Based on kernel version 3.4. Page generated on 2012-05-21 22:13 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 These functions are typically called right after the v4l2_ctrl_handler_init: 134 135 v4l2_ctrl_handler_init(&foo->ctrl_handler, nr_of_controls); 136 v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&foo->ctrl_handler, &foo_ctrl_ops, 137 V4L2_CID_BRIGHTNESS, 0, 255, 1, 128); 138 v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&foo->ctrl_handler, &foo_ctrl_ops, 139 V4L2_CID_CONTRAST, 0, 255, 1, 128); 140 v4l2_ctrl_new_std_menu(&foo->ctrl_handler, &foo_ctrl_ops, 141 V4L2_CID_POWER_LINE_FREQUENCY, 142 V4L2_CID_POWER_LINE_FREQUENCY_60HZ, 0, 143 V4L2_CID_POWER_LINE_FREQUENCY_DISABLED); 144 ... 145 if (foo->ctrl_handler.error) { 146 int err = foo->ctrl_handler.error; 147 148 v4l2_ctrl_handler_free(&foo->ctrl_handler); 149 return err; 150 } 151 152 The v4l2_ctrl_new_std function returns the v4l2_ctrl pointer to the new 153 control, but if you do not need to access the pointer outside the control ops, 154 then there is no need to store it. 155 156 The v4l2_ctrl_new_std function will fill in most fields based on the control 157 ID except for the min, max, step and default values. These are passed in the 158 last four arguments. These values are driver specific while control attributes 159 like type, name, flags are all global. The control's current value will be set 160 to the default value. 161 162 The v4l2_ctrl_new_std_menu function is very similar but it is used for menu 163 controls. There is no min argument since that is always 0 for menu controls, 164 and instead of a step there is a skip_mask argument: if bit X is 1, then menu 165 item X is skipped. 166 167 Note that if something fails, the function will return NULL or an error and 168 set ctrl_handler->error to the error code. If ctrl_handler->error was already 169 set, then it will just return and do nothing. This is also true for 170 v4l2_ctrl_handler_init if it cannot allocate the internal data structure. 171 172 This makes it easy to init the handler and just add all controls and only check 173 the error code at the end. Saves a lot of repetitive error checking. 174 175 It is recommended to add controls in ascending control ID order: it will be 176 a bit faster that way. 177 178 3) Optionally force initial control setup: 179 180 v4l2_ctrl_handler_setup(&foo->ctrl_handler); 181 182 This will call s_ctrl for all controls unconditionally. Effectively this 183 initializes the hardware to the default control values. It is recommended 184 that you do this as this ensures that both the internal data structures and 185 the hardware are in sync. 186 187 4) Finally: implement the v4l2_ctrl_ops 188 189 static const struct v4l2_ctrl_ops foo_ctrl_ops = { 190 .s_ctrl = foo_s_ctrl, 191 }; 192 193 Usually all you need is s_ctrl: 194 195 static int foo_s_ctrl(struct v4l2_ctrl *ctrl) 196 { 197 struct foo *state = container_of(ctrl->handler, struct foo, ctrl_handler); 198 199 switch (ctrl->id) { 200 case V4L2_CID_BRIGHTNESS: 201 write_reg(0x123, ctrl->val); 202 break; 203 case V4L2_CID_CONTRAST: 204 write_reg(0x456, ctrl->val); 205 break; 206 } 207 return 0; 208 } 209 210 The control ops are called with the v4l2_ctrl pointer as argument. 211 The new control value has already been validated, so all you need to do is 212 to actually update the hardware registers. 213 214 You're done! And this is sufficient for most of the drivers we have. No need 215 to do any validation of control values, or implement QUERYCTRL/QUERYMENU. And 216 G/S_CTRL as well as G/TRY/S_EXT_CTRLS are automatically supported. 217 218 219 ============================================================================== 220 221 The remainder of this document deals with more advanced topics and scenarios. 222 In practice the basic usage as described above is sufficient for most drivers. 