Sign In Start Free Trial
Account

Add to playlist

Create a Playlist

Modal Close icon
You need to login to use this feature.
  • Linux Kernel Programming Part 2 - Char Device Drivers and Kernel Synchronization
  • Toc
  • feedback
Linux Kernel Programming Part 2 - Char Device Drivers and Kernel Synchronization

Linux Kernel Programming Part 2 - Char Device Drivers and Kernel Synchronization

By : Kaiwan N. Billimoria
4.4 (5)
close
Linux Kernel Programming Part 2 - Char Device Drivers and Kernel Synchronization

Linux Kernel Programming Part 2 - Char Device Drivers and Kernel Synchronization

4.4 (5)
By: Kaiwan N. Billimoria

Overview of this book

Linux Kernel Programming Part 2 - Char Device Drivers and Kernel Synchronization is an ideal companion guide to the Linux Kernel Programming book. This book provides a comprehensive introduction for those new to Linux device driver development and will have you up and running with writing misc class character device driver code (on the 5.4 LTS Linux kernel) in next to no time. You'll begin by learning how to write a simple and complete misc class character driver before interfacing your driver with user-mode processes via procfs, sysfs, debugfs, netlink sockets, and ioctl. You'll then find out how to work with hardware I/O memory. The book covers working with hardware interrupts in depth and helps you understand interrupt request (IRQ) allocation, threaded IRQ handlers, tasklets, and softirqs. You'll also explore the practical usage of useful kernel mechanisms, setting up delays, timers, kernel threads, and workqueues. Finally, you'll discover how to deal with the complexity of kernel synchronization with locking technologies (mutexes, spinlocks, and atomic/refcount operators), including more advanced topics such as cache effects, a primer on lock-free techniques, deadlock avoidance (with lockdep), and kernel lock debugging techniques. By the end of this Linux kernel book, you'll have learned the fundamentals of writing Linux character device driver code for real-world projects and products.
Table of Contents (11 chapters)
close
1
Section 1: Character Device Driver Basics
3
User-Kernel Communication Pathways
chevron up
5
Handling Hardware Interrupts
6
Working with Kernel Timers, Threads, and Workqueues
7
Section 2: Delving Deeper

Creating and using the second debugfs file

Let's move on to the second debugfs file. We will create it using an interesting shortcut helper debugfs API named debugfs_create_u32(). This API automatically sets up internal callbacks, allowing you to read/write upon the specified unsigned 32-bit global variable within the driver. The main advantage of this "helper" routine is that you don't need to explicitly provide a file_operations structure or even any callback routines. The debugfs layer "understands" and internally sets things up so that reading or writing the numeric (global) variable will always just work! Take a look at the following code in the init codepath, which creates and sets up our second debugfs file:

static int debug_level;    /* 'off' (0) by default ... */ 
[...]
/* 3. Create the debugfs file for the debug_level global; we use the
* helper routine to make it simple! There is a downside: we have no
* chance to perform a validity...
bookmark search playlist download font-size

Change the font size

margin-width

Change margin width

day-mode

Change background colour

Close icon Search
Country selected

Close icon Your notes and bookmarks

Delete Bookmark

Modal Close icon
Are you sure you want to delete it?
Cancel
Yes, Delete