1.4. Video device’ s internal representation

The actual device nodes in the /dev directory are created using the video_device struct (v4l2-dev.h). This struct can either be allocated dynamically or embedded in a larger struct.

To allocate it dynamically use video_device_alloc():

struct video_device *vdev = video_device_alloc();

if (vdev == NULL)
        return -ENOMEM;

vdev->release = video_device_release;

If you embed it in a larger struct, then you must set the release() callback to your own function:

struct video_device *vdev = &my_vdev->vdev;

vdev->release = my_vdev_release;

The release() callback must be set and it is called when the last user of the video device exits.

The default video_device_release() callback currently just calls kfree to free the allocated memory.

There is also a video_device_release_empty() function that does nothing (is empty) and should be used if the struct is embedded and there is nothing to do when it is released.

You should also set these fields of video_device:

  • video_device->v4l2_dev: must be set to the v4l2_device parent device.

  • video_device->name: set to something descriptive and unique.

  • video_device->vfl_dir: set this to VFL_DIR_RX for capture devices (VFL_DIR_RX has value 0, so this is normally already the default), set to VFL_DIR_TX for output devices and VFL_DIR_M2M for mem2mem (codec) devices.

  • video_device->fops: set to the v4l2_file_operations struct.

  • video_device->ioctl_ops: if you use the v4l2_ioctl_ops to simplify ioctl maintenance (highly recommended to use this and it might become compulsory in the future!), then set this to your v4l2_ioctl_ops struct. The video_device->vfl_type and video_device->vfl_dir fields are used to disable ops that do not match the type/dir combination. E.g. VBI ops are disabled for non-VBI nodes, and output ops are disabled for a capture device. This makes it possible to provide just one v4l2_ioctl_ops struct for both vbi and video nodes.

  • video_device->lock: leave to NULL if you want to do all the locking in the driver. Otherwise you give it a pointer to a struct mutex_lock and before the video_device->unlocked_ioctl file operation is called this lock will be taken by the core and released afterwards. See the next section for more details.

  • video_device->queue: a pointer to the struct vb2_queue associated with this device node. If queue is not NULL, and queue->lock is not NULL, then queue->lock is used for the queuing ioctls (VIDIOC_REQBUFS, CREATE_BUFS, QBUF, DQBUF, QUERYBUF, PREPARE_BUF, STREAMON and STREAMOFF) instead of the lock above. That way the vb2 queuing framework does not have to wait for other ioctls. This queue pointer is also used by the vb2 helper functions to check for queuing ownership (i.e. is the filehandle calling it allowed to do the operation).

  • video_device->prio: keeps track of the priorities. Used to implement VIDIOC_G_PRIORITY and VIDIOC_S_PRIORITY. If left to NULL, then it will use the struct v4l2_prio_state in v4l2_device. If you want to have a separate priority state per (group of) device node(s), then you can point it to your own struct v4l2_prio_state.

  • video_device->dev_parent: you only set this if v4l2_device was registered with NULL as the parent device struct. This only happens in cases where one hardware device has multiple PCI devices that all share the same v4l2_device core.

    The cx88 driver is an example of this: one core v4l2_device struct, but it is used by both a raw video PCI device (cx8800) and a MPEG PCI device (cx8802). Since the v4l2_device cannot be associated with two PCI devices at the same time it is setup without a parent device. But when the struct video_device is initialized you do know which parent PCI device to use and so you set dev_device to the correct PCI device.

If you use v4l2_ioctl_ops, then you should set video_device->unlocked_ioctl to video_ioctl2() in your v4l2_file_operations struct.

In some cases you want to tell the core that a function you had specified in your v4l2_ioctl_ops should be ignored. You can mark such ioctls by calling this function before video_register_device() is called:

This tends to be needed if based on external factors (e.g. which card is being used) you want to turns off certain features in v4l2_ioctl_ops without having to make a new struct.

The v4l2_file_operations struct is a subset of file_operations. The main difference is that the inode argument is omitted since it is never used.

