summary refs log tree commit diff
path: root/Documentation/driver-api/usb/usb.rst
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/driver-api/usb/usb.rst')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/driver-api/usb/usb.rst1047
1 files changed, 1047 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/usb/usb.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/usb/usb.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..dba0f876b36f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/driver-api/usb/usb.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,1047 @@
+.. _usb-hostside-api:
+
+===========================
+The Linux-USB Host Side API
+===========================
+
+Introduction to USB on Linux
+============================
+
+A Universal Serial Bus (USB) is used to connect a host, such as a PC or
+workstation, to a number of peripheral devices. USB uses a tree
+structure, with the host as the root (the system's master), hubs as
+interior nodes, and peripherals as leaves (and slaves). Modern PCs
+support several such trees of USB devices, usually
+a few USB 3.0 (5 GBit/s) or USB 3.1 (10 GBit/s) and some legacy
+USB 2.0 (480 MBit/s) busses just in case.
+
+That master/slave asymmetry was designed-in for a number of reasons, one
+being ease of use. It is not physically possible to mistake upstream and
+downstream or it does not matter with a type C plug (or they are built into the
+peripheral). Also, the host software doesn't need to deal with
+distributed auto-configuration since the pre-designated master node
+manages all that.
+
+Kernel developers added USB support to Linux early in the 2.2 kernel
+series and have been developing it further since then. Besides support
+for each new generation of USB, various host controllers gained support,
+new drivers for peripherals have been added and advanced features for latency
+measurement and improved power management introduced.
+
+Linux can run inside USB devices as well as on the hosts that control
+the devices. But USB device drivers running inside those peripherals
+don't do the same things as the ones running inside hosts, so they've
+been given a different name: *gadget drivers*. This document does not
+cover gadget drivers.
+
+USB Host-Side API Model
+=======================
+
+Host-side drivers for USB devices talk to the "usbcore" APIs. There are
+two. One is intended for *general-purpose* drivers (exposed through
+driver frameworks), and the other is for drivers that are *part of the
+core*. Such core drivers include the *hub* driver (which manages trees
+of USB devices) and several different kinds of *host controller
+drivers*, which control individual busses.
+
+The device model seen by USB drivers is relatively complex.
+
+-  USB supports four kinds of data transfers (control, bulk, interrupt,
+   and isochronous). Two of them (control and bulk) use bandwidth as
+   it's available, while the other two (interrupt and isochronous) are
+   scheduled to provide guaranteed bandwidth.
+
+-  The device description model includes one or more "configurations"
+   per device, only one of which is active at a time. Devices are supposed
+   to be capable of operating at lower than their top
+   speeds and may provide a BOS descriptor showing the lowest speed they
+   remain fully operational at.
+
+-  From USB 3.0 on configurations have one or more "functions", which
+   provide a common functionality and are grouped together for purposes
+   of power management.
+
+-  Configurations or functions have one or more "interfaces", each of which may have
+   "alternate settings". Interfaces may be standardized by USB "Class"
+   specifications, or may be specific to a vendor or device.
+
+   USB device drivers actually bind to interfaces, not devices. Think of
+   them as "interface drivers", though you may not see many devices
+   where the distinction is important. *Most USB devices are simple,
+   with only one function, one configuration, one interface, and one alternate
+   setting.*
+
+-  Interfaces have one or more "endpoints", each of which supports one
+   type and direction of data transfer such as "bulk out" or "interrupt
+   in". The entire configuration may have up to sixteen endpoints in
+   each direction, allocated as needed among all the interfaces.
+
+-  Data transfer on USB is packetized; each endpoint has a maximum
+   packet size. Drivers must often be aware of conventions such as
+   flagging the end of bulk transfers using "short" (including zero
+   length) packets.
+
+-  The Linux USB API supports synchronous calls for control and bulk
+   messages. It also supports asynchronous calls for all kinds of data
+   transfer, using request structures called "URBs" (USB Request
+   Blocks).
+
+Accordingly, the USB Core API exposed to device drivers covers quite a
+lot of territory. You'll probably need to consult the USB 3.0
+specification, available online from www.usb.org at no cost, as well as
+class or device specifications.
+
+The only host-side drivers that actually touch hardware (reading/writing
+registers, handling IRQs, and so on) are the HCDs. In theory, all HCDs
+provide the same functionality through the same API. In practice, that's
+becoming more true, but there are still differences
+that crop up especially with fault handling on the less common controllers.
+Different controllers don't
+necessarily report the same aspects of failures, and recovery from
+faults (including software-induced ones like unlinking an URB) isn't yet
+fully consistent. Device driver authors should make a point of doing
+disconnect testing (while the device is active) with each different host
+controller driver, to make sure drivers don't have bugs of their own as
+well as to make sure they aren't relying on some HCD-specific behavior.
+
+.. _usb_chapter9:
+
+USB-Standard Types
+==================
+
+In ``<linux/usb/ch9.h>`` you will find the USB data types defined in
+chapter 9 of the USB specification. These data types are used throughout
+USB, and in APIs including this host side API, gadget APIs, usb character
+devices and debugfs interfaces.
