--- /dev/null
+Linux USB Video Class (UVC) driver
+==================================
+
+This file documents some driver-specific aspects of the UVC driver, such as
+driver-specific ioctls and implementation notes.
+
+Questions and remarks can be sent to the Linux UVC development mailing list at
+linux-uvc-devel@lists.berlios.de.
+
+
+Extension Unit (XU) support
+---------------------------
+
+1. Introduction
+
+The UVC specification allows for vendor-specific extensions through extension
+units (XUs). The Linux UVC driver supports extension unit controls (XU controls)
+through two separate mechanisms:
+
+ - through mappings of XU controls to V4L2 controls
+ - through a driver-specific ioctl interface
+
+The first one allows generic V4L2 applications to use XU controls by mapping
+certain XU controls onto V4L2 controls, which then show up during ordinary
+control enumeration.
+
+The second mechanism requires uvcvideo-specific knowledge for the application to
+access XU controls but exposes the entire UVC XU concept to user space for
+maximum flexibility.
+
+Both mechanisms complement each other and are described in more detail below.
+
+
+2. Control mappings
+
+The UVC driver provides an API for user space applications to define so-called
+control mappings at runtime. These allow for individual XU controls or byte
+ranges thereof to be mapped to new V4L2 controls. Such controls appear and
+function exactly like normal V4L2 controls (i.e. the stock controls, such as
+brightness, contrast, etc.). However, reading or writing of such a V4L2 controls
+triggers a read or write of the associated XU control.
+
+The ioctl used to create these control mappings is called UVCIOC_CTRL_MAP.
+Previous driver versions (before 0.2.0) required another ioctl to be used
+beforehand (UVCIOC_CTRL_ADD) to pass XU control information to the UVC driver.
+This is no longer necessary as newer uvcvideo versions query the information
+directly from the device.
+
+For details on the UVCIOC_CTRL_MAP ioctl please refer to the section titled
+"IOCTL reference" below.
+
+
+3. Driver specific XU control interface
+
+For applications that need to access XU controls directly, e.g. for testing
+purposes, firmware upload, or accessing binary controls, a second mechanism to
+access XU controls is provided in the form of a driver-specific ioctl, namely
+UVCIOC_CTRL_QUERY.
+
+A call to this ioctl allows applications to send queries to the UVC driver that
+directly map to the low-level UVC control requests.
+
+In order to make such a request the UVC unit ID of the control's extension unit
+and the control selector need to be known. This information either needs to be
+hardcoded in the application or queried using other ways such as by parsing the
+UVC descriptor or, if available, using the media controller API to enumerate a
+device's entities.
+
+Unless the control size is already known it is necessary to first make a
+UVC_GET_LEN requests in order to be able to allocate a sufficiently large buffer
+and set the buffer size to the correct value. Similarly, to find out whether
+UVC_GET_CUR or UVC_SET_CUR are valid requests for a given control, a
+UVC_GET_INFO request should be made. The bits 0 (GET supported) and 1 (SET
+supported) of the resulting byte indicate which requests are valid.
+
+With the addition of the UVCIOC_CTRL_QUERY ioctl the UVCIOC_CTRL_GET and
+UVCIOC_CTRL_SET ioctls have become obsolete since their functionality is a
+subset of the former ioctl. For the time being they are still supported but
+application developers are encouraged to use UVCIOC_CTRL_QUERY instead.
+
+For details on the UVCIOC_CTRL_QUERY ioctl please refer to the section titled
+"IOCTL reference" below.
+
+
+4. Security
+
+The API doesn't currently provide a fine-grained access control facility. The
+UVCIOC_CTRL_ADD and UVCIOC_CTRL_MAP ioctls require super user permissions.
+
+Suggestions on how to improve this are welcome.
+
+
+5. Debugging
+
+In order to debug problems related to XU controls or controls in general it is
+recommended to enable the UVC_TRACE_CONTROL bit in the module parameter 'trace'.
+This causes extra output to be written into the system log.
+
+
+6. IOCTL reference
+
+---- UVCIOC_CTRL_MAP - Map a UVC control to a V4L2 control ----
+
+Argument: struct uvc_xu_control_mapping
+
+Description:
+ This ioctl creates a mapping between a UVC control or part of a UVC
+ control and a V4L2 control. Once mappings are defined, userspace
+ applications can access vendor-defined UVC control through the V4L2
+ control API.
+
+ To create a mapping, applications fill the uvc_xu_control_mapping
+ structure with information about an existing UVC control defined with
+ UVCIOC_CTRL_ADD and a new V4L2 control.
