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Based on kernel version 3.9. Page generated on 2013-05-02 23:16 EST.

1	Introduction
2	============
3	
4	The V4L2 control API seems simple enough, but quickly becomes very hard to
5	implement correctly in drivers. But much of the code needed to handle controls
6	is actually not driver specific and can be moved to the V4L core framework.
7	
8	After all, the only part that a driver developer is interested in is:
9	
10	1) How do I add a control?
11	2) How do I set the control's value? (i.e. s_ctrl)
12	
13	And occasionally:
14	
15	3) How do I get the control's value? (i.e. g_volatile_ctrl)
16	4) How do I validate the user's proposed control value? (i.e. try_ctrl)
17	
18	All the rest is something that can be done centrally.
19	
20	The control framework was created in order to implement all the rules of the
21	V4L2 specification with respect to controls in a central place. And to make
22	life as easy as possible for the driver developer.
23	
24	Note that the control framework relies on the presence of a struct v4l2_device
25	for V4L2 drivers and struct v4l2_subdev for sub-device drivers.
26	
27	
28	Objects in the framework
29	========================
30	
31	There are two main objects:
32	
33	The v4l2_ctrl object describes the control properties and keeps track of the
34	control's value (both the current value and the proposed new value).
35	
36	v4l2_ctrl_handler is the object that keeps track of controls. It maintains a
37	list of v4l2_ctrl objects that it owns and another list of references to
38	controls, possibly to controls owned by other handlers.
39	
40	
41	Basic usage for V4L2 and sub-device drivers
42	===========================================
43	
44	1) Prepare the driver:
45	
46	1.1) Add the handler to your driver's top-level struct:
47	
48		struct foo_dev {
49			...
50			struct v4l2_ctrl_handler ctrl_handler;
51			...
52		};
53	
54		struct foo_dev *foo;
55	
56	1.2) Initialize the handler:
57	
58		v4l2_ctrl_handler_init(&foo->ctrl_handler, nr_of_controls);
59	
60	  The second argument is a hint telling the function how many controls this
61	  handler is expected to handle. It will allocate a hashtable based on this
62	  information. It is a hint only.
63	
64	1.3) Hook the control handler into the driver:
65	
66	1.3.1) For V4L2 drivers do this:
67	
68		struct foo_dev {
69			...
70			struct v4l2_device v4l2_dev;
71			...
72			struct v4l2_ctrl_handler ctrl_handler;
73			...
74		};
75	
76		foo->v4l2_dev.ctrl_handler = &foo->ctrl_handler;
77	
78	  Where foo->v4l2_dev is of type struct v4l2_device.
79	
80	  Finally, remove all control functions from your v4l2_ioctl_ops:
81	  vidioc_queryctrl, vidioc_querymenu, vidioc_g_ctrl, vidioc_s_ctrl,
82	  vidioc_g_ext_ctrls, vidioc_try_ext_ctrls and vidioc_s_ext_ctrls.
83	  Those are now no longer needed.
84	
85	1.3.2) For sub-device drivers do this:
86	
87		struct foo_dev {
88			...
89			struct v4l2_subdev sd;
90			...
91			struct v4l2_ctrl_handler ctrl_handler;
92			...
93		};
94	
95		foo->sd.ctrl_handler = &foo->ctrl_handler;
96	
97	  Where foo->sd is of type struct v4l2_subdev.
98	
99	  And set all core control ops in your struct v4l2_subdev_core_ops to these
100	  helpers:
101	
102		.queryctrl = v4l2_subdev_queryctrl,
103		.querymenu = v4l2_subdev_querymenu,
104		.g_ctrl = v4l2_subdev_g_ctrl,
105		.s_ctrl = v4l2_subdev_s_ctrl,
106		.g_ext_ctrls = v4l2_subdev_g_ext_ctrls,
107		.try_ext_ctrls = v4l2_subdev_try_ext_ctrls,
108		.s_ext_ctrls = v4l2_subdev_s_ext_ctrls,
109	
110	  Note: this is a temporary solution only. Once all V4L2 drivers that depend
111	  on subdev drivers are converted to the control framework these helpers will
112	  no longer be needed.
