Driving Me Nuts - Device Classes

In the last Driving Me Nuts column [see LJ, June 2003], we introduced the kernel driver model framework with an explanation of how the generic bus and driver and device code works. The i2c core was used as an example to show how these different subsystems work. This month, we cover how the driver class code works, again using the i2c code to provide some working examples.

As discussed in the last column, device classes do not meet the general object-oriented definition of a class; rather they are something that provides a single type of function to the user. For example, kernel classes are used for tty devices, block devices, network devices, SCSI hosts and, in the near future, filesystems.

In the 2.5.69 kernel, the driver class support was rewritten radically. In previous kernel versions, class support was tied tightly to the driver and device support. A class would be bound to the device at the same time it was registered to a driver. This did work for a number of devices and classes, but some real-world devices did not fit very well into this model. Now, class support is tied only loosely to devices and drivers; in fact, a device or driver is not even needed to use the class code now, as the tty class code shows. The class code is now split into three different types of structures: classes, class devices and class interfaces.

Classes in the kernel are defined with a simple struct class structure. Yes, class is not a reserved word in C. (Everyone who wants to build a kernel with a C++ compiler, go flame the author of the new class code.) To create a class structure, only the name variable in the struct class structure needs to be defined for it to be a valid class. This can be done with the following code:

static struct class i2c_adapter_class = {
	.name = "i2c_adapter"
};

After the class structure is defined, it can be registered with the driver core by calling the class_register function:

if (class_register(&i2c_adapter_class) != 0)
    printk(KERN_ERR "i2c adapter class failed "
                    "to register properly\n");

After the class_register function returns without reporting an error, the /sys/class/i2c_adapter directory has been created successfully. Later, when the class needs to be unloaded, the class_unregister function should be called:

class_unregister(&i2c_adapter_class);

Classes are used to manage a set of different class devices. A class device is defined in the kernel with the struct class_device structure. This structure contains of a lot of variables the driver core uses, and it can be ignored by the driver writer. Only the following variables should be set:

To register a properly set up struct class_device structure, the class_device_register function should be called. An example of how to initialize a struct class_device and register it with the driver core can be seen in the following code from the drivers/i2c/i2c-core.c file:

/* Add this adapter to the i2c_adapter class */
memset(&adap->class_dev, 0x00,
       sizeof(struct class_device));
adap->class_dev.dev = &adap->dev;
adap->class_dev.class = &i2c_adapter_class;
strncpy(adap->class_dev.class_id,
        adap->dev.bus_id, BUS_ID_SIZE);
class_device_register(&adap->class_dev);