+
+ A UVC control can be mapped to several V4L2 controls. For instance,
+ a UVC pan/tilt control could be mapped to separate pan and tilt V4L2
+ controls. The UVC control is divided into non overlapping fields using
+ the 'size' and 'offset' fields and are then independently mapped to
+ V4L2 control.
+
+ For signed integer V4L2 controls the data_type field should be set to
+ UVC_CTRL_DATA_TYPE_SIGNED. Other values are currently ignored.
+
+Return value:
+ On success 0 is returned. On error -1 is returned and errno is set
+ appropriately.
+
+ ENOMEM
+ Not enough memory to perform the operation.
+ EPERM
+ Insufficient privileges (super user privileges are required).
+ EINVAL
+ No such UVC control.
+ EOVERFLOW
+ The requested offset and size would overflow the UVC control.
+ EEXIST
+ Mapping already exists.
+
+Data types:
+ * struct uvc_xu_control_mapping
+
+ __u32 id V4L2 control identifier
+ __u8 name[32] V4L2 control name
+ __u8 entity[16] UVC extension unit GUID
+ __u8 selector UVC control selector
+ __u8 size V4L2 control size (in bits)
+ __u8 offset V4L2 control offset (in bits)
+ enum v4l2_ctrl_type
+ v4l2_type V4L2 control type
+ enum uvc_control_data_type
+ data_type UVC control data type
+ struct uvc_menu_info
+ *menu_info Array of menu entries (for menu controls only)
+ __u32 menu_count Number of menu entries (for menu controls only)
+
+ * struct uvc_menu_info
+
+ __u32 value Menu entry value used by the device
+ __u8 name[32] Menu entry name
+
+
+ * enum uvc_control_data_type
+
+ UVC_CTRL_DATA_TYPE_RAW Raw control (byte array)
+ UVC_CTRL_DATA_TYPE_SIGNED Signed integer
+ UVC_CTRL_DATA_TYPE_UNSIGNED Unsigned integer
+ UVC_CTRL_DATA_TYPE_BOOLEAN Boolean
+ UVC_CTRL_DATA_TYPE_ENUM Enumeration
+ UVC_CTRL_DATA_TYPE_BITMASK Bitmask
+
+
+---- UVCIOC_CTRL_QUERY - Query a UVC XU control ----
+
+Argument: struct uvc_xu_control_query
+
+Description:
+ This ioctl queries a UVC XU control identified by its extension unit ID
+ and control selector.
+
+ There are a number of different queries available that closely
+ correspond to the low-level control requests described in the UVC
+ specification. These requests are:
+
+ UVC_GET_CUR
+ Obtain the current value of the control.
+ UVC_GET_MIN
+ Obtain the minimum value of the control.
+ UVC_GET_MAX
+ Obtain the maximum value of the control.
+ UVC_GET_DEF
+ Obtain the default value of the control.
+ UVC_GET_RES
+ Query the resolution of the control, i.e. the step size of the
+ allowed control values.
+ UVC_GET_LEN
+ Query the size of the control in bytes.
+ UVC_GET_INFO
+ Query the control information bitmap, which indicates whether
+ get/set requests are supported.
+ UVC_SET_CUR
+ Update the value of the control.
+
+ Applications must set the 'size' field to the correct length for the
+ control. Exceptions are the UVC_GET_LEN and UVC_GET_INFO queries, for
+ which the size must be set to 2 and 1, respectively. The 'data' field
+ must point to a valid writable buffer big enough to hold the indicated
+ number of data bytes.
+
+ Data is copied directly from the device without any driver-side
+ processing. Applications are responsible for data buffer formatting,
+ including little-endian/big-endian conversion. This is particularly
+ important for the result of the UVC_GET_LEN requests, which is always
+ returned as a little-endian 16-bit integer by the device.
+
+Return value:
+ On success 0 is returned. On error -1 is returned and errno is set
+ appropriately.
+
+ ENOENT
+ The device does not support the given control or the specified
+ extension unit could not be found.
+ ENOBUFS
+ The specified buffer size is incorrect (too big or too small).
+ EINVAL
+ An invalid request code was passed.
+ EBADRQC
+ The given request is not supported by the given control.
+ EFAULT
+ The data pointer references an inaccessible memory area.
+
+Data types:
+ * struct uvc_xu_control_query
+
+ __u8 unit Extension unit ID
+ __u8 selector Control selector
+ __u8 query Request code to send to the device
+ __u16 size Control data size (in bytes)
+ __u8 *data Control value
Code Review / kvmfornfv.git / blobdiff