113	
114	1.4) Clean up the handler at the end:
115	
116		v4l2_ctrl_handler_free(&foo->ctrl_handler);
117	
118	
119	2) Add controls:
120	
121	You add non-menu controls by calling v4l2_ctrl_new_std:
122	
123		struct v4l2_ctrl *v4l2_ctrl_new_std(struct v4l2_ctrl_handler *hdl,
124				const struct v4l2_ctrl_ops *ops,
125				u32 id, s32 min, s32 max, u32 step, s32 def);
126	
127	Menu controls are added by calling v4l2_ctrl_new_std_menu:
128	
129		struct v4l2_ctrl *v4l2_ctrl_new_std_menu(struct v4l2_ctrl_handler *hdl,
130				const struct v4l2_ctrl_ops *ops,
131				u32 id, s32 max, s32 skip_mask, s32 def);
132	
133	Or alternatively for integer menu controls, by calling v4l2_ctrl_new_int_menu:
134	
135		struct v4l2_ctrl *v4l2_ctrl_new_int_menu(struct v4l2_ctrl_handler *hdl,
136				const struct v4l2_ctrl_ops *ops,
137				u32 id, s32 max, s32 def, const s64 *qmenu_int);
138	
139	Standard menu controls with a driver specific menu are added by calling
140	v4l2_ctrl_new_std_menu_items:
141	
142		struct v4l2_ctrl *v4l2_ctrl_new_std_menu_items(
143			struct v4l2_ctrl_handler *hdl,
144			const struct v4l2_ctrl_ops *ops, u32 id, s32 max,
145			s32 skip_mask, s32 def, const char * const *qmenu);
146	
147	These functions are typically called right after the v4l2_ctrl_handler_init:
148	
149		static const s64 exp_bias_qmenu[] = {
150		       -2, -1, 0, 1, 2
151		};
152		static const char * const test_pattern[] = {
153			"Disabled",
154			"Vertical Bars",
155			"Solid Black",
156			"Solid White",
157		};
158	
159		v4l2_ctrl_handler_init(&foo->ctrl_handler, nr_of_controls);
160		v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&foo->ctrl_handler, &foo_ctrl_ops,
161				V4L2_CID_BRIGHTNESS, 0, 255, 1, 128);
162		v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&foo->ctrl_handler, &foo_ctrl_ops,
163				V4L2_CID_CONTRAST, 0, 255, 1, 128);
164		v4l2_ctrl_new_std_menu(&foo->ctrl_handler, &foo_ctrl_ops,
165				V4L2_CID_POWER_LINE_FREQUENCY,
166				V4L2_CID_POWER_LINE_FREQUENCY_60HZ, 0,
167				V4L2_CID_POWER_LINE_FREQUENCY_DISABLED);
168		v4l2_ctrl_new_int_menu(&foo->ctrl_handler, &foo_ctrl_ops,
169				V4L2_CID_EXPOSURE_BIAS,
170				ARRAY_SIZE(exp_bias_qmenu) - 1,
171				ARRAY_SIZE(exp_bias_qmenu) / 2 - 1,
172				exp_bias_qmenu);
173		v4l2_ctrl_new_std_menu_items(&foo->ctrl_handler, &foo_ctrl_ops,
174				V4L2_CID_TEST_PATTERN, ARRAY_SIZE(test_pattern) - 1, 0,
175				0, test_pattern);
176		...
177		if (foo->ctrl_handler.error) {
178			int err = foo->ctrl_handler.error;
179	
180			v4l2_ctrl_handler_free(&foo->ctrl_handler);
181			return err;
182		}
183	
184	The v4l2_ctrl_new_std function returns the v4l2_ctrl pointer to the new
185	control, but if you do not need to access the pointer outside the control ops,
186	then there is no need to store it.
