Document the debugfs API

Copyright 2009 Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>

Debugfs exists as a simple way for kernel developers to make information

available to user space.  Unlike /proc, which is only meant for information

about a process, or sysfs, which has strict one-value-per-file rules,

debugfs has no rules at all.  Developers can put any information they want

there.  The debugfs filesystem is also intended to not serve as a stable

ABI to user space; in theory, there are no stability constraints placed on

files exported there.  The real world is not always so simple, though [1];

even debugfs interfaces are best designed with the idea that they will need

to be maintained forever.

Debugfs is typically mounted with a command like:

    mount -t debugfs none /sys/kernel/debug

(Or an equivalent /etc/fstab line). 

Note that the debugfs API is exported GPL-only to modules.

Code using debugfs should include <linux/debugfs.h>.  Then, the first order

of business will be to create at least one directory to hold a set of

debugfs files:

    struct dentry *debugfs_create_dir(const char *name, struct dentry *parent);

This call, if successful, will make a directory called name underneath the

indicated parent directory.  If parent is NULL, the directory will be

created in the debugfs root.  On success, the return value is a struct

dentry pointer which can be used to create files in the directory (and to

clean it up at the end).  A NULL return value indicates that something went

wrong.  If ERR_PTR(-ENODEV) is returned, that is an indication that the

kernel has been built without debugfs support and none of the functions

described below will work.

The most general way to create a file within a debugfs directory is with:

    struct dentry *debugfs_create_file(const char *name, mode_t mode,

				       struct dentry *parent, void *data,

				       const struct file_operations *fops);

Here, name is the name of the file to create, mode describes the access

permissions the file should have, parent indicates the directory which

should hold the file, data will be stored in the i_private field of the

resulting inode structure, and fops is a set of file operations which

implement the file's behavior.  At a minimum, the read() and/or write()

operations should be provided; others can be included as needed.  Again,

the return value will be a dentry pointer to the created file, NULL for

error, or ERR_PTR(-ENODEV) if debugfs support is missing.

In a number of cases, the creation of a set of file operations is not

actually necessary; the debugfs code provides a number of helper functions

for simple situations.  Files containing a single integer value can be

created with any of:

    struct dentry *debugfs_create_u8(const char *name, mode_t mode,

				     struct dentry *parent, u8 *value);

    struct dentry *debugfs_create_u16(const char *name, mode_t mode,

				      struct dentry *parent, u16 *value);

    struct dentry *debugfs_create_u32(const char *name, mode_t mode,

				      struct dentry *parent, u32 *value);

    struct dentry *debugfs_create_u64(const char *name, mode_t mode,

				      struct dentry *parent, u64 *value);

These files support both reading and writing the given value; if a specific

file should not be written to, simply set the mode bits accordingly.  The

values in these files are in decimal; if hexadecimal is more appropriate,

the following functions can be used instead:

    struct dentry *debugfs_create_x8(const char *name, mode_t mode,

				     struct dentry *parent, u8 *value);

    struct dentry *debugfs_create_x16(const char *name, mode_t mode,

				      struct dentry *parent, u16 *value);

    struct dentry *debugfs_create_x32(const char *name, mode_t mode,

				      struct dentry *parent, u32 *value);

Note that there is no debugfs_create_x64().

These functions are useful as long as the developer knows the size of the

value to be exported.  Some types can have different widths on different

architectures, though, complicating the situation somewhat.  There is a

function meant to help out in one special case:

    struct dentry *debugfs_create_size_t(const char *name, mode_t mode,

				         struct dentry *parent, 

					 size_t *value);

As might be expected, this function will create a debugfs file to represent

a variable of type size_t.

Boolean values can be placed in debugfs with:

    struct dentry *debugfs_create_bool(const char *name, mode_t mode,

				       struct dentry *parent, u32 *value);

A read on the resulting file will yield either Y (for non-zero values) or

N, followed by a newline.  If written to, it will accept either upper- or

lower-case values, or 1 or 0.  Any other input will be silently ignored.

Finally, a block of arbitrary binary data can be exported with:

    struct debugfs_blob_wrapper {

	void *data;

	unsigned long size;

    };

    struct dentry *debugfs_create_blob(const char *name, mode_t mode,

				       struct dentry *parent,

				       struct debugfs_blob_wrapper *blob);

A read of this file will return the data pointed to by the

debugfs_blob_wrapper structure.  Some drivers use "blobs" as a simple way

to return several lines of (static) formatted text output.  This function

can be used to export binary information, but there does not appear to be

any code which does so in the mainline.  Note that all files created with

debugfs_create_blob() are read-only.

There are a couple of other directory-oriented helper functions:

    struct dentry *debugfs_rename(struct dentry *old_dir, 

    				  struct dentry *old_dentry,

		                  struct dentry *new_dir, 

				  const char *new_name);

    struct dentry *debugfs_create_symlink(const char *name, 

                                          struct dentry *parent,

				      	  const char *target);

A call to debugfs_rename() will give a new name to an existing debugfs

file, possibly in a different directory.  The new_name must not exist prior

to the call; the return value is old_dentry with updated information.

Symbolic links can be created with debugfs_create_symlink().

There is one important thing that all debugfs users must take into account:

there is no automatic cleanup of any directories created in debugfs.  If a

module is unloaded without explicitly removing debugfs entries, the result

will be a lot of stale pointers and no end of highly antisocial behavior.

So all debugfs users - at least those which can be built as modules - must

be prepared to remove all files and directories they create there.  A file

can be removed with:

    void debugfs_remove(struct dentry *dentry);

The dentry value can be NULL, in which case nothing will be removed.

Once upon a time, debugfs users were required to remember the dentry

pointer for every debugfs file they created so that all files could be

cleaned up.  We live in more civilized times now, though, and debugfs users

can call:

    void debugfs_remove_recursive(struct dentry *dentry);

If this function is passed a pointer for the dentry corresponding to the

top-level directory, the entire hierarchy below that directory will be

removed.

Notes:

	[1] http://lwn.net/Articles/309298/