1 Kernel CAPI Interface to Hardware Drivers
2 -----------------------------------------
6 From the CAPI 2.0 specification:
7 COMMON-ISDN-API (CAPI) is an application programming interface standard used
8 to access ISDN equipment connected to basic rate interfaces (BRI) and primary
11 Kernel CAPI operates as a dispatching layer between CAPI applications and CAPI
12 hardware drivers. Hardware drivers register ISDN devices (controllers, in CAPI
13 lingo) with Kernel CAPI to indicate their readiness to provide their service
14 to CAPI applications. CAPI applications also register with Kernel CAPI,
15 requesting association with a CAPI device. Kernel CAPI then dispatches the
16 application registration to an available device, forwarding it to the
17 corresponding hardware driver. Kernel CAPI then forwards CAPI messages in both
18 directions between the application and the hardware driver.
20 Format and semantics of CAPI messages are specified in the CAPI 2.0 standard.
21 This standard is freely available from https://www.capi.org.
24 2. Driver and Device Registration
26 CAPI drivers optionally register themselves with Kernel CAPI by calling the
27 Kernel CAPI function register_capi_driver() with a pointer to a struct
28 capi_driver. This structure must be filled with the name and revision of the
29 driver, and optionally a pointer to a callback function, add_card(). The
30 registration can be revoked by calling the function unregister_capi_driver()
31 with a pointer to the same struct capi_driver.
33 CAPI drivers must register each of the ISDN devices they control with Kernel
34 CAPI by calling the Kernel CAPI function attach_capi_ctr() with a pointer to a
35 struct capi_ctr before they can be used. This structure must be filled with
36 the names of the driver and controller, and a number of callback function
37 pointers which are subsequently used by Kernel CAPI for communicating with the
38 driver. The registration can be revoked by calling the function
39 detach_capi_ctr() with a pointer to the same struct capi_ctr.
41 Before the device can be actually used, the driver must fill in the device
42 information fields 'manu', 'version', 'profile' and 'serial' in the capi_ctr
43 structure of the device, and signal its readiness by calling capi_ctr_ready().
44 From then on, Kernel CAPI may call the registered callback functions for the
47 If the device becomes unusable for any reason (shutdown, disconnect ...), the
48 driver has to call capi_ctr_down(). This will prevent further calls to the
49 callback functions by Kernel CAPI.
52 3. Application Registration and Communication
54 Kernel CAPI forwards registration requests from applications (calls to CAPI
55 operation CAPI_REGISTER) to an appropriate hardware driver by calling its
56 register_appl() callback function. A unique Application ID (ApplID, u16) is
57 allocated by Kernel CAPI and passed to register_appl() along with the
58 parameter structure provided by the application. This is analogous to the
59 open() operation on regular files or character devices.
61 After a successful return from register_appl(), CAPI messages from the
62 application may be passed to the driver for the device via calls to the
63 send_message() callback function. Conversely, the driver may call Kernel
64 CAPI's capi_ctr_handle_message() function to pass a received CAPI message to
65 Kernel CAPI for forwarding to an application, specifying its ApplID.
67 Deregistration requests (CAPI operation CAPI_RELEASE) from applications are
68 forwarded as calls to the release_appl() callback function, passing the same
69 ApplID as with register_appl(). After return from release_appl(), no CAPI
70 messages for that application may be passed to or from the device anymore.
75 4.1 struct capi_driver
77 This structure describes a Kernel CAPI driver itself. It is used in the
78 register_capi_driver() and unregister_capi_driver() functions, and contains
79 the following non-private fields, all to be set by the driver before calling
80 register_capi_driver():
83 the name of the driver, as a zero-terminated ASCII string
85 the revision number of the driver, as a zero-terminated ASCII string
86 int (*add_card)(struct capi_driver *driver, capicardparams *data)
87 a callback function pointer (may be NULL)
92 This structure describes an ISDN device (controller) handled by a Kernel CAPI
93 driver. After registration via the attach_capi_ctr() function it is passed to
94 all controller specific lower layer interface and callback functions to
95 identify the controller to operate on.
97 It contains the following non-private fields:
99 - to be set by the driver before calling attach_capi_ctr():
102 pointer to the driver module owning the device
105 an opaque pointer to driver specific data, not touched by Kernel CAPI
108 the name of the controller, as a zero-terminated ASCII string
111 the name of the driver, as a zero-terminated ASCII string
113 int (*load_firmware)(struct capi_ctr *ctrlr, capiloaddata *ldata)
114 (optional) pointer to a callback function for sending firmware and
115 configuration data to the device
116 The function may return before the operation has completed.
117 Completion must be signalled by a call to capi_ctr_ready().
118 Return value: 0 on success, error code on error
119 Called in process context.
121 void (*reset_ctr)(struct capi_ctr *ctrlr)
122 (optional) pointer to a callback function for stopping the device,
123 releasing all registered applications
124 The function may return before the operation has completed.
125 Completion must be signalled by a call to capi_ctr_down().
126 Called in process context.
128 void (*register_appl)(struct capi_ctr *ctrlr, u16 applid,
129 capi_register_params *rparam)
130 void (*release_appl)(struct capi_ctr *ctrlr, u16 applid)
131 pointers to callback functions for registration and deregistration of
132 applications with the device
133 Calls to these functions are serialized by Kernel CAPI so that only
134 one call to any of them is active at any time.