187	
188	The v4l2_ctrl_new_std function will fill in most fields based on the control
189	ID except for the min, max, step and default values. These are passed in the
190	last four arguments. These values are driver specific while control attributes
191	like type, name, flags are all global. The control's current value will be set
192	to the default value.
193	
194	The v4l2_ctrl_new_std_menu function is very similar but it is used for menu
195	controls. There is no min argument since that is always 0 for menu controls,
196	and instead of a step there is a skip_mask argument: if bit X is 1, then menu
197	item X is skipped.
198	
199	The v4l2_ctrl_new_int_menu function creates a new standard integer menu
200	control with driver-specific items in the menu. It differs from
201	v4l2_ctrl_new_std_menu in that it doesn't have the mask argument and takes
202	as the last argument an array of signed 64-bit integers that form an exact
203	menu item list.
204	
205	The v4l2_ctrl_new_std_menu_items function is very similar to
206	v4l2_ctrl_new_std_menu but takes an extra parameter qmenu, which is the driver
207	specific menu for an otherwise standard menu control. A good example for this
208	control is the test pattern control for capture/display/sensors devices that
209	have the capability to generate test patterns. These test patterns are hardware
210	specific, so the contents of the menu will vary from device to device.
211	
212	Note that if something fails, the function will return NULL or an error and
213	set ctrl_handler->error to the error code. If ctrl_handler->error was already
214	set, then it will just return and do nothing. This is also true for
215	v4l2_ctrl_handler_init if it cannot allocate the internal data structure.
216	
217	This makes it easy to init the handler and just add all controls and only check
218	the error code at the end. Saves a lot of repetitive error checking.
219	
220	It is recommended to add controls in ascending control ID order: it will be
221	a bit faster that way.
222	
223	3) Optionally force initial control setup:
224	
225		v4l2_ctrl_handler_setup(&foo->ctrl_handler);
226	
227	This will call s_ctrl for all controls unconditionally. Effectively this
228	initializes the hardware to the default control values. It is recommended
229	that you do this as this ensures that both the internal data structures and
230	the hardware are in sync.
231	
232	4) Finally: implement the v4l2_ctrl_ops
233	
234		static const struct v4l2_ctrl_ops foo_ctrl_ops = {
235			.s_ctrl = foo_s_ctrl,
236		};
237	
238	Usually all you need is s_ctrl:
239	
240		static int foo_s_ctrl(struct v4l2_ctrl *ctrl)
241		{
242			struct foo *state = container_of(ctrl->handler, struct foo, ctrl_handler);
243	
244			switch (ctrl->id) {
245			case V4L2_CID_BRIGHTNESS:
246				write_reg(0x123, ctrl->val);
247				break;
248			case V4L2_CID_CONTRAST:
249				write_reg(0x456, ctrl->val);
250				break;
251			}
252			return 0;
253		}
254	
255	The control ops are called with the v4l2_ctrl pointer as argument.
256	The new control value has already been validated, so all you need to do is
257	to actually update the hardware registers.
258	
259	You're done! And this is sufficient for most of the drivers we have. No need
260	to do any validation of control values, or implement QUERYCTRL/QUERYMENU. And
261	G/S_CTRL as well as G/TRY/S_EXT_CTRLS are automatically supported.
262	
263	
264	==============================================================================
265	
266	The remainder of this document deals with more advanced topics and scenarios.
267	In practice the basic usage as described above is sufficient for most drivers.
268	
269	===============================================================================
270	
271	
272	Inheriting Controls
273	===================
274	
275	When a sub-device is registered with a V4L2 driver by calling
276	v4l2_device_register_subdev() and the ctrl_handler fields of both v4l2_subdev
277	and v4l2_device are set, then the controls of the subdev will become
278	automatically available in the V4L2 driver as well. If the subdev driver
279	contains controls that already exist in the V4L2 driver, then those will be
280	skipped (so a V4L2 driver can always override a subdev control).