223 224 =============================================================================== 225 226 227 Inheriting Controls 228 =================== 229 230 When a sub-device is registered with a V4L2 driver by calling 231 v4l2_device_register_subdev() and the ctrl_handler fields of both v4l2_subdev 232 and v4l2_device are set, then the controls of the subdev will become 233 automatically available in the V4L2 driver as well. If the subdev driver 234 contains controls that already exist in the V4L2 driver, then those will be 235 skipped (so a V4L2 driver can always override a subdev control). 236 237 What happens here is that v4l2_device_register_subdev() calls 238 v4l2_ctrl_add_handler() adding the controls of the subdev to the controls 239 of v4l2_device. 240 241 242 Accessing Control Values 243 ======================== 244 245 The v4l2_ctrl struct contains these two unions: 246 247 /* The current control value. */ 248 union { 249 s32 val; 250 s64 val64; 251 char *string; 252 } cur; 253 254 /* The new control value. */ 255 union { 256 s32 val; 257 s64 val64; 258 char *string; 259 }; 260 261 Within the control ops you can freely use these. The val and val64 speak for 262 themselves. The string pointers point to character buffers of length 263 ctrl->maximum + 1, and are always 0-terminated. 264 265 In most cases 'cur' contains the current cached control value. When you create 266 a new control this value is made identical to the default value. After calling 267 v4l2_ctrl_handler_setup() this value is passed to the hardware. It is generally 268 a good idea to call this function. 269 270 Whenever a new value is set that new value is automatically cached. This means 271 that most drivers do not need to implement the g_volatile_ctrl() op. The 272 exception is for controls that return a volatile register such as a signal 273 strength read-out that changes continuously. In that case you will need to 274 implement g_volatile_ctrl like this: 275 276 static int foo_g_volatile_ctrl(struct v4l2_ctrl *ctrl) 277 { 278 switch (ctrl->id) { 279 case V4L2_CID_BRIGHTNESS: 280 ctrl->val = read_reg(0x123); 281 break; 282 } 283 } 284 285 Note that you use the 'new value' union as well in g_volatile_ctrl. In general 286 controls that need to implement g_volatile_ctrl are read-only controls. 287 288 To mark a control as volatile you have to set V4L2_CTRL_FLAG_VOLATILE: 289 290 ctrl = v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&sd->ctrl_handler, ...); 291 if (ctrl) 292 ctrl->flags |= V4L2_CTRL_FLAG_VOLATILE; 293 294 For try/s_ctrl the new values (i.e. as passed by the user) are filled in and 295 you can modify them in try_ctrl or set them in s_ctrl. The 'cur' union 296 contains the current value, which you can use (but not change!) as well. 297 298 If s_ctrl returns 0 (OK), then the control framework will copy the new final 299 values to the 'cur' union. 300 301 While in g_volatile/s/try_ctrl you can access the value of all controls owned 302 by the same handler since the handler's lock is held. If you need to access 303 the value of controls owned by other handlers, then you have to be very careful 304 not to introduce deadlocks. 305 306 Outside of the control ops you have to go through to helper functions to get 307 or set a single control value safely in your driver: 308 309 s32 v4l2_ctrl_g_ctrl(struct v4l2_ctrl *ctrl); 310 int v4l2_ctrl_s_ctrl(struct v4l2_ctrl *ctrl, s32 val); 311 312 These functions go through the control framework just as VIDIOC_G/S_CTRL ioctls 313 do. Don't use these inside the control ops g_volatile/s/try_ctrl, though, that 314 will result in a deadlock since these helpers lock the handler as well. 315 316 You can also take the handler lock yourself: 317 318 mutex_lock(&state->ctrl_handler.lock); 319 printk(KERN_INFO "String value is '%s'\n", ctrl1->cur.string); 320 printk(KERN_INFO "Integer value is '%s'\n", ctrl2->cur.val); 321 mutex_unlock(&state->ctrl_handler.lock); 322 323 324 Menu Controls 325 ============= 326 327 The v4l2_ctrl struct contains this union: 328 329 union { 330 u32 step; 331 u32 menu_skip_mask; 332 }; 333 334 For menu controls menu_skip_mask is used. What it does is that it allows you 335 to easily exclude certain menu items. This is used in the VIDIOC_QUERYMENU 336 implementation where you can return -EINVAL if a certain menu item is not 337 present. Note that VIDIOC_QUERYCTRL always returns a step value of 1 for 338 menu controls. 