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Based on kernel version 2.6.33. Page generated on 2010-02-24 15:36 EST.

1	GPIO Interfaces
2	
3	This provides an overview of GPIO access conventions on Linux.
4	
5	These calls use the gpio_* naming prefix.  No other calls should use that
6	prefix, or the related __gpio_* prefix.
7	
8	
9	What is a GPIO?
10	===============
11	A "General Purpose Input/Output" (GPIO) is a flexible software-controlled
12	digital signal.  They are provided from many kinds of chip, and are familiar
13	to Linux developers working with embedded and custom hardware.  Each GPIO
14	represents a bit connected to a particular pin, or "ball" on Ball Grid Array
15	(BGA) packages.  Board schematics show which external hardware connects to
16	which GPIOs.  Drivers can be written generically, so that board setup code
17	passes such pin configuration data to drivers.
18	
19	System-on-Chip (SOC) processors heavily rely on GPIOs.  In some cases, every
20	non-dedicated pin can be configured as a GPIO; and most chips have at least
21	several dozen of them.  Programmable logic devices (like FPGAs) can easily
22	provide GPIOs; multifunction chips like power managers, and audio codecs
23	often have a few such pins to help with pin scarcity on SOCs; and there are
24	also "GPIO Expander" chips that connect using the I2C or SPI serial busses.
25	Most PC southbridges have a few dozen GPIO-capable pins (with only the BIOS
26	firmware knowing how they're used).
27	
28	The exact capabilities of GPIOs vary between systems.  Common options:
29	
30	  - Output values are writable (high=1, low=0).  Some chips also have
31	    options about how that value is driven, so that for example only one
32	    value might be driven ... supporting "wire-OR" and similar schemes
33	    for the other value (notably, "open drain" signaling).
34	
35	  - Input values are likewise readable (1, 0).  Some chips support readback
36	    of pins configured as "output", which is very useful in such "wire-OR"
37	    cases (to support bidirectional signaling).  GPIO controllers may have
38	    input de-glitch/debounce logic, sometimes with software controls.
39	
40	  - Inputs can often be used as IRQ signals, often edge triggered but
41	    sometimes level triggered.  Such IRQs may be configurable as system
42	    wakeup events, to wake the system from a low power state.
43	
44	  - Usually a GPIO will be configurable as either input or output, as needed
45	    by different product boards; single direction ones exist too.
46	
47	  - Most GPIOs can be accessed while holding spinlocks, but those accessed
48	    through a serial bus normally can't.  Some systems support both types.
49	
50	On a given board each GPIO is used for one specific purpose like monitoring
51	MMC/SD card insertion/removal, detecting card writeprotect status, driving
52	a LED, configuring a transceiver, bitbanging a serial bus, poking a hardware
53	watchdog, sensing a switch, and so on.
54	
55	
56	GPIO conventions
57	================
58	Note that this is called a "convention" because you don't need to do it this
59	way, and it's no crime if you don't.  There **are** cases where portability
60	is not the main issue; GPIOs are often used for the kind of board-specific
61	glue logic that may even change between board revisions, and can't ever be
62	used on a board that's wired differently.  Only least-common-denominator
63	functionality can be very portable.  Other features are platform-specific,
64	and that can be critical for glue logic.
65	
66	Plus, this doesn't require any implementation framework, just an interface.
67	One platform might implement it as simple inline functions accessing chip
68	registers; another might implement it by delegating through abstractions
69	used for several very different kinds of GPIO controller.  (There is some
70	optional code supporting such an implementation strategy, described later
71	in this document, but drivers acting as clients to the GPIO interface must
72	not care how it's implemented.)
73	
74	That said, if the convention is supported on their platform, drivers should
75	use it when possible.  Platforms must declare GENERIC_GPIO support in their
76	Kconfig (boolean true), and provide an <asm/gpio.h> file.  Drivers that can't
77	work without standard GPIO calls should have Kconfig entries which depend
78	on GENERIC_GPIO.  The GPIO calls are available, either as "real code" or as
79	optimized-away stubs, when drivers use the include file:
80	
81		#include <linux/gpio.h>
82	
83	If you stick to this convention then it'll be easier for other developers to
84	see what your code is doing, and help maintain it.