281	
282	What happens here is that v4l2_device_register_subdev() calls
283	v4l2_ctrl_add_handler() adding the controls of the subdev to the controls
284	of v4l2_device.
285	
286	
287	Accessing Control Values
288	========================
289	
290	The v4l2_ctrl struct contains these two unions:
291	
292		/* The current control value. */
293		union {
294			s32 val;
295			s64 val64;
296			char *string;
297		} cur;
298	
299		/* The new control value. */
300		union {
301			s32 val;
302			s64 val64;
303			char *string;
304		};
305	
306	Within the control ops you can freely use these. The val and val64 speak for
307	themselves. The string pointers point to character buffers of length
308	ctrl->maximum + 1, and are always 0-terminated.
309	
310	In most cases 'cur' contains the current cached control value. When you create
311	a new control this value is made identical to the default value. After calling
312	v4l2_ctrl_handler_setup() this value is passed to the hardware. It is generally
313	a good idea to call this function.
314	
315	Whenever a new value is set that new value is automatically cached. This means
316	that most drivers do not need to implement the g_volatile_ctrl() op. The
317	exception is for controls that return a volatile register such as a signal
318	strength read-out that changes continuously. In that case you will need to
319	implement g_volatile_ctrl like this:
320	
321		static int foo_g_volatile_ctrl(struct v4l2_ctrl *ctrl)
322		{
323			switch (ctrl->id) {
324			case V4L2_CID_BRIGHTNESS:
325				ctrl->val = read_reg(0x123);
326				break;
327			}
328		}
329	
330	Note that you use the 'new value' union as well in g_volatile_ctrl. In general
331	controls that need to implement g_volatile_ctrl are read-only controls.
332	
333	To mark a control as volatile you have to set V4L2_CTRL_FLAG_VOLATILE:
334	
335		ctrl = v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&sd->ctrl_handler, ...);
336		if (ctrl)
337			ctrl->flags |= V4L2_CTRL_FLAG_VOLATILE;
338	
339	For try/s_ctrl the new values (i.e. as passed by the user) are filled in and
340	you can modify them in try_ctrl or set them in s_ctrl. The 'cur' union
341	contains the current value, which you can use (but not change!) as well.
342	
343	If s_ctrl returns 0 (OK), then the control framework will copy the new final
344	values to the 'cur' union.
345	
346	While in g_volatile/s/try_ctrl you can access the value of all controls owned
347	by the same handler since the handler's lock is held. If you need to access
348	the value of controls owned by other handlers, then you have to be very careful
349	not to introduce deadlocks.
350	
351	Outside of the control ops you have to go through to helper functions to get
352	or set a single control value safely in your driver:
353	
354		s32 v4l2_ctrl_g_ctrl(struct v4l2_ctrl *ctrl);
355		int v4l2_ctrl_s_ctrl(struct v4l2_ctrl *ctrl, s32 val);
356	
357	These functions go through the control framework just as VIDIOC_G/S_CTRL ioctls
358	do. Don't use these inside the control ops g_volatile/s/try_ctrl, though, that
359	will result in a deadlock since these helpers lock the handler as well.
360	
361	You can also take the handler lock yourself:
362	
363		mutex_lock(&state->ctrl_handler.lock);
364		printk(KERN_INFO "String value is '%s'\n", ctrl1->cur.string);
365		printk(KERN_INFO "Integer value is '%s'\n", ctrl2->cur.val);
366		mutex_unlock(&state->ctrl_handler.lock);
367	
368	
369	Menu Controls
370	=============
371	
372	The v4l2_ctrl struct contains this union:
373	
374		union {
375			u32 step;
376			u32 menu_skip_mask;
377		};
378	
379	For menu controls menu_skip_mask is used. What it does is that it allows you
380	to easily exclude certain menu items. This is used in the VIDIOC_QUERYMENU
381	implementation where you can return -EINVAL if a certain menu item is not
382	present. Note that VIDIOC_QUERYCTRL always returns a step value of 1 for
383	menu controls.