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/usb/ch9.h
+   :internal:
+
+.. _usb_header:
+
+Host-Side Data Types and Macros
+===============================
+
+The host side API exposes several layers to drivers, some of which are
+more necessary than others. These support lifecycle models for host side
+drivers and devices, and support passing buffers through usbcore to some
+HCD that performs the I/O for the device driver.
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/usb.h
+   :internal:
+
+USB Core APIs
+=============
+
+There are two basic I/O models in the USB API. The most elemental one is
+asynchronous: drivers submit requests in the form of an URB, and the
+URB's completion callback handles the next step. All USB transfer types
+support that model, although there are special cases for control URBs
+(which always have setup and status stages, but may not have a data
+stage) and isochronous URBs (which allow large packets and include
+per-packet fault reports). Built on top of that is synchronous API
+support, where a driver calls a routine that allocates one or more URBs,
+submits them, and waits until they complete. There are synchronous
+wrappers for single-buffer control and bulk transfers (which are awkward
+to use in some driver disconnect scenarios), and for scatterlist based
+streaming i/o (bulk or interrupt).
+
+USB drivers need to provide buffers that can be used for DMA, although
+they don't necessarily need to provide the DMA mapping themselves. There
+are APIs to use used when allocating DMA buffers, which can prevent use
+of bounce buffers on some systems. In some cases, drivers may be able to
+rely on 64bit DMA to eliminate another kind of bounce buffer.
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/usb/core/urb.c
+   :export:
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/usb/core/message.c
+   :export:
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/usb/core/file.c
+   :export:
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/usb/core/driver.c
+   :export:
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/usb/core/usb.c
+   :export:
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/usb/core/hub.c
+   :export:
+
+Host Controller APIs
+====================
+
+These APIs are only for use by host controller drivers, most of which
+implement standard register interfaces such as XHCI, EHCI, OHCI, or UHCI. UHCI
+was one of the first interfaces, designed by Intel and also used by VIA;
+it doesn't do much in hardware. OHCI was designed later, to have the
+hardware do more work (bigger transfers, tracking protocol state, and so
+on). EHCI was designed with USB 2.0; its design has features that
+resemble OHCI (hardware does much more work) as well as UHCI (some parts
+of ISO support, TD list processing). XHCI was designed with USB 3.0. It
+continues to shift support for functionality into hardware.
+
+There are host controllers other than the "big three", although most PCI
+based controllers (and a few non-PCI based ones) use one of those
+interfaces. Not all host controllers use DMA; some use PIO, and there is
+also a simulator and a virtual host controller to pipe USB over the network.
+
+The same basic APIs are available to drivers for all those controllers.
+For historical reasons they are in two layers: :c:type:`struct
+usb_bus <usb_bus>` is a rather thin layer that became available
+in the 2.2 kernels, while :c:type:`struct usb_hcd <usb_hcd>`
+is a more featureful layer
+that lets HCDs share common code, to shrink driver size and
+significantly reduce hcd-specific behaviors.
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/usb/core/hcd.c
+   :export:
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/usb/core/hcd-pci.c
+   :export:
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/usb/core/buffer.c
+   :internal:
+
+The USB character device nodes
+==============================
+
+This chapter presents the Linux character device nodes. You may prefer
+to avoid writing new kernel code for your USB driver. User mode device
+drivers are usually packaged as applications or libraries, and may use
+character devices through some programming library that wraps it.
+Such libraries include:
+
+ - `libusb <http://libusb.sourceforge.net>`__ for C/C++, and
+ - `jUSB <http://jUSB.sourceforge.net>`__ for Java.
+
+Some old information about it can be seen at the "USB Device Filesystem"
+section of the USB Guide. The latest copy of the USB Guide can be found
+at http://www.linux-usb.org/
+
+.. note::
+
+  - They were used to be implemented via *usbfs*, but this is not part of
+    the sysfs debug interface.
+
+   - This particular documentation is incomplete, especially with respect
+     to the asynchronous mode. As of kernel 2.5.66 the code and this
+     (new) documentation need to be cross-reviewed.
+
+What files are in "devtmpfs"?
+-----------------------------
+
+Conventionally mounted at ``/dev/bus/usb/``, usbfs features include:
+
+-  ``/dev/bus/usb/BBB/DDD`` ... magic files exposing the each device's
+   configuration descriptors, and supporting a series of ioctls for
+   making device requests, including I/O to devices. (Purely for access
+   by programs.)
+
+Each bus is given a number (``BBB``) based on when it was enumerated; within
+each bus, each device is given a similar number (``DDD``). Those ``BBB/DDD``
+paths are not "stable" identifiers; expect them to change even if you
+always leave the devices plugged in to the same hub port. *Don't even
+think of saving these in application configuration files.* Stable
+identifiers are available, for user mode applications that want to use
+them. HID and networking devices expose these stable IDs, so that for
+example you can be sure that you told the right UPS to power down its
+second server. Pleast note that it doesn't (yet) expose those IDs.