85	
86	Note that these operations include I/O barriers on platforms which need to
87	use them; drivers don't need to add them explicitly.
88	
89	
90	Identifying GPIOs
91	-----------------
92	GPIOs are identified by unsigned integers in the range 0..MAX_INT.  That
93	reserves "negative" numbers for other purposes like marking signals as
94	"not available on this board", or indicating faults.  Code that doesn't
95	touch the underlying hardware treats these integers as opaque cookies.
96	
97	Platforms define how they use those integers, and usually #define symbols
98	for the GPIO lines so that board-specific setup code directly corresponds
99	to the relevant schematics.  In contrast, drivers should only use GPIO
100	numbers passed to them from that setup code, using platform_data to hold
101	board-specific pin configuration data (along with other board specific
102	data they need).  That avoids portability problems.
103	
104	So for example one platform uses numbers 32-159 for GPIOs; while another
105	uses numbers 0..63 with one set of GPIO controllers, 64-79 with another
106	type of GPIO controller, and on one particular board 80-95 with an FPGA.
107	The numbers need not be contiguous; either of those platforms could also
108	use numbers 2000-2063 to identify GPIOs in a bank of I2C GPIO expanders.
109	
110	If you want to initialize a structure with an invalid GPIO number, use
111	some negative number (perhaps "-EINVAL"); that will never be valid.  To
112	test if a number could reference a GPIO, you may use this predicate:
113	
114		int gpio_is_valid(int number);
115	
116	A number that's not valid will be rejected by calls which may request
117	or free GPIOs (see below).  Other numbers may also be rejected; for
118	example, a number might be valid but unused on a given board.
119	
120	Whether a platform supports multiple GPIO controllers is currently a
121	platform-specific implementation issue.
122	
123	
124	Using GPIOs
125	-----------
126	The first thing a system should do with a GPIO is allocate it, using
127	the gpio_request() call; see later.
128	
129	One of the next things to do with a GPIO, often in board setup code when
130	setting up a platform_device using the GPIO, is mark its direction:
131	
132		/* set as input or output, returning 0 or negative errno */
133		int gpio_direction_input(unsigned gpio);
134		int gpio_direction_output(unsigned gpio, int value);
135	
136	The return value is zero for success, else a negative errno.  It should
137	be checked, since the get/set calls don't have error returns and since
138	misconfiguration is possible.  You should normally issue these calls from
139	a task context.  However, for spinlock-safe GPIOs it's OK to use them
140	before tasking is enabled, as part of early board setup.
141	
142	For output GPIOs, the value provided becomes the initial output value.
143	This helps avoid signal glitching during system startup.
144	
145	For compatibility with legacy interfaces to GPIOs, setting the direction
146	of a GPIO implicitly requests that GPIO (see below) if it has not been
147	requested already.  That compatibility is being removed from the optional
148	gpiolib framework.
149	
150	Setting the direction can fail if the GPIO number is invalid, or when
151	that particular GPIO can't be used in that mode.  It's generally a bad
152	idea to rely on boot firmware to have set the direction correctly, since
153	it probably wasn't validated to do more than boot Linux.  (Similarly,
154	that board setup code probably needs to multiplex that pin as a GPIO,
155	and configure pullups/pulldowns appropriately.)
156	
157	
158	Spinlock-Safe GPIO access
159	-------------------------
160	Most GPIO controllers can be accessed with memory read/write instructions.
161	That doesn't need to sleep, and can safely be done from inside IRQ handlers.
162	(That includes hardirq contexts on RT kernels.)