339 340 A good example is the MPEG Audio Layer II Bitrate menu control where the 341 menu is a list of standardized possible bitrates. But in practice hardware 342 implementations will only support a subset of those. By setting the skip 343 mask you can tell the framework which menu items should be skipped. Setting 344 it to 0 means that all menu items are supported. 345 346 You set this mask either through the v4l2_ctrl_config struct for a custom 347 control, or by calling v4l2_ctrl_new_std_menu(). 348 349 350 Custom Controls 351 =============== 352 353 Driver specific controls can be created using v4l2_ctrl_new_custom(): 354 355 static const struct v4l2_ctrl_config ctrl_filter = { 356 .ops = &ctrl_custom_ops, 357 .id = V4L2_CID_MPEG_CX2341X_VIDEO_SPATIAL_FILTER, 358 .name = "Spatial Filter", 359 .type = V4L2_CTRL_TYPE_INTEGER, 360 .flags = V4L2_CTRL_FLAG_SLIDER, 361 .max = 15, 362 .step = 1, 363 }; 364 365 ctrl = v4l2_ctrl_new_custom(&foo->ctrl_handler, &ctrl_filter, NULL); 366 367 The last argument is the priv pointer which can be set to driver-specific 368 private data. 369 370 The v4l2_ctrl_config struct also has a field to set the is_private flag. 371 372 If the name field is not set, then the framework will assume this is a standard 373 control and will fill in the name, type and flags fields accordingly. 374 375 376 Active and Grabbed Controls 377 =========================== 378 379 If you get more complex relationships between controls, then you may have to 380 activate and deactivate controls. For example, if the Chroma AGC control is 381 on, then the Chroma Gain control is inactive. That is, you may set it, but 382 the value will not be used by the hardware as long as the automatic gain 383 control is on. Typically user interfaces can disable such input fields. 384 385 You can set the 'active' status using v4l2_ctrl_activate(). By default all 386 controls are active. Note that the framework does not check for this flag. 387 It is meant purely for GUIs. The function is typically called from within 388 s_ctrl. 389 390 The other flag is the 'grabbed' flag. A grabbed control means that you cannot 391 change it because it is in use by some resource. Typical examples are MPEG 392 bitrate controls that cannot be changed while capturing is in progress. 393 394 If a control is set to 'grabbed' using v4l2_ctrl_grab(), then the framework 395 will return -EBUSY if an attempt is made to set this control. The 396 v4l2_ctrl_grab() function is typically called from the driver when it 397 starts or stops streaming. 398 399 400 Control Clusters 401 ================ 402 403 By default all controls are independent from the others. But in more 404 complex scenarios you can get dependencies from one control to another. 405 In that case you need to 'cluster' them: 406 407 struct foo { 408 struct v4l2_ctrl_handler ctrl_handler; 409 #define AUDIO_CL_VOLUME (0) 410 #define AUDIO_CL_MUTE (1) 411 struct v4l2_ctrl *audio_cluster[2]; 412 ... 413 }; 414 415 state->audio_cluster[AUDIO_CL_VOLUME] = 416 v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&state->ctrl_handler, ...); 417 state->audio_cluster[AUDIO_CL_MUTE] = 418 v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&state->ctrl_handler, ...); 419 v4l2_ctrl_cluster(ARRAY_SIZE(state->audio_cluster), state->audio_cluster); 420 421 From now on whenever one or more of the controls belonging to the same 422 cluster is set (or 'gotten', or 'tried'), only the control ops of the first 423 control ('volume' in this example) is called. You effectively create a new 424 composite control. Similar to how a 'struct' works in C. 425 426 So when s_ctrl is called with V4L2_CID_AUDIO_VOLUME as argument, you should set 427 all two controls belonging to the audio_cluster: 428 429 static int foo_s_ctrl(struct v4l2_ctrl *ctrl) 430 { 431 struct foo *state = container_of(ctrl->handler, struct foo, ctrl_handler); 432 433 switch (ctrl->id) { 434 case V4L2_CID_AUDIO_VOLUME: { 435 struct v4l2_ctrl *mute = ctrl->cluster[AUDIO_CL_MUTE]; 436 437 write_reg(0x123, mute->val ? 