+
+/dev/bus/usb/BBB/DDD
+--------------------
+
+Use these files in one of these basic ways:
+
+- *They can be read,* producing first the device descriptor (18 bytes) and
+  then the descriptors for the current configuration. See the USB 2.0 spec
+  for details about those binary data formats. You'll need to convert most
+  multibyte values from little endian format to your native host byte
+  order, although a few of the fields in the device descriptor (both of
+  the BCD-encoded fields, and the vendor and product IDs) will be
+  byteswapped for you. Note that configuration descriptors include
+  descriptors for interfaces, altsettings, endpoints, and maybe additional
+  class descriptors.
+
+- *Perform USB operations* using *ioctl()* requests to make endpoint I/O
+  requests (synchronously or asynchronously) or manage the device. These
+  requests need the ``CAP_SYS_RAWIO`` capability, as well as filesystem
+  access permissions. Only one ioctl request can be made on one of these
+  device files at a time. This means that if you are synchronously reading
+  an endpoint from one thread, you won't be able to write to a different
+  endpoint from another thread until the read completes. This works for
+  *half duplex* protocols, but otherwise you'd use asynchronous i/o
+  requests.
+
+Each connected USB device has one file.  The ``BBB`` indicates the bus
+number.  The ``DDD`` indicates the device address on that bus.  Both
+of these numbers are assigned sequentially, and can be reused, so
+you can't rely on them for stable access to devices.  For example,
+it's relatively common for devices to re-enumerate while they are
+still connected (perhaps someone jostled their power supply, hub,
+or USB cable), so a device might be ``002/027`` when you first connect
+it and ``002/048`` sometime later.
+
+These files can be read as binary data.  The binary data consists
+of first the device descriptor, then the descriptors for each
+configuration of the device.  Multi-byte fields in the device descriptor
+are converted to host endianness by the kernel.  The configuration
+descriptors are in bus endian format! The configuration descriptor
+are wTotalLength bytes apart. If a device returns less configuration
+descriptor data than indicated by wTotalLength there will be a hole in
+the file for the missing bytes.  This information is also shown
+in text form by the ``/sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices`` file, described later.
+
+These files may also be used to write user-level drivers for the USB
+devices.  You would open the ``/dev/bus/usb/BBB/DDD`` file read/write,
+read its descriptors to make sure it's the device you expect, and then
+bind to an interface (or perhaps several) using an ioctl call.  You
+would issue more ioctls to the device to communicate to it using
+control, bulk, or other kinds of USB transfers.  The IOCTLs are
+listed in the ``<linux/usbdevice_fs.h>`` file, and at this writing the
+source code (``linux/drivers/usb/core/devio.c``) is the primary reference
+for how to access devices through those files.
+
+Note that since by default these ``BBB/DDD`` files are writable only by
+root, only root can write such user mode drivers.  You can selectively
+grant read/write permissions to other users by using ``chmod``.  Also,
+usbfs mount options such as ``devmode=0666`` may be helpful.
+
+
+Life Cycle of User Mode Drivers
+-------------------------------
+
+Such a driver first needs to find a device file for a device it knows
+how to handle. Maybe it was told about it because a ``/sbin/hotplug``
+event handling agent chose that driver to handle the new device. Or
+maybe it's an application that scans all the ``/dev/bus/usb`` device files,
+and ignores most devices. In either case, it should :c:func:`read()`
+all the descriptors from the device file, and check them against what it
+knows how to handle. It might just reject everything except a particular
+vendor and product ID, or need a more complex policy.
+
+Never assume there will only be one such device on the system at a time!
+If your code can't handle more than one device at a time, at least
+detect when there's more than one, and have your users choose which
+device to use.
+
+Once your user mode driver knows what device to use, it interacts with
+it in either of two styles. The simple style is to make only control
+requests; some devices don't need more complex interactions than those.
+(An example might be software using vendor-specific control requests for
+some initialization or configuration tasks, with a kernel driver for the
+rest.)
+
+More likely, you need a more complex style driver: one using non-control
+endpoints, reading or writing data and claiming exclusive use of an
+interface. *Bulk* transfers are easiest to use, but only their sibling
+*interrupt* transfers work with low speed devices. Both interrupt and
+*isochronous* transfers offer service guarantees because their bandwidth
+is reserved. Such "periodic" transfers are awkward to use through usbfs,
+unless you're using the asynchronous calls. However, interrupt transfers
+can also be used in a synchronous "one shot" style.
+
+Your user-mode driver should never need to worry about cleaning up
+request state when the device is disconnected, although it should close
+its open file descriptors as soon as it starts seeing the ENODEV errors.
+
+The ioctl() Requests
+--------------------
+
+To use these ioctls, you need to include the following headers in your
+userspace program::
+
+    #include <linux/usb.h>
+    #include <linux/usbdevice_fs.h>
+    #include <asm/byteorder.h>
+
+The standard USB device model requests, from "Chapter 9" of the USB 2.0
+specification, are automatically included from the ``<linux/usb/ch9.h>``
+header.
+
+Unless noted otherwise, the ioctl requests described here will update
+the modification time on the usbfs file to which they are applied
+(unless they fail). A return of zero indicates success; otherwise, a
+standard USB error code is returned (These are documented in
+:ref:`usb-error-codes`).