If integration with the media framework is needed, you must initialize the media_entity struct embedded in the video_device struct (entity field) by calling media_entity_pads_init():

struct media_pad *pad = &my_vdev->pad;
int err;

err = media_entity_pads_init(&vdev->entity, 1, pad);

The pads array must have been previously initialized. There is no need to manually set the struct media_entity type and name fields.

A reference to the entity will be automatically acquired/released when the video device is opened/closed.

1.4.1. ioctls and locking

The V4L core provides optional locking services. The main service is the lock field in struct video_device, which is a pointer to a mutex. If you set this pointer, then that will be used by unlocked_ioctl to serialize all ioctls.

If you are using the videobuf2 framework, then there is a second lock that you can set: video_device->queue->lock. If set, then this lock will be used instead of video_device->lock to serialize all queuing ioctls (see the previous section for the full list of those ioctls).

The advantage of using a different lock for the queuing ioctls is that for some drivers (particularly USB drivers) certain commands such as setting controls can take a long time, so you want to use a separate lock for the buffer queuing ioctls. That way your VIDIOC_DQBUF doesn’t stall because the driver is busy changing the e.g. exposure of the webcam.

Of course, you can always do all the locking yourself by leaving both lock pointers at NULL.

If you use the old videobuf framework then you must pass the video_device->lock to the videobuf queue initialize function: if videobuf has to wait for a frame to arrive, then it will temporarily unlock the lock and relock it afterwards. If your driver also waits in the code, then you should do the same to allow other processes to access the device node while the first process is waiting for something.

In the case of videobuf2 you will need to implement the wait_prepare() and wait_finish() callbacks to unlock/lock if applicable. If you use the queue->lock pointer, then you can use the helper functions vb2_ops_wait_prepare() and vb2_ops_wait_finish().

The implementation of a hotplug disconnect should also take the lock from video_device before calling v4l2_device_disconnect. If you are also using video_device->queue->lock, then you have to first lock video_device->queue->lock followed by video_device->lock. That way you can be sure no ioctl is running when you call v4l2_device_disconnect().

1.4.2. Video device registration

Next you register the video device with video_register_device(). This will create the character device for you.

err = video_register_device(vdev, VFL_TYPE_VIDEO, -1);
if (err) {
        video_device_release(vdev); /* or kfree(my_vdev); */
        return err;
}

If the v4l2_device parent device has a not NULL mdev field, the video device entity will be automatically registered with the media device.

Which device is registered depends on the type argument. The following types exist:

vfl_devnode_type Device name Usage
VFL_TYPE_VIDEO /dev/videoX for video input/output devices
VFL_TYPE_VBI /dev/vbiX for vertical blank data (i.e. closed captions, teletext)
VFL_TYPE_RADIO /dev/radioX for radio tuners
VFL_TYPE_SUBDEV /dev/v4l-subdevX for V4L2 subdevices
VFL_TYPE_SDR /dev/swradioX for Software Defined Radio (SDR) tuners
VFL_TYPE_TOUCH /dev/v4l-touchX for touch sensors

The last argument gives you a certain amount of control over the device device node number used (i.e. the X in videoX). Normally you will pass -1 to let the v4l2 framework pick the first free number. But sometimes users want to select a specific node number. It is common that drivers allow the user to select a specific device node number through a driver module option. That number is then passed to this function and video_register_device will attempt to select that device node number. If that number was already in use, then the next free device node number will be selected and it will send a warning to the kernel log.

Another use-case is if a driver creates many devices. In that case it can be useful to place different video devices in separate ranges. For example, video capture devices start at 0, video output devices start at 16. So you can use the last argument to specify a minimum device node number and the v4l2 framework will try to pick the first free number that is equal or higher to what you passed. If that fails, then it will just pick the first free number.

Since in this case you do not care about a warning about not being able to select the specified device node number, you can call the function video_register_device_no_warn() instead.

Whenever a device node is created some attributes are also created for you. If you look in /sys/class/video4linux you see the devices. Go into e.g. video0 and you will see ‘name’, ‘dev_debug’ and ‘index’ attributes. The ‘name’ attribute is the ‘name’ field of the video_device struct. The ‘dev_debug’ attribute can be used to enable core debugging. See the next section for more detailed information on this.