163	
164	Use these calls to access such GPIOs:
165	
166		/* GPIO INPUT:  return zero or nonzero */
167		int gpio_get_value(unsigned gpio);
168	
169		/* GPIO OUTPUT */
170		void gpio_set_value(unsigned gpio, int value);
171	
172	The values are boolean, zero for low, nonzero for high.  When reading the
173	value of an output pin, the value returned should be what's seen on the
174	pin ... that won't always match the specified output value, because of
175	issues including open-drain signaling and output latencies.
176	
177	The get/set calls have no error returns because "invalid GPIO" should have
178	been reported earlier from gpio_direction_*().  However, note that not all
179	platforms can read the value of output pins; those that can't should always
180	return zero.  Also, using these calls for GPIOs that can't safely be accessed
181	without sleeping (see below) is an error.
182	
183	Platform-specific implementations are encouraged to optimize the two
184	calls to access the GPIO value in cases where the GPIO number (and for
185	output, value) are constant.  It's normal for them to need only a couple
186	of instructions in such cases (reading or writing a hardware register),
187	and not to need spinlocks.  Such optimized calls can make bitbanging
188	applications a lot more efficient (in both space and time) than spending
189	dozens of instructions on subroutine calls.
190	
191	
192	GPIO access that may sleep
193	--------------------------
194	Some GPIO controllers must be accessed using message based busses like I2C
195	or SPI.  Commands to read or write those GPIO values require waiting to
196	get to the head of a queue to transmit a command and get its response.
197	This requires sleeping, which can't be done from inside IRQ handlers.
198	
199	Platforms that support this type of GPIO distinguish them from other GPIOs
200	by returning nonzero from this call (which requires a valid GPIO number,
201	which should have been previously allocated with gpio_request):
202	
203		int gpio_cansleep(unsigned gpio);
204	
205	To access such GPIOs, a different set of accessors is defined:
206	
207		/* GPIO INPUT:  return zero or nonzero, might sleep */
208		int gpio_get_value_cansleep(unsigned gpio);
209	
210		/* GPIO OUTPUT, might sleep */
211		void gpio_set_value_cansleep(unsigned gpio, int value);
212	
213	Other than the fact that these calls might sleep, and will not be ignored
214	for GPIOs that can't be accessed from IRQ handlers, these calls act the
215	same as the spinlock-safe calls.
216	
217	
218	Claiming and Releasing GPIOs
219	----------------------------
220	To help catch system configuration errors, two calls are defined.
221	
222		/* request GPIO, returning 0 or negative errno.
223		 * non-null labels may be useful for diagnostics.
224		 */
225		int gpio_request(unsigned gpio, const char *label);
226	
227		/* release previously-claimed GPIO */
228		void gpio_free(unsigned gpio);
229	
230	Passing invalid GPIO numbers to gpio_request() will fail, as will requesting
231	GPIOs that have already been claimed with that call.  The return value of
232	gpio_request() must be checked.  You should normally issue these calls from
233	a task context.  However, for spinlock-safe GPIOs it's OK to request GPIOs
234	before tasking is enabled, as part of early board setup.
235	
236	These calls serve two basic purposes.  One is marking the signals which
237	are actually in use as GPIOs, for better diagnostics; systems may have
238	several hundred potential GPIOs, but often only a dozen are used on any
239	given board.  Another is to catch conflicts, identifying errors when
240	(a) two or more drivers wrongly think they have exclusive use of that
241	signal, or (b) something wrongly believes it's safe to remove drivers
242	needed to manage a signal that's in active use.  That is, requesting a
243	GPIO can serve as a kind of lock.
244	
245	Some platforms may also use knowledge about what GPIOs are active for
246	power management, such as by powering down unused chip sectors and, more
247	easily, gating off unused clocks.
248	
249	Note that requesting a GPIO does NOT cause it to be configured in any
250	way; it just marks that GPIO as in use.  Separate code must handle any
251	pin setup (e.g. controlling which pin the GPIO uses, pullup/pulldown).