+
+Each of these files multiplexes access to several I/O streams, one per
+endpoint. Each device has one control endpoint (endpoint zero) which
+supports a limited RPC style RPC access. Devices are configured by
+hub_wq (in the kernel) setting a device-wide *configuration* that
+affects things like power consumption and basic functionality. The
+endpoints are part of USB *interfaces*, which may have *altsettings*
+affecting things like which endpoints are available. Many devices only
+have a single configuration and interface, so drivers for them will
+ignore configurations and altsettings.
+
+Management/Status Requests
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+A number of usbfs requests don't deal very directly with device I/O.
+They mostly relate to device management and status. These are all
+synchronous requests.
+
+USBDEVFS_CLAIMINTERFACE
+    This is used to force usbfs to claim a specific interface, which has
+    not previously been claimed by usbfs or any other kernel driver. The
+    ioctl parameter is an integer holding the number of the interface
+    (bInterfaceNumber from descriptor).
+
+    Note that if your driver doesn't claim an interface before trying to
+    use one of its endpoints, and no other driver has bound to it, then
+    the interface is automatically claimed by usbfs.
+
+    This claim will be released by a RELEASEINTERFACE ioctl, or by
+    closing the file descriptor. File modification time is not updated
+    by this request.
+
+USBDEVFS_CONNECTINFO
+    Says whether the device is lowspeed. The ioctl parameter points to a
+    structure like this::
+
+	struct usbdevfs_connectinfo {
+		unsigned int   devnum;
+		unsigned char  slow;
+	};
+
+    File modification time is not updated by this request.
+
+    *You can't tell whether a "not slow" device is connected at high
+    speed (480 MBit/sec) or just full speed (12 MBit/sec).* You should
+    know the devnum value already, it's the DDD value of the device file
+    name.
+
+USBDEVFS_GETDRIVER
+    Returns the name of the kernel driver bound to a given interface (a
+    string). Parameter is a pointer to this structure, which is
+    modified::
+
+	struct usbdevfs_getdriver {
+		unsigned int  interface;
+		char          driver[USBDEVFS_MAXDRIVERNAME + 1];
+	};
+
+    File modification time is not updated by this request.
+
+USBDEVFS_IOCTL
+    Passes a request from userspace through to a kernel driver that has
+    an ioctl entry in the *struct usb_driver* it registered::
+
+	struct usbdevfs_ioctl {
+		int     ifno;
+		int     ioctl_code;
+		void    *data;
+	};
+
+	/* user mode call looks like this.
+	 * 'request' becomes the driver->ioctl() 'code' parameter.
+	 * the size of 'param' is encoded in 'request', and that data
+	 * is copied to or from the driver->ioctl() 'buf' parameter.
+	 */
+	static int
+	usbdev_ioctl (int fd, int ifno, unsigned request, void *param)
+	{
+		struct usbdevfs_ioctl   wrapper;
+
+		wrapper.ifno = ifno;
+		wrapper.ioctl_code = request;
+		wrapper.data = param;
+
+		return ioctl (fd, USBDEVFS_IOCTL, &wrapper);
+	}
+
+    File modification time is not updated by this request.
+
+    This request lets kernel drivers talk to user mode code through
+    filesystem operations even when they don't create a character or
+    block special device. It's also been used to do things like ask
+    devices what device special file should be used. Two pre-defined
+    ioctls are used to disconnect and reconnect kernel drivers, so that
+    user mode code can completely manage binding and configuration of
+    devices.
+
+USBDEVFS_RELEASEINTERFACE
+    This is used to release the claim usbfs made on interface, either
+    implicitly or because of a USBDEVFS_CLAIMINTERFACE call, before the
+    file descriptor is closed. The ioctl parameter is an integer holding
+    the number of the interface (bInterfaceNumber from descriptor); File
+    modification time is not updated by this request.
+
+    .. warning::
+
+	*No security check is made to ensure that the task which made
+	the claim is the one which is releasing it. This means that user
+	mode driver may interfere other ones.*
+
+USBDEVFS_RESETEP
+    Resets the data toggle value for an endpoint (bulk or interrupt) to
+    DATA0. The ioctl parameter is an integer endpoint number (1 to 15,
+    as identified in the endpoint descriptor), with USB_DIR_IN added
+    if the device's endpoint sends data to the host.
+
+    .. Warning::
+
+	*Avoid using this request. It should probably be removed.* Using
+	it typically means the device and driver will lose toggle
+	synchronization. If you really lost synchronization, you likely
+	need to completely handshake with the device, using a request
+	like CLEAR_HALT or SET_INTERFACE.
+
+USBDEVFS_DROP_PRIVILEGES
+    This is used to relinquish the ability to do certain operations
+    which are considered to be privileged on a usbfs file descriptor.
+    This includes claiming arbitrary interfaces, resetting a device on
+    which there are currently claimed interfaces from other users, and
+    issuing USBDEVFS_IOCTL calls. The ioctl parameter is a 32 bit mask
+    of interfaces the user is allowed to claim on this file descriptor.
+    You may issue this ioctl more than one time to narrow said mask.