The ‘index’ attribute is the index of the device node: for each call to video_register_device() the index is just increased by 1. The first video device node you register always starts with index 0.

Users can setup udev rules that utilize the index attribute to make fancy device names (e.g. ‘mpegX’ for MPEG video capture device nodes).

After the device was successfully registered, then you can use these fields:

If the registration failed, then you need to call video_device_release() to free the allocated video_device struct, or free your own struct if the video_device was embedded in it. The vdev->release() callback will never be called if the registration failed, nor should you ever attempt to unregister the device if the registration failed.

1.4.3. video device debugging

The ‘dev_debug’ attribute that is created for each video, vbi, radio or swradio device in /sys/class/video4linux/<devX>/ allows you to enable logging of file operations.

It is a bitmask and the following bits can be set:

Mask Description
0x01 Log the ioctl name and error code. VIDIOC_(D)QBUF ioctls are only logged if bit 0x08 is also set.
0x02 Log the ioctl name arguments and error code. VIDIOC_(D)QBUF ioctls are only logged if bit 0x08 is also set.
0x04 Log the file operations open, release, read, write, mmap and get_unmapped_area. The read and write operations are only logged if bit 0x08 is also set.
0x08 Log the read and write file operations and the VIDIOC_QBUF and VIDIOC_DQBUF ioctls.
0x10 Log the poll file operation.
0x20 Log error and messages in the control operations.

1.4.4. Video device cleanup

When the video device nodes have to be removed, either during the unload of the driver or because the USB device was disconnected, then you should unregister them with:

This will remove the device nodes from sysfs (causing udev to remove them from /dev).

After video_unregister_device() returns no new opens can be done. However, in the case of USB devices some application might still have one of these device nodes open. So after the unregister all file operations (except release, of course) will return an error as well.

When the last user of the video device node exits, then the vdev->release() callback is called and you can do the final cleanup there.

Don’t forget to cleanup the media entity associated with the video device if it has been initialized:

media_entity_cleanup (&vdev->entity);

This can be done from the release callback.

1.4.5. helper functions

There are a few useful helper functions:

You can set/get driver private data in the video_device struct using:

Note that you can safely call video_set_drvdata() before calling video_register_device().

And this function:

video_devdata (struct file *file);

returns the video_device belonging to the file struct.

The video_devdata() function combines video_get_drvdata() with video_devdata():

video_drvdata (struct file *file);

You can go from a video_device struct to the v4l2_device struct using:

struct v4l2_device *v4l2_dev = vdev->v4l2_dev;
  • Device node name

The video_device node kernel name can be retrieved using:

The name is used as a hint by userspace tools such as udev. The function should be used where possible instead of accessing the video_device::num and video_device::minor fields.

1.4.6. video_device functions and data structures

enum vfl_devnode_type

type of V4L2 device node

Constants

VFL_TYPE_VIDEO
for video input/output devices
VFL_TYPE_VBI
for vertical blank data (i.e. closed captions, teletext)
VFL_TYPE_RADIO
for radio tuners
VFL_TYPE_SUBDEV
for V4L2 subdevices
VFL_TYPE_SDR
for Software Defined Radio tuners
VFL_TYPE_TOUCH
for touch sensors
VFL_TYPE_MAX
number of VFL types, must always be last in the enum
enum vfl_devnode_direction

Identifies if a struct video_device corresponds to a receiver, a transmitter or a mem-to-mem device.

Constants

VFL_DIR_RX
device is a receiver.
VFL_DIR_TX
device is a transmitter.
VFL_DIR_M2M
device is a memory to memory device.