0 : ctrl->val); 438 break; 439 } 440 case V4L2_CID_CONTRAST: 441 write_reg(0x456, ctrl->val); 442 break; 443 } 444 return 0; 445 } 446 447 In the example above the following are equivalent for the VOLUME case: 448 449 ctrl == ctrl->cluster[AUDIO_CL_VOLUME] == state->audio_cluster[AUDIO_CL_VOLUME] 450 ctrl->cluster[AUDIO_CL_MUTE] == state->audio_cluster[AUDIO_CL_MUTE] 451 452 In practice using cluster arrays like this becomes very tiresome. So instead 453 the following equivalent method is used: 454 455 struct { 456 /* audio cluster */ 457 struct v4l2_ctrl *volume; 458 struct v4l2_ctrl *mute; 459 }; 460 461 The anonymous struct is used to clearly 'cluster' these two control pointers, 462 but it serves no other purpose. The effect is the same as creating an 463 array with two control pointers. So you can just do: 464 465 state->volume = v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&state->ctrl_handler, ...); 466 state->mute = v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&state->ctrl_handler, ...); 467 v4l2_ctrl_cluster(2, &state->volume); 468 469 And in foo_s_ctrl you can use these pointers directly: state->mute->val. 470 471 Note that controls in a cluster may be NULL. For example, if for some 472 reason mute was never added (because the hardware doesn't support that 473 particular feature), then mute will be NULL. So in that case we have a 474 cluster of 2 controls, of which only 1 is actually instantiated. The 475 only restriction is that the first control of the cluster must always be 476 present, since that is the 'master' control of the cluster. The master 477 control is the one that identifies the cluster and that provides the 478 pointer to the v4l2_ctrl_ops struct that is used for that cluster. 479 480 Obviously, all controls in the cluster array must be initialized to either 481 a valid control or to NULL. 482 483 In rare cases you might want to know which controls of a cluster actually 484 were set explicitly by the user. For this you can check the 'is_new' flag of 485 each control. For example, in the case of a volume/mute cluster the 'is_new' 486 flag of the mute control would be set if the user called VIDIOC_S_CTRL for 487 mute only. If the user would call VIDIOC_S_EXT_CTRLS for both mute and volume 488 controls, then the 'is_new' flag would be 1 for both controls. 489 490 The 'is_new' flag is always 1 when called from v4l2_ctrl_handler_setup(). 491 492 493 Handling autogain/gain-type Controls with Auto Clusters 494 ======================================================= 495 496 A common type of control cluster is one that handles 'auto-foo/foo'-type 497 controls. Typical examples are autogain/gain, autoexposure/exposure, 498 autowhitebalance/red balance/blue balance. In all cases you have one control 499 that determines whether another control is handled automatically by the hardware, 500 or whether it is under manual control from the user. 501 502 If the cluster is in automatic mode, then the manual controls should be 503 marked inactive and volatile. When the volatile controls are read the 504 g_volatile_ctrl operation should return the value that the hardware's automatic 505 mode set up automatically. 506 507 If the cluster is put in manual mode, then the manual controls should become 508 active again and the volatile flag is cleared (so g_volatile_ctrl is no longer 509 called while in manual mode). In addition just before switching to manual mode 510 the current values as determined by the auto mode are copied as the new manual 511 values. 