252	
253	Also note that it's your responsibility to have stopped using a GPIO
254	before you free it.
255	
256	
257	GPIOs mapped to IRQs
258	--------------------
259	GPIO numbers are unsigned integers; so are IRQ numbers.  These make up
260	two logically distinct namespaces (GPIO 0 need not use IRQ 0).  You can
261	map between them using calls like:
262	
263		/* map GPIO numbers to IRQ numbers */
264		int gpio_to_irq(unsigned gpio);
265	
266		/* map IRQ numbers to GPIO numbers (avoid using this) */
267		int irq_to_gpio(unsigned irq);
268	
269	Those return either the corresponding number in the other namespace, or
270	else a negative errno code if the mapping can't be done.  (For example,
271	some GPIOs can't be used as IRQs.)  It is an unchecked error to use a GPIO
272	number that wasn't set up as an input using gpio_direction_input(), or
273	to use an IRQ number that didn't originally come from gpio_to_irq().
274	
275	These two mapping calls are expected to cost on the order of a single
276	addition or subtraction.  They're not allowed to sleep.
277	
278	Non-error values returned from gpio_to_irq() can be passed to request_irq()
279	or free_irq().  They will often be stored into IRQ resources for platform
280	devices, by the board-specific initialization code.  Note that IRQ trigger
281	options are part of the IRQ interface, e.g. IRQF_TRIGGER_FALLING, as are
282	system wakeup capabilities.
283	
284	Non-error values returned from irq_to_gpio() would most commonly be used
285	with gpio_get_value(), for example to initialize or update driver state
286	when the IRQ is edge-triggered.  Note that some platforms don't support
287	this reverse mapping, so you should avoid using it.
288	
289	
290	Emulating Open Drain Signals
291	----------------------------
292	Sometimes shared signals need to use "open drain" signaling, where only the
293	low signal level is actually driven.  (That term applies to CMOS transistors;
294	"open collector" is used for TTL.)  A pullup resistor causes the high signal
295	level.  This is sometimes called a "wire-AND"; or more practically, from the
296	negative logic (low=true) perspective this is a "wire-OR".
297	
298	One common example of an open drain signal is a shared active-low IRQ line.
299	Also, bidirectional data bus signals sometimes use open drain signals.
300	
301	Some GPIO controllers directly support open drain outputs; many don't.  When
302	you need open drain signaling but your hardware doesn't directly support it,
303	there's a common idiom you can use to emulate it with any GPIO pin that can
304	be used as either an input or an output:
305	
306	 LOW:	gpio_direction_output(gpio, 0) ... this drives the signal
307		and overrides the pullup.
308	
309	 HIGH:	gpio_direction_input(gpio) ... this turns off the output,
310		so the pullup (or some other device) controls the signal.
311	
312	If you are "driving" the signal high but gpio_get_value(gpio) reports a low
313	value (after the appropriate rise time passes), you know some other component
314	is driving the shared signal low.  That's not necessarily an error.  As one
315	common example, that's how I2C clocks are stretched:  a slave that needs a
316	slower clock delays the rising edge of SCK, and the I2C master adjusts its
317	signaling rate accordingly.
318	
319	
320	What do these conventions omit?
321	===============================
322	One of the biggest things these conventions omit is pin multiplexing, since
323	this is highly chip-specific and nonportable.  One platform might not need
324	explicit multiplexing; another might have just two options for use of any
325	given pin; another might have eight options per pin; another might be able
326	to route a given GPIO to any one of several pins.  (Yes, those examples all
327	come from systems that run Linux today.)
328	
329	Related to multiplexing is configuration and enabling of the pullups or
330	pulldowns integrated on some platforms.  Not all platforms support them,
331	or support them in the same way; and any given board might use external
332	pullups (or pulldowns) so that the on-chip ones should not be used.
333	(When a circuit needs 5 kOhm, on-chip 100 kOhm resistors won't do.)