384	
385	A good example is the MPEG Audio Layer II Bitrate menu control where the
386	menu is a list of standardized possible bitrates. But in practice hardware
387	implementations will only support a subset of those. By setting the skip
388	mask you can tell the framework which menu items should be skipped. Setting
389	it to 0 means that all menu items are supported.
390	
391	You set this mask either through the v4l2_ctrl_config struct for a custom
392	control, or by calling v4l2_ctrl_new_std_menu().
393	
394	
395	Custom Controls
396	===============
397	
398	Driver specific controls can be created using v4l2_ctrl_new_custom():
399	
400		static const struct v4l2_ctrl_config ctrl_filter = {
401			.ops = &ctrl_custom_ops,
402			.id = V4L2_CID_MPEG_CX2341X_VIDEO_SPATIAL_FILTER,
403			.name = "Spatial Filter",
404			.type = V4L2_CTRL_TYPE_INTEGER,
405			.flags = V4L2_CTRL_FLAG_SLIDER,
406			.max = 15,
407			.step = 1,
408		};
409	
410		ctrl = v4l2_ctrl_new_custom(&foo->ctrl_handler, &ctrl_filter, NULL);
411	
412	The last argument is the priv pointer which can be set to driver-specific
413	private data.
414	
415	The v4l2_ctrl_config struct also has a field to set the is_private flag.
416	
417	If the name field is not set, then the framework will assume this is a standard
418	control and will fill in the name, type and flags fields accordingly.
419	
420	
421	Active and Grabbed Controls
422	===========================
423	
424	If you get more complex relationships between controls, then you may have to
425	activate and deactivate controls. For example, if the Chroma AGC control is
426	on, then the Chroma Gain control is inactive. That is, you may set it, but
427	the value will not be used by the hardware as long as the automatic gain
428	control is on. Typically user interfaces can disable such input fields.
429	
430	You can set the 'active' status using v4l2_ctrl_activate(). By default all
431	controls are active. Note that the framework does not check for this flag.
432	It is meant purely for GUIs. The function is typically called from within
433	s_ctrl.
434	
435	The other flag is the 'grabbed' flag. A grabbed control means that you cannot
436	change it because it is in use by some resource. Typical examples are MPEG
437	bitrate controls that cannot be changed while capturing is in progress.
438	
439	If a control is set to 'grabbed' using v4l2_ctrl_grab(), then the framework
440	will return -EBUSY if an attempt is made to set this control. The
441	v4l2_ctrl_grab() function is typically called from the driver when it
442	starts or stops streaming.
443	
444	
445	Control Clusters
446	================
447	
448	By default all controls are independent from the others. But in more
449	complex scenarios you can get dependencies from one control to another.
450	In that case you need to 'cluster' them:
451	
452		struct foo {
453			struct v4l2_ctrl_handler ctrl_handler;
454	#define AUDIO_CL_VOLUME (0)
455	#define AUDIO_CL_MUTE   (1)
456			struct v4l2_ctrl *audio_cluster[2];
457			...
458		};
459	
460		state->audio_cluster[AUDIO_CL_VOLUME] =
461			v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&state->ctrl_handler, ...);
462		state->audio_cluster[AUDIO_CL_MUTE] =
463			v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&state->ctrl_handler, ...);
464		v4l2_ctrl_cluster(ARRAY_SIZE(state->audio_cluster), state->audio_cluster);
465	
466	From now on whenever one or more of the controls belonging to the same
467	cluster is set (or 'gotten', or 'tried'), only the control ops of the first
468	control ('volume' in this example) is called. You effectively create a new
469	composite control. Similar to how a 'struct' works in C.