+
+Synchronous I/O Support
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Synchronous requests involve the kernel blocking until the user mode
+request completes, either by finishing successfully or by reporting an
+error. In most cases this is the simplest way to use usbfs, although as
+noted above it does prevent performing I/O to more than one endpoint at
+a time.
+
+USBDEVFS_BULK
+    Issues a bulk read or write request to the device. The ioctl
+    parameter is a pointer to this structure::
+
+	struct usbdevfs_bulktransfer {
+		unsigned int  ep;
+		unsigned int  len;
+		unsigned int  timeout; /* in milliseconds */
+		void          *data;
+	};
+
+    The ``ep`` value identifies a bulk endpoint number (1 to 15, as
+    identified in an endpoint descriptor), masked with USB_DIR_IN when
+    referring to an endpoint which sends data to the host from the
+    device. The length of the data buffer is identified by ``len``; Recent
+    kernels support requests up to about 128KBytes. *FIXME say how read
+    length is returned, and how short reads are handled.*.
+
+USBDEVFS_CLEAR_HALT
+    Clears endpoint halt (stall) and resets the endpoint toggle. This is
+    only meaningful for bulk or interrupt endpoints. The ioctl parameter
+    is an integer endpoint number (1 to 15, as identified in an endpoint
+    descriptor), masked with USB_DIR_IN when referring to an endpoint
+    which sends data to the host from the device.
+
+    Use this on bulk or interrupt endpoints which have stalled,
+    returning ``-EPIPE`` status to a data transfer request. Do not issue
+    the control request directly, since that could invalidate the host's
+    record of the data toggle.
+
+USBDEVFS_CONTROL
+    Issues a control request to the device. The ioctl parameter points
+    to a structure like this::
+
+	struct usbdevfs_ctrltransfer {
+		__u8   bRequestType;
+		__u8   bRequest;
+		__u16  wValue;
+		__u16  wIndex;
+		__u16  wLength;
+		__u32  timeout;  /* in milliseconds */
+		void   *data;
+	};
+
+    The first eight bytes of this structure are the contents of the
+    SETUP packet to be sent to the device; see the USB 2.0 specification
+    for details. The bRequestType value is composed by combining a
+    ``USB_TYPE_*`` value, a ``USB_DIR_*`` value, and a ``USB_RECIP_*``
+    value (from ``linux/usb.h``). If wLength is nonzero, it describes
+    the length of the data buffer, which is either written to the device
+    (USB_DIR_OUT) or read from the device (USB_DIR_IN).
+
+    At this writing, you can't transfer more than 4 KBytes of data to or
+    from a device; usbfs has a limit, and some host controller drivers
+    have a limit. (That's not usually a problem.) *Also* there's no way
+    to say it's not OK to get a short read back from the device.
+
+USBDEVFS_RESET
+    Does a USB level device reset. The ioctl parameter is ignored. After
+    the reset, this rebinds all device interfaces. File modification
+    time is not updated by this request.
+
+.. warning::
+
+	*Avoid using this call* until some usbcore bugs get fixed, since
+	it does not fully synchronize device, interface, and driver (not
+	just usbfs) state.
+
+USBDEVFS_SETINTERFACE
+    Sets the alternate setting for an interface. The ioctl parameter is
+    a pointer to a structure like this::
+
+	struct usbdevfs_setinterface {
+		unsigned int  interface;
+		unsigned int  altsetting;
+	};
+
+    File modification time is not updated by this request.
+
+    Those struct members are from some interface descriptor applying to
+    the current configuration. The interface number is the
+    bInterfaceNumber value, and the altsetting number is the
+    bAlternateSetting value. (This resets each endpoint in the
+    interface.)
+
+USBDEVFS_SETCONFIGURATION
+    Issues the :c:func:`usb_set_configuration()` call for the
+    device. The parameter is an integer holding the number of a
+    configuration (bConfigurationValue from descriptor). File
+    modification time is not updated by this request.
+
+.. warning::
+
+	*Avoid using this call* until some usbcore bugs get fixed, since
+	it does not fully synchronize device, interface, and driver (not
+	just usbfs) state.
+
+Asynchronous I/O Support
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+As mentioned above, there are situations where it may be important to
+initiate concurrent operations from user mode code. This is particularly
+important for periodic transfers (interrupt and isochronous), but it can
+be used for other kinds of USB requests too. In such cases, the
+asynchronous requests described here are essential. Rather than
+submitting one request and having the kernel block until it completes,
+the blocking is separate.
+
+These requests are packaged into a structure that resembles the URB used
+by kernel device drivers. (No POSIX Async I/O support here, sorry.) It
+identifies the endpoint type (``USBDEVFS_URB_TYPE_*``), endpoint
+(number, masked with USB_DIR_IN as appropriate), buffer and length,
+and a user "context" value serving to uniquely identify each request.
+(It's usually a pointer to per-request data.) Flags can modify requests
+(not as many as supported for kernel drivers).
+
+Each request can specify a realtime signal number (between SIGRTMIN and
+SIGRTMAX, inclusive) to request a signal be sent when the request
+completes.
