sensor_dev_attr to get the pointer to this structure from the
319 attribute read or write function. Its parameter is the device to which the
320 attribute is attached.
322 SENSOR_DEVICE_ATTR_2 defines a struct sensor_device_attribute_2 variable,
323 which is defined as follows.
325 struct sensor_device_attribute_2 {
326 struct device_attribute dev_attr;
331 Use to_sensor_dev_attr_2 to get the pointer to this structure. Its parameter
332 is the device to which the attribute is attached.