Note

Ignored if enum vfl_devnode_type is VFL_TYPE_SUBDEV.

enum v4l2_video_device_flags

Flags used by struct video_device

Constants

V4L2_FL_REGISTERED
indicates that a struct video_device is registered. Drivers can clear this flag if they want to block all future device access. It is cleared by video_unregister_device.
V4L2_FL_USES_V4L2_FH
indicates that file->private_data points to struct v4l2_fh. This flag is set by the core when v4l2_fh_init() is called. All new drivers should use it.
V4L2_FL_QUIRK_INVERTED_CROP
some old M2M drivers use g/s_crop/cropcap incorrectly: crop and compose are swapped. If this flag is set, then the selection targets are swapped in the g/s_crop/cropcap functions in v4l2-ioctl.c. This allows those drivers to correctly implement the selection API, but the old crop API will still work as expected in order to preserve backwards compatibility. Never set this flag for new drivers.
V4L2_FL_SUBDEV_RO_DEVNODE
indicates that the video device node is registered in read-only mode. The flag only applies to device nodes registered for sub-devices, it is set by the core when the sub-devices device nodes are registered with v4l2_device_register_ro_subdev_nodes() and used by the sub-device ioctl handler to restrict access to some ioctl calls.
struct v4l2_prio_state

stores the priority states

Definition

struct v4l2_prio_state {
  atomic_t prios[4];
};

Members

prios
array with elements to store the array priorities

Description

Note

The size of prios array matches the number of priority types defined by enum v4l2_priority.

void v4l2_prio_init(struct v4l2_prio_state * global)

initializes a struct v4l2_prio_state

Parameters

struct v4l2_prio_state * global
pointer to struct v4l2_prio_state
int v4l2_prio_change(struct v4l2_prio_state * global, enum v4l2_priority * local, enum v4l2_priority new)

changes the v4l2 file handler priority

Parameters

struct v4l2_prio_state * global
pointer to the struct v4l2_prio_state of the device node.
enum v4l2_priority * local
pointer to the desired priority, as defined by enum v4l2_priority
enum v4l2_priority new
Priority type requested, as defined by enum v4l2_priority.

Description

Note

This function should be used only by the V4L2 core.

void v4l2_prio_open(struct v4l2_prio_state * global, enum v4l2_priority * local)

Implements the priority logic for a file handler open

Parameters

struct v4l2_prio_state * global
pointer to the struct v4l2_prio_state of the device node.
enum v4l2_priority * local
pointer to the desired priority, as defined by enum v4l2_priority

Description

Note

This function should be used only by the V4L2 core.

void v4l2_prio_close(struct v4l2_prio_state * global, enum v4l2_priority local)

Implements the priority logic for a file handler close

Parameters

struct v4l2_prio_state * global
pointer to the struct v4l2_prio_state of the device node.
enum v4l2_priority local
priority to be released, as defined by enum v4l2_priority

Description

Note

This function should be used only by the V4L2 core.

enum v4l2_priority v4l2_prio_max(struct v4l2_prio_state * global)

Return the maximum priority, as stored at the global array.

Parameters

struct v4l2_prio_state * global
pointer to the struct v4l2_prio_state of the device node.

Description

Note

This function should be used only by the V4L2 core.

int v4l2_prio_check(struct v4l2_prio_state * global, enum v4l2_priority local)

Implements the priority logic for a file handler close

Parameters

struct v4l2_prio_state * global
pointer to the struct v4l2_prio_state of the device node.
enum v4l2_priority local
desired priority, as defined by enum v4l2_priority local

Description

Note

This function should be used only by the V4L2 core.

struct v4l2_file_operations

fs operations used by a V4L2 device

Definition

struct v4l2_file_operations {
  struct module *owner;
  ssize_t (*read) (struct file *, char __user *, size_t, loff_t *);
  ssize_t (*write) (struct file *, const char __user *, size_t, loff_t *);
  __poll_t (*poll) (struct file *, struct poll_table_struct *);
  long (*unlocked_ioctl) (struct file *, unsigned int, unsigned long);
#ifdef CONFIG_COMPAT;
  long (*compat_ioctl32) (struct file *, unsigned int, unsigned long);
#endif;
  unsigned long (*get_unmapped_area) (struct file *, unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long);
  int (*mmap) (struct file *, struct vm_area_struct *);
  int (*open) (struct file *);
  int (*release) (struct file *);
};