+
+When usbfs returns these urbs, the status value is updated, and the
+buffer may have been modified. Except for isochronous transfers, the
+actual_length is updated to say how many bytes were transferred; if the
+USBDEVFS_URB_DISABLE_SPD flag is set ("short packets are not OK"), if
+fewer bytes were read than were requested then you get an error report::
+
+    struct usbdevfs_iso_packet_desc {
+	    unsigned int                     length;
+	    unsigned int                     actual_length;
+	    unsigned int                     status;
+    };
+
+    struct usbdevfs_urb {
+	    unsigned char                    type;
+	    unsigned char                    endpoint;
+	    int                              status;
+	    unsigned int                     flags;
+	    void                             *buffer;
+	    int                              buffer_length;
+	    int                              actual_length;
+	    int                              start_frame;
+	    int                              number_of_packets;
+	    int                              error_count;
+	    unsigned int                     signr;
+	    void                             *usercontext;
+	    struct usbdevfs_iso_packet_desc  iso_frame_desc[];
+    };
+
+For these asynchronous requests, the file modification time reflects
+when the request was initiated. This contrasts with their use with the
+synchronous requests, where it reflects when requests complete.
+
+USBDEVFS_DISCARDURB
+    *TBS* File modification time is not updated by this request.
+
+USBDEVFS_DISCSIGNAL
+    *TBS* File modification time is not updated by this request.
+
+USBDEVFS_REAPURB
+    *TBS* File modification time is not updated by this request.
+
+USBDEVFS_REAPURBNDELAY
+    *TBS* File modification time is not updated by this request.
+
+USBDEVFS_SUBMITURB
+    *TBS*
+
+The USB devices
+===============
+
+The USB devices are now exported via debugfs:
+
+-  ``/sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices`` ... a text file showing each of the USB
+   devices on known to the kernel, and their configuration descriptors.
+   You can also poll() this to learn about new devices.
+
+/sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices
+-----------------------------
+
+This file is handy for status viewing tools in user mode, which can scan
+the text format and ignore most of it. More detailed device status
+(including class and vendor status) is available from device-specific
+files. For information about the current format of this file, see the
+``Documentation/usb/proc_usb_info.txt`` file in your Linux kernel
+sources.
+
+This file, in combination with the poll() system call, can also be used
+to detect when devices are added or removed::
+
+    int fd;
+    struct pollfd pfd;
+
+    fd = open("/sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices", O_RDONLY);
+    pfd = { fd, POLLIN, 0 };
+    for (;;) {
+	/* The first time through, this call will return immediately. */
+	poll(&pfd, 1, -1);
+
+	/* To see what's changed, compare the file's previous and current
+	   contents or scan the filesystem.  (Scanning is more precise.) */
+    }
+
+Note that this behavior is intended to be used for informational and
+debug purposes. It would be more appropriate to use programs such as
+udev or HAL to initialize a device or start a user-mode helper program,
+for instance.
+
+In this file, each device's output has multiple lines of ASCII output.
+
+I made it ASCII instead of binary on purpose, so that someone
+can obtain some useful data from it without the use of an
+auxiliary program.  However, with an auxiliary program, the numbers
+in the first 4 columns of each ``T:`` line (topology info:
+Lev, Prnt, Port, Cnt) can be used to build a USB topology diagram.
+
+Each line is tagged with a one-character ID for that line::
+
+	T = Topology (etc.)
+	B = Bandwidth (applies only to USB host controllers, which are
+	virtualized as root hubs)
+	D = Device descriptor info.
+	P = Product ID info. (from Device descriptor, but they won't fit
+	together on one line)
+	S = String descriptors.
+	C = Configuration descriptor info. (* = active configuration)
+	I = Interface descriptor info.
+	E = Endpoint descriptor info.
+
+/sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices output format
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Legend::
+  d = decimal number (may have leading spaces or 0's)
+  x = hexadecimal number (may have leading spaces or 0's)
+  s = string
+
+
+
+Topology info
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+::
+
+	T:  Bus=dd Lev=dd Prnt=dd Port=dd Cnt=dd Dev#=ddd Spd=dddd MxCh=dd
+	|   |      |      |       |       |      |        |        |__MaxChildren
+	|   |      |      |       |       |      |        |__Device Speed in Mbps
+	|   |      |      |       |       |      |__DeviceNumber
+	|   |      |      |       |       |__Count of devices at this level
+	|   |      |      |       |__Connector/Port on Parent for this device
+	|   |      |      |__Parent DeviceNumber
+	|   |      |__Level in topology for this bus
+	|   |__Bus number
+	|__Topology info tag
+
+Speed may be:
+
+	======= ======================================================
+	1.5	Mbit/s for low speed USB
+	12	Mbit/s for full speed USB
+	480	Mbit/s for high speed USB (added for USB 2.0);
+		also used for Wireless USB, which has no fixed speed
+	5000	Mbit/s for SuperSpeed USB (added for USB 3.0)
+	======= ======================================================
+
+For reasons lost in the mists of time, the Port number is always
+too low by 1.  For example, a device plugged into port 4 will
+show up with ``Port=03``.