334	Likewise drive strength (2 mA vs 20 mA) and voltage (1.8V vs 3.3V) is a
335	platform-specific issue, as are models like (not) having a one-to-one
336	correspondence between configurable pins and GPIOs.
337	
338	There are other system-specific mechanisms that are not specified here,
339	like the aforementioned options for input de-glitching and wire-OR output.
340	Hardware may support reading or writing GPIOs in gangs, but that's usually
341	configuration dependent:  for GPIOs sharing the same bank.  (GPIOs are
342	commonly grouped in banks of 16 or 32, with a given SOC having several such
343	banks.)  Some systems can trigger IRQs from output GPIOs, or read values
344	from pins not managed as GPIOs.  Code relying on such mechanisms will
345	necessarily be nonportable.
346	
347	Dynamic definition of GPIOs is not currently standard; for example, as
348	a side effect of configuring an add-on board with some GPIO expanders.
349	
350	
351	GPIO implementor's framework (OPTIONAL)
352	=======================================
353	As noted earlier, there is an optional implementation framework making it
354	easier for platforms to support different kinds of GPIO controller using
355	the same programming interface.  This framework is called "gpiolib".
356	
357	As a debugging aid, if debugfs is available a /sys/kernel/debug/gpio file
358	will be found there.  That will list all the controllers registered through
359	this framework, and the state of the GPIOs currently in use.
360	
361	
362	Controller Drivers: gpio_chip
363	-----------------------------
364	In this framework each GPIO controller is packaged as a "struct gpio_chip"
365	with information common to each controller of that type:
366	
367	 - methods to establish GPIO direction
368	 - methods used to access GPIO values
369	 - flag saying whether calls to its methods may sleep
370	 - optional debugfs dump method (showing extra state like pullup config)
371	 - label for diagnostics
372	
373	There is also per-instance data, which may come from device.platform_data:
374	the number of its first GPIO, and how many GPIOs it exposes.
375	
376	The code implementing a gpio_chip should support multiple instances of the
377	controller, possibly using the driver model.  That code will configure each
378	gpio_chip and issue gpiochip_add().  Removing a GPIO controller should be
379	rare; use gpiochip_remove() when it is unavoidable.
380	
381	Most often a gpio_chip is part of an instance-specific structure with state
382	not exposed by the GPIO interfaces, such as addressing, power management,
383	and more.  Chips such as codecs will have complex non-GPIO state.
384	
385	Any debugfs dump method should normally ignore signals which haven't been
386	requested as GPIOs.  They can use gpiochip_is_requested(), which returns
387	either NULL or the label associated with that GPIO when it was requested.
388	
389	
390	Platform Support
391	----------------
392	To support this framework, a platform's Kconfig will "select" either
393	ARCH_REQUIRE_GPIOLIB or ARCH_WANT_OPTIONAL_GPIOLIB
394	and arrange that its <asm/gpio.h> includes <asm-generic/gpio.h> and defines
395	three functions: gpio_get_value(), gpio_set_value(), and gpio_cansleep().
396	They may also want to provide a custom value for ARCH_NR_GPIOS.
397	
398	ARCH_REQUIRE_GPIOLIB means that the gpio-lib code will always get compiled
399	into the kernel on that architecture.
400	
401	ARCH_WANT_OPTIONAL_GPIOLIB means the gpio-lib code defaults to off and the user
402	can enable it and build it into the kernel optionally.
403	
404	If neither of these options are selected, the platform does not support
405	GPIOs through GPIO-lib and the code cannot be enabled by the user.
406	
407	Trivial implementations of those functions can directly use framework
408	code, which always dispatches through the gpio_chip:
409	
410	  #define gpio_get_value	__gpio_get_value
411	  #define gpio_set_value	__gpio_set_value
412	  #define gpio_cansleep		__gpio_cansleep
413	
414	Fancier implementations could instead define those as inline functions with
415	logic optimizing access to specific SOC-based GPIOs.  For example, if the
416	referenced GPIO is the constant "12", getting or setting its value could
417	cost as little as two or three instructions, never sleeping.  When such an
418	optimization is not possible those calls must delegate to the framework
419	code, costing at least a few dozen instructions.  For bitbanged I/O, such
420	instruction savings can be significant.