Members

owner
pointer to struct module
read
operations needed to implement the read() syscall
write
operations needed to implement the write() syscall
poll
operations needed to implement the poll() syscall
unlocked_ioctl
operations needed to implement the ioctl() syscall
compat_ioctl32
operations needed to implement the ioctl() syscall for the special case where the Kernel uses 64 bits instructions, but the userspace uses 32 bits.
get_unmapped_area
called by the mmap() syscall, used when %!CONFIG_MMU
mmap
operations needed to implement the mmap() syscall
open
operations needed to implement the open() syscall
release
operations needed to implement the release() syscall

Description

Note

Those operations are used to implemente the fs struct file_operations at the V4L2 drivers. The V4L2 core overrides the fs ops with some extra logic needed by the subsystem.

struct video_device

Structure used to create and manage the V4L2 device nodes.

Definition

struct video_device {
#if defined(CONFIG_MEDIA_CONTROLLER);
  struct media_entity entity;
  struct media_intf_devnode *intf_devnode;
  struct media_pipeline pipe;
#endif;
  const struct v4l2_file_operations *fops;
  u32 device_caps;
  struct device dev;
  struct cdev *cdev;
  struct v4l2_device *v4l2_dev;
  struct device *dev_parent;
  struct v4l2_ctrl_handler *ctrl_handler;
  struct vb2_queue *queue;
  struct v4l2_prio_state *prio;
  char name[32];
  enum vfl_devnode_type vfl_type;
  enum vfl_devnode_direction vfl_dir;
  int minor;
  u16 num;
  unsigned long flags;
  int index;
  spinlock_t fh_lock;
  struct list_head        fh_list;
  int dev_debug;
  v4l2_std_id tvnorms;
  void (*release)(struct video_device *vdev);
  const struct v4l2_ioctl_ops *ioctl_ops;
  unsigned long valid_ioctls[BITS_TO_LONGS(BASE_VIDIOC_PRIVATE)];
  struct mutex *lock;
};

Members

entity
struct media_entity
intf_devnode
pointer to struct media_intf_devnode
pipe
struct media_pipeline
fops
pointer to struct v4l2_file_operations for the video device
device_caps
device capabilities as used in v4l2_capabilities
dev
struct device for the video device
cdev
character device
v4l2_dev
pointer to struct v4l2_device parent
dev_parent
pointer to struct device parent
ctrl_handler
Control handler associated with this device node. May be NULL.
queue
struct vb2_queue associated with this device node. May be NULL.
prio
pointer to struct v4l2_prio_state with device’s Priority state. If NULL, then v4l2_dev->prio will be used.
name
video device name
vfl_type
V4L device type, as defined by enum vfl_devnode_type
vfl_dir
V4L receiver, transmitter or m2m
minor
device node ‘minor’. It is set to -1 if the registration failed
num
number of the video device node
flags
video device flags. Use bitops to set/clear/test flags. Contains a set of enum v4l2_video_device_flags.
index
attribute to differentiate multiple indices on one physical device
fh_lock
Lock for all v4l2_fhs
fh_list
List of struct v4l2_fh
dev_debug
Internal device debug flags, not for use by drivers
tvnorms
Supported tv norms
release
video device release() callback
ioctl_ops
pointer to struct v4l2_ioctl_ops with ioctl callbacks
valid_ioctls
bitmap with the valid ioctls for this device
lock
pointer to struct mutex serialization lock

Description

Note

Only set dev_parent if that can’t be deduced from v4l2_dev.

media_entity_to_video_device(__entity)

Returns a struct video_device from the struct media_entity embedded on it.

Parameters

__entity
pointer to struct media_entity
to_video_device(cd)

Returns a struct video_device from the struct device embedded on it.

Parameters

cd
pointer to struct device
int __video_register_device(struct video_device * vdev, enum vfl_devnode_type type, int nr, int warn_if_nr_in_use, struct module * owner)

register video4linux devices

Parameters

struct video_device * vdev
struct video_device to register
enum vfl_devnode_type type
type of device to register, as defined by enum vfl_devnode_type
int nr
which device node number is desired: (0 == /dev/video0, 1 == /dev/video1, …, -1 == first free)
int warn_if_nr_in_use
warn if the desired device node number was already in use and another number was chosen instead.
struct module * owner
module that owns the video device node

Description

The registration code assigns minor numbers and device node numbers based on the requested type and registers the new device node with the kernel.