+
+Bandwidth info
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+::
+
+	B:  Alloc=ddd/ddd us (xx%), #Int=ddd, #Iso=ddd
+	|   |                       |         |__Number of isochronous requests
+	|   |                       |__Number of interrupt requests
+	|   |__Total Bandwidth allocated to this bus
+	|__Bandwidth info tag
+
+Bandwidth allocation is an approximation of how much of one frame
+(millisecond) is in use.  It reflects only periodic transfers, which
+are the only transfers that reserve bandwidth.  Control and bulk
+transfers use all other bandwidth, including reserved bandwidth that
+is not used for transfers (such as for short packets).
+
+The percentage is how much of the "reserved" bandwidth is scheduled by
+those transfers.  For a low or full speed bus (loosely, "USB 1.1"),
+90% of the bus bandwidth is reserved.  For a high speed bus (loosely,
+"USB 2.0") 80% is reserved.
+
+
+Device descriptor info & Product ID info
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+::
+
+	D:  Ver=x.xx Cls=xx(s) Sub=xx Prot=xx MxPS=dd #Cfgs=dd
+	P:  Vendor=xxxx ProdID=xxxx Rev=xx.xx
+
+where::
+
+	D:  Ver=x.xx Cls=xx(sssss) Sub=xx Prot=xx MxPS=dd #Cfgs=dd
+	|   |        |             |      |       |       |__NumberConfigurations
+	|   |        |             |      |       |__MaxPacketSize of Default Endpoint
+	|   |        |             |      |__DeviceProtocol
+	|   |        |             |__DeviceSubClass
+	|   |        |__DeviceClass
+	|   |__Device USB version
+	|__Device info tag #1
+
+where::
+
+	P:  Vendor=xxxx ProdID=xxxx Rev=xx.xx
+	|   |           |           |__Product revision number
+	|   |           |__Product ID code
+	|   |__Vendor ID code
+	|__Device info tag #2
+
+
+String descriptor info
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+::
+
+	S:  Manufacturer=ssss
+	|   |__Manufacturer of this device as read from the device.
+	|      For USB host controller drivers (virtual root hubs) this may
+	|      be omitted, or (for newer drivers) will identify the kernel
+	|      version and the driver which provides this hub emulation.
+	|__String info tag
+
+	S:  Product=ssss
+	|   |__Product description of this device as read from the device.
+	|      For older USB host controller drivers (virtual root hubs) this
+	|      indicates the driver; for newer ones, it's a product (and vendor)
+	|      description that often comes from the kernel's PCI ID database.
+	|__String info tag
+
+	S:  SerialNumber=ssss
+	|   |__Serial Number of this device as read from the device.
+	|      For USB host controller drivers (virtual root hubs) this is
+	|      some unique ID, normally a bus ID (address or slot name) that
+	|      can't be shared with any other device.
+	|__String info tag
+
+
+
+Configuration descriptor info
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+::
+
+	C:* #Ifs=dd Cfg#=dd Atr=xx MPwr=dddmA
+	| | |       |       |      |__MaxPower in mA
+	| | |       |       |__Attributes
+	| | |       |__ConfiguratioNumber
+	| | |__NumberOfInterfaces
+	| |__ "*" indicates the active configuration (others are " ")
+	|__Config info tag
+
+USB devices may have multiple configurations, each of which act
+rather differently.  For example, a bus-powered configuration
+might be much less capable than one that is self-powered.  Only
+one device configuration can be active at a time; most devices
+have only one configuration.
+
+Each configuration consists of one or more interfaces.  Each
+interface serves a distinct "function", which is typically bound
+to a different USB device driver.  One common example is a USB
+speaker with an audio interface for playback, and a HID interface
+for use with software volume control.
+
+Interface descriptor info (can be multiple per Config)
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+::
+
+	I:* If#=dd Alt=dd #EPs=dd Cls=xx(sssss) Sub=xx Prot=xx Driver=ssss
+	| | |      |      |       |             |      |       |__Driver name
+	| | |      |      |       |             |      |          or "(none)"
+	| | |      |      |       |             |      |__InterfaceProtocol
+	| | |      |      |       |             |__InterfaceSubClass
+	| | |      |      |       |__InterfaceClass
+	| | |      |      |__NumberOfEndpoints
+	| | |      |__AlternateSettingNumber
+	| | |__InterfaceNumber
+	| |__ "*" indicates the active altsetting (others are " ")
+	|__Interface info tag
+
+A given interface may have one or more "alternate" settings.
+For example, default settings may not use more than a small
+amount of periodic bandwidth.  To use significant fractions
+of bus bandwidth, drivers must select a non-default altsetting.
+
+Only one setting for an interface may be active at a time, and
+only one driver may bind to an interface at a time.  Most devices
+have only one alternate setting per interface.
+
+
+Endpoint descriptor info (can be multiple per Interface)
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+::
+
+	E:  Ad=xx(s) Atr=xx(ssss) MxPS=dddd Ivl=dddss
+	|   |        |            |         |__Interval (max) between transfers
+	|   |        |            |__EndpointMaxPacketSize
+	|   |        |__Attributes(EndpointType)
+	|   |__EndpointAddress(I=In,O=Out)
+	|__Endpoint info tag
+
+The interval is nonzero for all periodic (interrupt or isochronous)
+endpoints.  For high speed endpoints the transfer interval may be
+measured in microseconds rather than milliseconds.
