1 files changed, 106 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/driver-model/device.txt b/Documentation/driver-model/device.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1e70220d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/driver-model/device.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+
+The Basic Device Structure
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+See the kerneldoc for the struct device.
+
+
+Programming Interface
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+The bus driver that discovers the device uses this to register the
+device with the core:
+
+int device_register(struct device * dev);
+
+The bus should initialize the following fields:
+
+    - parent
+    - name
+    - bus_id
+    - bus
+
+A device is removed from the core when its reference count goes to
+0. The reference count can be adjusted using:
+
+struct device * get_device(struct device * dev);
+void put_device(struct device * dev);
+
+get_device() will return a pointer to the struct device passed to it
+if the reference is not already 0 (if it's in the process of being
+removed already).
+
+A driver can access the lock in the device structure using: 
+
+void lock_device(struct device * dev);
+void unlock_device(struct device * dev);
+
+
+Attributes
+~~~~~~~~~~
+struct device_attribute {
+	struct attribute	attr;
+	ssize_t (*show)(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr,
+			char *buf);
+	ssize_t (*store)(struct device *dev, struct device_attribute *attr,
+			 const char *buf, size_t count);
+};
+
+Attributes of devices can be exported by a device driver through sysfs.
+
+Please see Documentation/filesystems/sysfs.txt for more information
+on how sysfs works.
+
+As explained in Documentation/kobject.txt, device attributes must be be
+created before the KOBJ_ADD uevent is generated. The only way to realize
+that is by defining an attribute group.
+
+Attributes are declared using a macro called DEVICE_ATTR:
+
+#define DEVICE_ATTR(name,mode,show,store)
+
+Example:
+
+static DEVICE_ATTR(type, 0444, show_type, NULL);
+static DEVICE_ATTR(power, 0644, show_power, store_power);
+
+This declares two structures of type struct device_attribute with respective
+names 'dev_attr_type' and 'dev_attr_power'. These two attributes can be
+organized as follows into a group:
+
+static struct attribute *dev_attrs[] = {
+	&dev_attr_type.attr,
+	&dev_attr_power.attr,
+	NULL,
+};
+
+static struct attribute_group dev_attr_group = {
+	.attrs = dev_attrs,
+};
+
+static const struct attribute_group *dev_attr_groups[] = {
+	&dev_attr_group,
+	NULL,
+};
+
+This array of groups can then be associated with a device by setting the
+group pointer in struct device before device_register() is invoked:
+
+      dev->groups = dev_attr_groups;
+      device_register(dev);
+
+The device_register() function will use the 'groups' pointer to create the
+device attributes and the device_unregister() function will use this pointer
+to remove the device attributes.
+
+Word of warning:  While the kernel allows device_create_file() and
+device_remove_file() to be called on a device at any time, userspace has
+strict expectations on when attributes get created.  When a new device is
+registered in the kernel, a uevent is generated to notify userspace (like
+udev) that a new device is available.  If attributes are added after the
+device is registered, then userspace won't get notified and userspace will
+not know about the new attributes.
+
+This is important for device driver that need to publish additional
+attributes for a device at driver probe time.  If the device driver simply
+calls device_create_file() on the device structure passed to it, then
+userspace will never be notified of the new attributes.