512 513 Finally the V4L2_CTRL_FLAG_UPDATE should be set for the auto control since 514 changing that control affects the control flags of the manual controls. 515 516 In order to simplify this a special variation of v4l2_ctrl_cluster was 517 introduced: 518 519 void v4l2_ctrl_auto_cluster(unsigned ncontrols, struct v4l2_ctrl **controls, 520 u8 manual_val, bool set_volatile); 521 522 The first two arguments are identical to v4l2_ctrl_cluster. The third argument 523 tells the framework which value switches the cluster into manual mode. The 524 last argument will optionally set V4L2_CTRL_FLAG_VOLATILE for the non-auto controls. 525 If it is false, then the manual controls are never volatile. You would typically 526 use that if the hardware does not give you the option to read back to values as 527 determined by the auto mode (e.g. if autogain is on, the hardware doesn't allow 528 you to obtain the current gain value). 529 530 The first control of the cluster is assumed to be the 'auto' control. 531 532 Using this function will ensure that you don't need to handle all the complex 533 flag and volatile handling. 534 535 536 VIDIOC_LOG_STATUS Support 537 ========================= 538 539 This ioctl allow you to dump the current status of a driver to the kernel log. 540 The v4l2_ctrl_handler_log_status(ctrl_handler, prefix) can be used to dump the 541 value of the controls owned by the given handler to the log. You can supply a 542 prefix as well. If the prefix didn't end with a space, then ': ' will be added 543 for you. 544 545 546 Different Handlers for Different Video Nodes 547 ============================================ 548 549 Usually the V4L2 driver has just one control handler that is global for 550 all video nodes. But you can also specify different control handlers for 551 different video nodes. You can do that by manually setting the ctrl_handler 552 field of struct video_device. 553 554 That is no problem if there are no subdevs involved but if there are, then 555 you need to block the automatic merging of subdev controls to the global 556 control handler. You do that by simply setting the ctrl_handler field in 557 struct v4l2_device to NULL. Now v4l2_device_register_subdev() will no longer 558 merge subdev controls. 559 560 After each subdev was added, you will then have to call v4l2_ctrl_add_handler 561 manually to add the subdev's control handler (sd->ctrl_handler) to the desired 562 control handler. This control handler may be specific to the video_device or 563 for a subset of video_device's. For example: the radio device nodes only have 564 audio controls, while the video and vbi device nodes share the same control 565 handler for the audio and video controls. 566 567 If you want to have one handler (e.g. for a radio device node) have a subset 568 of another handler (e.g. for a video device node), then you should first add 569 the controls to the first handler, add the other controls to the second 570 handler and finally add the first handler to the second. For example: 571 572 v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&radio_ctrl_handler, &radio_ops, V4L2_CID_AUDIO_VOLUME, ...); 573 v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&radio_ctrl_handler, &radio_ops, V4L2_CID_AUDIO_MUTE, ...); 574 v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&video_ctrl_handler, &video_ops, V4L2_CID_BRIGHTNESS, ...); 575 v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&video_ctrl_handler, &video_ops, V4L2_CID_CONTRAST, ...); 576 v4l2_ctrl_add_handler(&video_ctrl_handler, &radio_ctrl_handler); 577 578 Or you can add specific controls to a handler: 579 580 volume = v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&video_ctrl_handler, &ops, V4L2_CID_AUDIO_VOLUME, ...); 581 v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&video_ctrl_handler, &ops, V4L2_CID_BRIGHTNESS, ...); 582 v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&video_ctrl_handler, &ops, V4L2_CID_CONTRAST, ...); 583 v4l2_ctrl_add_ctrl(&radio_ctrl_handler, volume); 584 585 What you should not do is make two identical controls for two handlers. 