421	
422	For SOCs, platform-specific code defines and registers gpio_chip instances
423	for each bank of on-chip GPIOs.  Those GPIOs should be numbered/labeled to
424	match chip vendor documentation, and directly match board schematics.  They
425	may well start at zero and go up to a platform-specific limit.  Such GPIOs
426	are normally integrated into platform initialization to make them always be
427	available, from arch_initcall() or earlier; they can often serve as IRQs.
428	
429	
430	Board Support
431	-------------
432	For external GPIO controllers -- such as I2C or SPI expanders, ASICs, multi
433	function devices, FPGAs or CPLDs -- most often board-specific code handles
434	registering controller devices and ensures that their drivers know what GPIO
435	numbers to use with gpiochip_add().  Their numbers often start right after
436	platform-specific GPIOs.
437	
438	For example, board setup code could create structures identifying the range
439	of GPIOs that chip will expose, and passes them to each GPIO expander chip
440	using platform_data.  Then the chip driver's probe() routine could pass that
441	data to gpiochip_add().
442	
443	Initialization order can be important.  For example, when a device relies on
444	an I2C-based GPIO, its probe() routine should only be called after that GPIO
445	becomes available.  That may mean the device should not be registered until
446	calls for that GPIO can work.  One way to address such dependencies is for
447	such gpio_chip controllers to provide setup() and teardown() callbacks to
448	board specific code; those board specific callbacks would register devices
449	once all the necessary resources are available, and remove them later when
450	the GPIO controller device becomes unavailable.
451	
452	
453	Sysfs Interface for Userspace (OPTIONAL)
454	========================================
455	Platforms which use the "gpiolib" implementors framework may choose to
456	configure a sysfs user interface to GPIOs.  This is different from the
457	debugfs interface, since it provides control over GPIO direction and
458	value instead of just showing a gpio state summary.  Plus, it could be
459	present on production systems without debugging support.
460	
461	Given appropriate hardware documentation for the system, userspace could
462	know for example that GPIO #23 controls the write protect line used to
463	protect boot loader segments in flash memory.  System upgrade procedures
464	may need to temporarily remove that protection, first importing a GPIO,
465	then changing its output state, then updating the code before re-enabling
466	the write protection.  In normal use, GPIO #23 would never be touched,
467	and the kernel would have no need to know about it.
468	
469	Again depending on appropriate hardware documentation, on some systems
470	userspace GPIO can be used to determine system configuration data that
471	standard kernels won't know about.  And for some tasks, simple userspace
472	GPIO drivers could be all that the system really needs.
473	
474	Note that standard kernel drivers exist for common "LEDs and Buttons"
475	GPIO tasks:  "leds-gpio" and "gpio_keys", respectively.  Use those
476	instead of talking directly to the GPIOs; they integrate with kernel
477	frameworks better than your userspace code could.
478	
479	
480	Paths in Sysfs
481	--------------
482	There are three kinds of entry in /sys/class/gpio:
483	
484	   -	Control interfaces used to get userspace control over GPIOs;
485	
486	   -	GPIOs themselves; and
487	
488	   -	GPIO controllers ("gpio_chip" instances).
489	
490	That's in addition to standard files including the "device" symlink.
491	
492	The control interfaces are write-only:
493	
494	    /sys/class/gpio/
495	
496	    	"export" ... Userspace may ask the kernel to export control of
497			a GPIO to userspace by writing its number to this file.
498	
499			Example:  "echo 19 > export" will create a "gpio19" node
500			for GPIO #19, if that's not requested by kernel code.
501	
502	    	"unexport" ... Reverses the effect of exporting to userspace.