470	
471	So when s_ctrl is called with V4L2_CID_AUDIO_VOLUME as argument, you should set
472	all two controls belonging to the audio_cluster:
473	
474		static int foo_s_ctrl(struct v4l2_ctrl *ctrl)
475		{
476			struct foo *state = container_of(ctrl->handler, struct foo, ctrl_handler);
477	
478			switch (ctrl->id) {
479			case V4L2_CID_AUDIO_VOLUME: {
480				struct v4l2_ctrl *mute = ctrl->cluster[AUDIO_CL_MUTE];
481	
482				write_reg(0x123, mute->val ? 0 : ctrl->val);
483				break;
484			}
485			case V4L2_CID_CONTRAST:
486				write_reg(0x456, ctrl->val);
487				break;
488			}
489			return 0;
490		}
491	
492	In the example above the following are equivalent for the VOLUME case:
493	
494		ctrl == ctrl->cluster[AUDIO_CL_VOLUME] == state->audio_cluster[AUDIO_CL_VOLUME]
495		ctrl->cluster[AUDIO_CL_MUTE] == state->audio_cluster[AUDIO_CL_MUTE]
496	
497	In practice using cluster arrays like this becomes very tiresome. So instead
498	the following equivalent method is used:
499	
500		struct {
501			/* audio cluster */
502			struct v4l2_ctrl *volume;
503			struct v4l2_ctrl *mute;
504		};
505	
506	The anonymous struct is used to clearly 'cluster' these two control pointers,
507	but it serves no other purpose. The effect is the same as creating an
508	array with two control pointers. So you can just do:
509	
510		state->volume = v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&state->ctrl_handler, ...);
511		state->mute = v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&state->ctrl_handler, ...);
512		v4l2_ctrl_cluster(2, &state->volume);
513	
514	And in foo_s_ctrl you can use these pointers directly: state->mute->val.
515	
516	Note that controls in a cluster may be NULL. For example, if for some
517	reason mute was never added (because the hardware doesn't support that
518	particular feature), then mute will be NULL. So in that case we have a
519	cluster of 2 controls, of which only 1 is actually instantiated. The
520	only restriction is that the first control of the cluster must always be
521	present, since that is the 'master' control of the cluster. The master
522	control is the one that identifies the cluster and that provides the
523	pointer to the v4l2_ctrl_ops struct that is used for that cluster.
524	
525	Obviously, all controls in the cluster array must be initialized to either
526	a valid control or to NULL.
527	
528	In rare cases you might want to know which controls of a cluster actually
529	were set explicitly by the user. For this you can check the 'is_new' flag of
530	each control. For example, in the case of a volume/mute cluster the 'is_new'
531	flag of the mute control would be set if the user called VIDIOC_S_CTRL for
532	mute only. If the user would call VIDIOC_S_EXT_CTRLS for both mute and volume
533	controls, then the 'is_new' flag would be 1 for both controls.
534	
535	The 'is_new' flag is always 1 when called from v4l2_ctrl_handler_setup().
536	
537	
538	Handling autogain/gain-type Controls with Auto Clusters
539	=======================================================
540	
541	A common type of control cluster is one that handles 'auto-foo/foo'-type
542	controls. Typical examples are autogain/gain, autoexposure/exposure,
543	autowhitebalance/red balance/blue balance. In all cases you have one control
544	that determines whether another control is handled automatically by the hardware,
545	or whether it is under manual control from the user.
546	
547	If the cluster is in automatic mode, then the manual controls should be
548	marked inactive and volatile. When the volatile controls are read the
549	g_volatile_ctrl operation should return the value that the hardware's automatic
550	mode set up automatically.
551	
552	If the cluster is put in manual mode, then the manual controls should become
553	active again and the volatile flag is cleared (so g_volatile_ctrl is no longer
554	called while in manual mode). In addition just before switching to manual mode
555	the current values as determined by the auto mode are copied as the new manual
556	values.
557	
558	Finally the V4L2_CTRL_FLAG_UPDATE should be set for the auto control since
559	changing that control affects the control flags of the manual controls.