586 For example: 587 588 v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&radio_ctrl_handler, &radio_ops, V4L2_CID_AUDIO_MUTE, ...); 589 v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&video_ctrl_handler, &video_ops, V4L2_CID_AUDIO_MUTE, ...); 590 591 This would be bad since muting the radio would not change the video mute 592 control. The rule is to have one control for each hardware 'knob' that you 593 can twiddle. 594 595 596 Finding Controls 597 ================ 598 599 Normally you have created the controls yourself and you can store the struct 600 v4l2_ctrl pointer into your own struct. 601 602 But sometimes you need to find a control from another handler that you do 603 not own. For example, if you have to find a volume control from a subdev. 604 605 You can do that by calling v4l2_ctrl_find: 606 607 struct v4l2_ctrl *volume; 608 609 volume = v4l2_ctrl_find(sd->ctrl_handler, V4L2_CID_AUDIO_VOLUME); 610 611 Since v4l2_ctrl_find will lock the handler you have to be careful where you 612 use it. For example, this is not a good idea: 613 614 struct v4l2_ctrl_handler ctrl_handler; 615 616 v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&ctrl_handler, &video_ops, V4L2_CID_BRIGHTNESS, ...); 617 v4l2_ctrl_new_std(&ctrl_handler, &video_ops, V4L2_CID_CONTRAST, ...); 618 619 ...and in video_ops.s_ctrl: 620 621 case V4L2_CID_BRIGHTNESS: 622 contrast = v4l2_find_ctrl(&ctrl_handler, V4L2_CID_CONTRAST); 623 ... 624 625 When s_ctrl is called by the framework the ctrl_handler.lock is already taken, so 626 attempting to find another control from the same handler will deadlock. 627 628 It is recommended not to use this function from inside the control ops. 629 630 631 Inheriting Controls 632 =================== 633 634 When one control handler is added to another using v4l2_ctrl_add_handler, then 635 by default all controls from one are merged to the other. But a subdev might 636 have low-level controls that make sense for some advanced embedded system, but 637 not when it is used in consumer-level hardware. In that case you want to keep 638 those low-level controls local to the subdev. You can do this by simply 639 setting the 'is_private' flag of the control to 1: 640 641 static const struct v4l2_ctrl_config ctrl_private = { 642 .ops = &ctrl_custom_ops, 643 .id = V4L2_CID_..., 644 .name = "Some Private Control", 645 .type = V4L2_CTRL_TYPE_INTEGER, 646 .max = 15, 647 .step = 1, 648 .is_private = 1, 649 }; 650 651 ctrl = v4l2_ctrl_new_custom(&foo->ctrl_handler, &ctrl_private, NULL); 652 653 These controls will now be skipped when v4l2_ctrl_add_handler is called. 654 655 656 V4L2_CTRL_TYPE_CTRL_CLASS Controls 657 ================================== 658 659 Controls of this type can be used by GUIs to get the name of the control class. 660 A fully featured GUI can make a dialog with multiple tabs with each tab 661 containing the controls belonging to a particular control class. The name of 662 each tab can be found by querying a special control with ID <control class | 1>. 663 664 Drivers do not have to care about this. The framework will automatically add 665 a control of this type whenever the first control belonging to a new control 666 class is added. 667 668 669 Proposals for Extensions 670 ======================== 671 672 Some ideas for future extensions to the spec: 673 674 1) Add a V4L2_CTRL_FLAG_HEX to have values shown as hexadecimal instead of 675 decimal. Useful for e.g. video_mute_yuv. 676 677 2) It is possible to mark in the controls array which controls have been 678 successfully written and which failed by for example adding a bit to the 679 control ID. Not sure if it is worth the effort, though.