[v4,2/4] switchtec: Add user interface documentation

Commit Message

Logan Gunthorpe Feb. 24, 2017, 7:27 p.m. UTC

This adds standard documentation for the sysfs switchtec attributes and
a RST formatted text file which documents the char device interface.
Jonathan Corbet has indicated he will move this to a new user-space
developer documentation book once it's created.

Signed-off-by: Logan Gunthorpe <[e-mail]>
Signed-off-by: Stephen Bates <[e-mail]>
Tested-by: Krishna Dhulipala <[e-mail]>
Reviewed-by: Wei Zhang <[e-mail]>
Reviewed-by: Jens Axboe <[e-mail]>
---
 Documentation/switchtec.txt | 53 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 MAINTAINERS                 |  1 +
 2 files changed, 54 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Documentation/switchtec.txt

Patch

diff --git a/Documentation/switchtec.txt b/Documentation/switchtec.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4bced4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/switchtec.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ 
+========================
+Linux Switchtec Support
+========================
+
+Microsemi's "Switchtec" line of PCI switch devices is already
+supported by the kernel with standard PCI switch drivers. However, the
+Switchtec device advertises a special management endpoint which
+enables some additional functionality. This includes:
+
+* Packet and Byte Counters
+* Firmware Upgrades
+* Event and Error logs
+* Querying port link status
+* Custom user firmware commands
+
+The switchtec kernel module implements this functionality.
+
+
+Interface
+=========
+
+The primary means of communicating with the Switchtec management firmware is
+through the Memory-mapped Remote Procedure Call (MRPC) interface.
+Commands are submitted to the interface with a 4-byte command
+identifier and up to 1KB of command specific data. The firmware will
+respond with a 4 bytes return code and up to 1KB of command specific
+data. The interface only processes a single command at a time.
+
+
+Userspace Interface
+===================
+
+The MRPC interface will be exposed to userspace through a simple char
+device: /dev/switchtec#, one for each management endpoint in the system.
+
+The char device has the following semantics:
+
+* A write must consist of at least 4 bytes and no more than 1028 bytes.
+  The first four bytes will be interpreted as the command to run and
+  the remainder will be used as the input data. A write will send the
+  command to the firmware to begin processing.
+
+* Each write must be followed by exactly one read. Any double write will
+  produce an error and any read that doesn't follow a write will
+  produce an error.
+
+* A read will block until the firmware completes the command and return
+  the four bytes of status plus up to 1024 bytes of output data. (The
+  length will be specified by the size parameter of the read call --
+  reading less than 4 bytes will produce an error.
+
+* The poll call will also be supported for userspace applications that
+  need to do other things while waiting for the command to complete.
diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
index a57686f..aa702b0 100644
--- a/MAINTAINERS
+++ b/MAINTAINERS
@@ -9512,6 +9512,7 @@  M:	Stephen Bates <[e-mail]>
 M:	Logan Gunthorpe <[e-mail]>
 L:	[e-mail]
 S:	Maintained
+F:	Documentation/switchtec.txt
 F:	drivers/pci/switch/switchtec*
 
 PCI DRIVER FOR NVIDIA TEGRA