503	
504			Example:  "echo 19 > unexport" will remove a "gpio19"
505			node exported using the "export" file.
506	
507	GPIO signals have paths like /sys/class/gpio/gpio42/ (for GPIO #42)
508	and have the following read/write attributes:
509	
510	    /sys/class/gpio/gpioN/
511	
512		"direction" ... reads as either "in" or "out".  This value may
513			normally be written.  Writing as "out" defaults to
514			initializing the value as low.  To ensure glitch free
515			operation, values "low" and "high" may be written to
516			configure the GPIO as an output with that initial value.
517	
518			Note that this attribute *will not exist* if the kernel
519			doesn't support changing the direction of a GPIO, or
520			it was exported by kernel code that didn't explicitly
521			allow userspace to reconfigure this GPIO's direction.
522	
523		"value" ... reads as either 0 (low) or 1 (high).  If the GPIO
524			is configured as an output, this value may be written;
525			any nonzero value is treated as high.
526	
527		"edge" ... reads as either "none", "rising", "falling", or
528			"both". Write these strings to select the signal edge(s)
529			that will make poll(2) on the "value" file return.
530	
531			This file exists only if the pin can be configured as an
532			interrupt generating input pin.
533	
534		"active_low" ... reads as either 0 (false) or 1 (true).  Write
535			any nonzero value to invert the value attribute both
536			for reading and writing.  Existing and subsequent
537			poll(2) support configuration via the edge attribute
538			for "rising" and "falling" edges will follow this
539			setting.
540	
541	GPIO controllers have paths like /sys/class/gpio/gpiochip42/ (for the
542	controller implementing GPIOs starting at #42) and have the following
543	read-only attributes:
544	
545	    /sys/class/gpio/gpiochipN/
546	
547	    	"base" ... same as N, the first GPIO managed by this chip
548	
549	    	"label" ... provided for diagnostics (not always unique)
550	
551	    	"ngpio" ... how many GPIOs this manges (N to N + ngpio - 1)
552	
553	Board documentation should in most cases cover what GPIOs are used for
554	what purposes.  However, those numbers are not always stable; GPIOs on
555	a daughtercard might be different depending on the base board being used,
556	or other cards in the stack.  In such cases, you may need to use the
557	gpiochip nodes (possibly in conjunction with schematics) to determine
558	the correct GPIO number to use for a given signal.
559	
560	
561	Exporting from Kernel code
562	--------------------------
563	Kernel code can explicitly manage exports of GPIOs which have already been
564	requested using gpio_request():
565	
566		/* export the GPIO to userspace */
567		int gpio_export(unsigned gpio, bool direction_may_change);
568	
569		/* reverse gpio_export() */
570		void gpio_unexport();
571	
572		/* create a sysfs link to an exported GPIO node */
573		int gpio_export_link(struct device *dev, const char *name,
574			unsigned gpio)
575	
576		/* change the polarity of a GPIO node in sysfs */
577		int gpio_sysfs_set_active_low(unsigned gpio, int value);
578	
579	After a kernel driver requests a GPIO, it may only be made available in
580	the sysfs interface by gpio_export().  The driver can control whether the
581	signal direction may change.  This helps drivers prevent userspace code
582	from accidentally clobbering important system state.
583	
584	This explicit exporting can help with debugging (by making some kinds
585	of experiments easier), or can provide an always-there interface that's
586	suitable for documenting as part of a board support package.
587	
588	After the GPIO has been exported, gpio_export_link() allows creating
589	symlinks from elsewhere in sysfs to the GPIO sysfs node.  Drivers can
590	use this to provide the interface under their own device in sysfs with
591	a descriptive name.
592	
593	Drivers can use gpio_sysfs_set_active_low() to hide GPIO line polarity
594	differences between boards from user space.  This only affects the
595	sysfs interface.  Polarity change can be done both before and after
596	gpio_export(), and previously enabled poll(2) support for either
597	rising or falling edge will be reconfigured to follow this setting.
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