560	
561	In order to simplify this a special variation of v4l2_ctrl_cluster was
562	introduced:
563	
564	void v4l2_ctrl_auto_cluster(unsigned ncontrols, struct v4l2_ctrl **controls,
565				u8 manual_val, bool set_volatile);
566	
567	The first two arguments are identical to v4l2_ctrl_cluster. The third argument
568	tells the framework which value switches the cluster into manual mode. The
569	last argument will optionally set V4L2_CTRL_FLAG_VOLATILE for the non-auto controls.
570	If it is false, then the manual controls are never volatile. You would typically
571	use that if the hardware does not give you the option to read back to values as
572	determined by the auto mode (e.g. if autogain is on, the hardware doesn't allow
573	you to obtain the current gain value).
574	
575	The first control of the cluster is assumed to be the 'auto' control.
576	
577	Using this function will ensure that you don't need to handle all the complex
578	flag and volatile handling.
579	
580	
581	VIDIOC_LOG_STATUS Support
582	=========================
583	
584	This ioctl allow you to dump the current status of a driver to the kernel log.
585	The v4l2_ctrl_handler_log_status(ctrl_handler, prefix) can be used to dump the
586	value of the controls owned by the given handler to the log. You can supply a
587	prefix as well. If the prefix didn't end with a space, then ': ' will be added
588	for you.
589	
590	
591	Different Handlers for Different Video Nodes
592	============================================
593	
594	Usually the V4L2 driver has just one control handler that is global for
595	all video nodes. But you can also specify different control handlers for
596	different video nodes. You can do that by manually setting the ctrl_handler
597	field of struct video_device.
598	
599	That is no problem if there are no subdevs involved but if there are, then
600	you need to block the automatic merging of subdev controls to the global
601	control handler. You do that by simply setting the ctrl_handler field in
602	struct v4l2_device to NULL. Now v4l2_device_register_subdev() will no longer
603	merge subdev controls.
604	
605	After each subdev was added, you will then have to call v4l2_ctrl_add_handler
606	manually to add the subdev's control handler (sd->ctrl_handler) to the desired
607	control handler. This control handler may be specific to the video_device or
608	for a subset of video_device's. For example: the radio device nodes only have
609	audio controls, while the video and vbi device nodes share the same control
610	handler for the audio and video controls.
611	
612	If you want to have one handler (e.g. for a radio device node) have a subset
613	of another handler (e.g. for a video device node), then you should first add
614	the controls to the first handler, add the other controls to the second
615	handler and finally add the first handler to the second. For example:
616	
617		v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&radio_ctrl_handler, &radio_ops, V4L2_CID_AUDIO_VOLUME, ...);
618		v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&radio_ctrl_handler, &radio_ops, V4L2_CID_AUDIO_MUTE, ...);
619		v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&video_ctrl_handler, &video_ops, V4L2_CID_BRIGHTNESS, ...);
620		v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&video_ctrl_handler, &video_ops, V4L2_CID_CONTRAST, ...);
621		v4l2_ctrl_add_handler(&video_ctrl_handler, &radio_ctrl_handler, NULL);
622	
623	The last argument to v4l2_ctrl_add_handler() is a filter function that allows
624	you to filter which controls will be added. Set it to NULL if you want to add
625	all controls.
626	
627	Or you can add specific controls to a handler:
628	
629		volume = v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&video_ctrl_handler, &ops, V4L2_CID_AUDIO_VOLUME, ...);
630		v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&video_ctrl_handler, &ops, V4L2_CID_BRIGHTNESS, ...);
631		v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&video_ctrl_handler, &ops, V4L2_CID_CONTRAST, ...);
632		v4l2_ctrl_add_ctrl(&radio_ctrl_handler, volume);
633	
634	What you should not do is make two identical controls for two handlers.
635	For example:
636	
637		v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&radio_ctrl_handler, &radio_ops, V4L2_CID_AUDIO_MUTE, ...);
638		v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&video_ctrl_handler, &video_ops, V4L2_CID_AUDIO_MUTE, ...);
639	
640	This would be bad since muting the radio would not change the video mute
641	control. The rule is to have one control for each hardware 'knob' that you
642	can twiddle.