136 u16 (*send_message)(struct capi_ctr *ctrlr, struct sk_buff *skb)
137 pointer to a callback function for sending a CAPI message to the
139 Return value: CAPI error code
140 If the method returns 0 (CAPI_NOERROR) the driver has taken ownership
141 of the skb and the caller may no longer access it. If it returns a
142 non-zero (error) value then ownership of the skb returns to the caller
143 who may reuse or free it.
144 The return value should only be used to signal problems with respect
145 to accepting or queueing the message. Errors occurring during the
146 actual processing of the message should be signaled with an
147 appropriate reply message.
148 May be called in process or interrupt context.
149 Calls to this function are not serialized by Kernel CAPI, ie. it must
150 be prepared to be re-entered.
152 char *(*procinfo)(struct capi_ctr *ctrlr)
153 pointer to a callback function returning the entry for the device in
154 the CAPI controller info table, /proc/capi/controller
156 const struct file_operations *proc_fops
157 pointers to callback functions for the device's proc file
158 system entry, /proc/capi/controllers/<n>; pointer to the device's
159 capi_ctr structure is available from struct proc_dir_entry::data
160 which is available from struct inode.
162 Note: Callback functions except send_message() are never called in interrupt
165 - to be filled in before calling capi_ctr_ready():
167 u8 manu[CAPI_MANUFACTURER_LEN]
168 value to return for CAPI_GET_MANUFACTURER
171 value to return for CAPI_GET_VERSION
174 value to return for CAPI_GET_PROFILE
176 u8 serial[CAPI_SERIAL_LEN]
177 value to return for CAPI_GET_SERIAL
182 CAPI messages are passed between Kernel CAPI and the driver via send_message()
183 and capi_ctr_handle_message(), stored in the data portion of a socket buffer
184 (skb). Each skb contains a single CAPI message coded according to the CAPI 2.0
187 For the data transfer messages, DATA_B3_REQ and DATA_B3_IND, the actual
188 payload data immediately follows the CAPI message itself within the same skb.
189 The Data and Data64 parameters are not used for processing. The Data64
190 parameter may be omitted by setting the length field of the CAPI message to 22
194 4.4 The _cmsg Structure
196 (declared in <linux/isdn/capiutil.h>)
198 The _cmsg structure stores the contents of a CAPI 2.0 message in an easily
199 accessible form. It contains members for all possible CAPI 2.0 parameters,
200 including subparameters of the Additional Info and B Protocol structured
201 parameters, with the following exceptions:
203 * second Calling party number (CONNECT_IND)
205 * Data64 (DATA_B3_REQ and DATA_B3_IND)
207 * Sending complete (subparameter of Additional Info, CONNECT_REQ and INFO_REQ)
209 * Global Configuration (subparameter of B Protocol, CONNECT_REQ, CONNECT_RESP
210 and SELECT_B_PROTOCOL_REQ)
212 Only those parameters appearing in the message type currently being processed
213 are actually used. Unused members should be set to zero.
215 Members are named after the CAPI 2.0 standard names of the parameters they
216 represent. See <linux/isdn/capiutil.h> for the exact spelling. Member data
219 u8 for CAPI parameters of type 'byte'
221 u16 for CAPI parameters of type 'word'
223 u32 for CAPI parameters of type 'dword'
225 _cstruct for CAPI parameters of type 'struct'
226 The member is a pointer to a buffer containing the parameter in
227 CAPI encoding (length + content). It may also be NULL, which will
228 be taken to represent an empty (zero length) parameter.
229 Subparameters are stored in encoded form within the content part.
231 _cmstruct alternative representation for CAPI parameters of type 'struct'
232 (used only for the 'Additional Info' and 'B Protocol' parameters)
233 The representation is a single byte containing one of the values:
234 CAPI_DEFAULT: The parameter is empty/absent.
235 CAPI_COMPOSE: The parameter is present.
236 Subparameter values are stored individually in the corresponding
237 _cmsg structure members.
239 Functions capi_cmsg2message() and capi_message2cmsg() are provided to convert
240 messages between their transport encoding described in the CAPI 2.0 standard
241 and their _cmsg structure representation. Note that capi_cmsg2message() does
242 not know or check the size of its destination buffer. The caller must make
243 sure it is big enough to accommodate the resulting CAPI message.