This function assumes that struct video_device was zeroed when it was allocated and does not contain any stale date.

An error is returned if no free minor or device node number could be found, or if the registration of the device node failed.

Returns 0 on success.

Note

This function is meant to be used only inside the V4L2 core. Drivers should use video_register_device() or video_register_device_no_warn().

int video_register_device(struct video_device * vdev, enum vfl_devnode_type type, int nr)

register video4linux devices

Parameters

struct video_device * vdev
struct video_device to register
enum vfl_devnode_type type
type of device to register, as defined by enum vfl_devnode_type
int nr
which device node number is desired: (0 == /dev/video0, 1 == /dev/video1, …, -1 == first free)

Description

Internally, it calls __video_register_device(). Please see its documentation for more details.

Note

if video_register_device fails, the release() callback of struct video_device structure is not called, so the caller is responsible for freeing any data. Usually that means that you video_device_release() should be called on failure.

int video_register_device_no_warn(struct video_device * vdev, enum vfl_devnode_type type, int nr)

register video4linux devices

Parameters

struct video_device * vdev
struct video_device to register
enum vfl_devnode_type type
type of device to register, as defined by enum vfl_devnode_type
int nr
which device node number is desired: (0 == /dev/video0, 1 == /dev/video1, …, -1 == first free)

Description

This function is identical to video_register_device() except that no warning is issued if the desired device node number was already in use.

Internally, it calls __video_register_device(). Please see its documentation for more details.

Note

if video_register_device fails, the release() callback of struct video_device structure is not called, so the caller is responsible for freeing any data. Usually that means that you video_device_release() should be called on failure.

void video_unregister_device(struct video_device * vdev)

Unregister video devices.

Parameters

struct video_device * vdev
struct video_device to register

Description

Does nothing if vdev == NULL or if video_is_registered() returns false.

struct video_device * video_device_alloc(void)

helper function to alloc struct video_device

Parameters

void
no arguments

Description

Returns NULL if -ENOMEM or a struct video_device on success.

void video_device_release(struct video_device * vdev)

helper function to release struct video_device

Parameters

struct video_device * vdev
pointer to struct video_device

Description

Can also be used for video_device->release().

void video_device_release_empty(struct video_device * vdev)

helper function to implement the video_device->release() callback.

Parameters

struct video_device * vdev
pointer to struct video_device

Description

This release function does nothing.

It should be used when the video_device is a static global struct.

Note

Having a static video_device is a dubious construction at best.

void v4l2_disable_ioctl(struct video_device * vdev, unsigned int cmd)

mark that a given command isn’t implemented. shouldn’t use core locking

Parameters

struct video_device * vdev
pointer to struct video_device
unsigned int cmd
ioctl command

Description

This function allows drivers to provide just one v4l2_ioctl_ops struct, but disable ioctls based on the specific card that is actually found.

Note

This must be called before video_register_device. See also the comments for determine_valid_ioctls().

void * video_get_drvdata(struct video_device * vdev)

gets private data from struct video_device.

Parameters

struct video_device * vdev
pointer to struct video_device

Description

returns a pointer to the private data

void video_set_drvdata(struct video_device * vdev, void * data)

sets private data from struct video_device.

Parameters

struct video_device * vdev
pointer to struct video_device
void * data
private data pointer
struct video_device * video_devdata(struct file * file)

gets struct video_device from struct file.

Parameters

struct file * file
pointer to struct file
void * video_drvdata(struct file * file)

gets private data from struct video_device using the struct file.

Parameters

struct file * file
pointer to struct file

Description

This is function combines both video_get_drvdata() and video_devdata() as this is used very often.

const char * video_device_node_name(struct video_device * vdev)

returns the video device name

Parameters

struct video_device * vdev
pointer to struct video_device

Description

Returns the device name string

int video_is_registered(struct video_device * vdev)

returns true if the struct video_device is registered.

Parameters

struct video_device * vdev
pointer to struct video_device

Description