643	
644	
645	Finding Controls
646	================
647	
648	Normally you have created the controls yourself and you can store the struct
649	v4l2_ctrl pointer into your own struct.
650	
651	But sometimes you need to find a control from another handler that you do
652	not own. For example, if you have to find a volume control from a subdev.
653	
654	You can do that by calling v4l2_ctrl_find:
655	
656		struct v4l2_ctrl *volume;
657	
658		volume = v4l2_ctrl_find(sd->ctrl_handler, V4L2_CID_AUDIO_VOLUME);
659	
660	Since v4l2_ctrl_find will lock the handler you have to be careful where you
661	use it. For example, this is not a good idea:
662	
663		struct v4l2_ctrl_handler ctrl_handler;
664	
665		v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&ctrl_handler, &video_ops, V4L2_CID_BRIGHTNESS, ...);
666		v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&ctrl_handler, &video_ops, V4L2_CID_CONTRAST, ...);
667	
668	...and in video_ops.s_ctrl:
669	
670		case V4L2_CID_BRIGHTNESS:
671			contrast = v4l2_find_ctrl(&ctrl_handler, V4L2_CID_CONTRAST);
672			...
673	
674	When s_ctrl is called by the framework the ctrl_handler.lock is already taken, so
675	attempting to find another control from the same handler will deadlock.
676	
677	It is recommended not to use this function from inside the control ops.
678	
679	
680	Inheriting Controls
681	===================
682	
683	When one control handler is added to another using v4l2_ctrl_add_handler, then
684	by default all controls from one are merged to the other. But a subdev might
685	have low-level controls that make sense for some advanced embedded system, but
686	not when it is used in consumer-level hardware. In that case you want to keep
687	those low-level controls local to the subdev. You can do this by simply
688	setting the 'is_private' flag of the control to 1:
689	
690		static const struct v4l2_ctrl_config ctrl_private = {
691			.ops = &ctrl_custom_ops,
692			.id = V4L2_CID_...,
693			.name = "Some Private Control",
694			.type = V4L2_CTRL_TYPE_INTEGER,
695			.max = 15,
696			.step = 1,
697			.is_private = 1,
698		};
699	
700		ctrl = v4l2_ctrl_new_custom(&foo->ctrl_handler, &ctrl_private, NULL);
701	
702	These controls will now be skipped when v4l2_ctrl_add_handler is called.
703	
704	
705	V4L2_CTRL_TYPE_CTRL_CLASS Controls
706	==================================
707	
708	Controls of this type can be used by GUIs to get the name of the control class.
709	A fully featured GUI can make a dialog with multiple tabs with each tab
710	containing the controls belonging to a particular control class. The name of
711	each tab can be found by querying a special control with ID <control class | 1>.
712	
713	Drivers do not have to care about this. The framework will automatically add
714	a control of this type whenever the first control belonging to a new control
715	class is added.
716	
717	
718	Adding Notify Callbacks
719	=======================
720	
721	Sometimes the platform or bridge driver needs to be notified when a control
722	from a sub-device driver changes. You can set a notify callback by calling
723	this function:
724	
725	void v4l2_ctrl_notify(struct v4l2_ctrl *ctrl,
726		void (*notify)(struct v4l2_ctrl *ctrl, void *priv), void *priv);
727	
728	Whenever the give control changes value the notify callback will be called
729	with a pointer to the control and the priv pointer that was passed with
730	v4l2_ctrl_notify. Note that the control's handler lock is held when the
731	notify function is called.
732	
733	There can be only one notify function per control handler. Any attempt
734	to set another notify function will cause a WARN_ON.
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