246 5. Lower Layer Interface Functions
248 (declared in <linux/isdn/capilli.h>)
250 void register_capi_driver(struct capi_driver *drvr)
251 void unregister_capi_driver(struct capi_driver *drvr)
252 register/unregister a driver with Kernel CAPI
254 int attach_capi_ctr(struct capi_ctr *ctrlr)
255 int detach_capi_ctr(struct capi_ctr *ctrlr)
256 register/unregister a device (controller) with Kernel CAPI
258 void capi_ctr_ready(struct capi_ctr *ctrlr)
259 void capi_ctr_down(struct capi_ctr *ctrlr)
260 signal controller ready/not ready
262 void capi_ctr_suspend_output(struct capi_ctr *ctrlr)
263 void capi_ctr_resume_output(struct capi_ctr *ctrlr)
264 signal suspend/resume
266 void capi_ctr_handle_message(struct capi_ctr * ctrlr, u16 applid,
268 pass a received CAPI message to Kernel CAPI
269 for forwarding to the specified application
272 6. Helper Functions and Macros
274 Library functions (from <linux/isdn/capilli.h>):
276 void capilib_new_ncci(struct list_head *head, u16 applid,
277 u32 ncci, u32 winsize)
278 void capilib_free_ncci(struct list_head *head, u16 applid, u32 ncci)
279 void capilib_release_appl(struct list_head *head, u16 applid)
280 void capilib_release(struct list_head *head)
281 void capilib_data_b3_conf(struct list_head *head, u16 applid,
283 u16 capilib_data_b3_req(struct list_head *head, u16 applid,
287 Macros to extract/set element values from/in a CAPI message header
288 (from <linux/isdn/capiutil.h>):
290 Get Macro Set Macro Element (Type)
292 CAPIMSG_LEN(m) CAPIMSG_SETLEN(m, len) Total Length (u16)
293 CAPIMSG_APPID(m) CAPIMSG_SETAPPID(m, applid) ApplID (u16)
294 CAPIMSG_COMMAND(m) CAPIMSG_SETCOMMAND(m,cmd) Command (u8)
295 CAPIMSG_SUBCOMMAND(m) CAPIMSG_SETSUBCOMMAND(m, cmd) Subcommand (u8)
296 CAPIMSG_CMD(m) - Command*256
298 CAPIMSG_MSGID(m) CAPIMSG_SETMSGID(m, msgid) Message Number (u16)
300 CAPIMSG_CONTROL(m) CAPIMSG_SETCONTROL(m, contr) Controller/PLCI/NCCI
302 CAPIMSG_DATALEN(m) CAPIMSG_SETDATALEN(m, len) Data Length (u16)
305 Library functions for working with _cmsg structures
306 (from <linux/isdn/capiutil.h>):
308 unsigned capi_cmsg2message(_cmsg *cmsg, u8 *msg)
309 Assembles a CAPI 2.0 message from the parameters in *cmsg, storing the
312 unsigned capi_message2cmsg(_cmsg *cmsg, u8 *msg)
313 Disassembles the CAPI 2.0 message in *msg, storing the parameters in
316 unsigned capi_cmsg_header(_cmsg *cmsg, u16 ApplId, u8 Command, u8 Subcommand,
317 u16 Messagenumber, u32 Controller)
318 Fills the header part and address field of the _cmsg structure *cmsg
319 with the given values, zeroing the remainder of the structure so only
320 parameters with non-default values need to be changed before sending
323 void capi_cmsg_answer(_cmsg *cmsg)
324 Sets the low bit of the Subcommand field in *cmsg, thereby converting
325 _REQ to _CONF and _IND to _RESP.
327 char *capi_cmd2str(u8 Command, u8 Subcommand)
328 Returns the CAPI 2.0 message name corresponding to the given command
329 and subcommand values, as a static ASCII string. The return value may
330 be NULL if the command/subcommand is not one of those defined in the
336 The module kernelcapi has a module parameter showcapimsgs controlling some
337 debugging output produced by the module. It can only be set when the module is
338 loaded, via a parameter "showcapimsgs=<n>" to the modprobe command, either on
339 the command line or in the configuration file.
341 If the lowest bit of showcapimsgs is set, kernelcapi logs controller and
342 application up and down events.
344 In addition, every registered CAPI controller has an associated traceflag
345 parameter controlling how CAPI messages sent from and to tha controller are
346 logged. The traceflag parameter is initialized with the value of the
347 showcapimsgs parameter when the controller is registered, but can later be
348 changed via the MANUFACTURER_REQ command KCAPI_CMD_TRACE.
350 If the value of traceflag is non-zero, CAPI messages are logged.
351 DATA_B3 messages are only logged if the value of traceflag is > 2.
353 If the lowest bit of traceflag is set, only the command/subcommand and message
354 length are logged. Otherwise, kernelcapi logs a readable representation of