+
+For high speed periodic endpoints, the ``EndpointMaxPacketSize`` reflects
+the per-microframe data transfer size.  For "high bandwidth"
+endpoints, that can reflect two or three packets (for up to
+3KBytes every 125 usec) per endpoint.
+
+With the Linux-USB stack, periodic bandwidth reservations use the
+transfer intervals and sizes provided by URBs, which can be less
+than those found in endpoint descriptor.
+
+Usage examples
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+If a user or script is interested only in Topology info, for
+example, use something like ``grep ^T: /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices``
+for only the Topology lines.  A command like
+``grep -i ^[tdp]: /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices`` can be used to list
+only the lines that begin with the characters in square brackets,
+where the valid characters are TDPCIE.  With a slightly more able
+script, it can display any selected lines (for example, only T, D,
+and P lines) and change their output format.  (The ``procusb``
+Perl script is the beginning of this idea.  It will list only
+selected lines [selected from TBDPSCIE] or "All" lines from
+``/sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices``.)
+
+The Topology lines can be used to generate a graphic/pictorial
+of the USB devices on a system's root hub.  (See more below
+on how to do this.)
+
+The Interface lines can be used to determine what driver is
+being used for each device, and which altsetting it activated.
+
+The Configuration lines could be used to list maximum power
+(in milliamps) that a system's USB devices are using.
+For example, ``grep ^C: /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices``.
+
+
+Here's an example, from a system which has a UHCI root hub,
+an external hub connected to the root hub, and a mouse and
+a serial converter connected to the external hub.
+
+::
+
+	T:  Bus=00 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=12   MxCh= 2
+	B:  Alloc= 28/900 us ( 3%), #Int=  2, #Iso=  0
+	D:  Ver= 1.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs=  1
+	P:  Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 0.00
+	S:  Product=USB UHCI Root Hub
+	S:  SerialNumber=dce0
+	C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=40 MxPwr=  0mA
+	I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
+	E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   8 Ivl=255ms
+
+	T:  Bus=00 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#=  2 Spd=12   MxCh= 4
+	D:  Ver= 1.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs=  1
+	P:  Vendor=0451 ProdID=1446 Rev= 1.00
+	C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=100mA
+	I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
+	E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   1 Ivl=255ms
+
+	T:  Bus=00 Lev=02 Prnt=02 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#=  3 Spd=1.5  MxCh= 0
+	D:  Ver= 1.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs=  1
+	P:  Vendor=04b4 ProdID=0001 Rev= 0.00
+	C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=100mA
+	I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID  ) Sub=01 Prot=02 Driver=mouse
+	E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   3 Ivl= 10ms
+
+	T:  Bus=00 Lev=02 Prnt=02 Port=02 Cnt=02 Dev#=  4 Spd=12   MxCh= 0
+	D:  Ver= 1.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs=  1
+	P:  Vendor=0565 ProdID=0001 Rev= 1.08
+	S:  Manufacturer=Peracom Networks, Inc.
+	S:  Product=Peracom USB to Serial Converter
+	C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 MxPwr=100mA
+	I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 3 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=serial
+	E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS=  64 Ivl= 16ms
+	E:  Ad=01(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS=  16 Ivl= 16ms
+	E:  Ad=82(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   8 Ivl=  8ms
+
+
+Selecting only the ``T:`` and ``I:`` lines from this (for example, by using
+``procusb ti``), we have
+
+::
+
+	T:  Bus=00 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=12   MxCh= 2
+	T:  Bus=00 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#=  2 Spd=12   MxCh= 4
+	I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
+	T:  Bus=00 Lev=02 Prnt=02 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#=  3 Spd=1.5  MxCh= 0
+	I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID  ) Sub=01 Prot=02 Driver=mouse
+	T:  Bus=00 Lev=02 Prnt=02 Port=02 Cnt=02 Dev#=  4 Spd=12   MxCh= 0
+	I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 3 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=serial
+
+
+Physically this looks like (or could be converted to)::
+
+                      +------------------+
+                      |  PC/root_hub (12)|   Dev# = 1
+                      +------------------+   (nn) is Mbps.
+    Level 0           |  CN.0   |  CN.1  |   [CN = connector/port #]
+                      +------------------+
+                          /
+                         /
+            +-----------------------+
+  Level 1   | Dev#2: 4-port hub (12)|
+            +-----------------------+
+            |CN.0 |CN.1 |CN.2 |CN.3 |
+            +-----------------------+
+                \           \____________________
+                 \_____                          \
+                       \                          \
+               +--------------------+      +--------------------+
+  Level 2      | Dev# 3: mouse (1.5)|      | Dev# 4: serial (12)|
+               +--------------------+      +--------------------+
+
+
+
+Or, in a more tree-like structure (ports [Connectors] without
+connections could be omitted)::
+
+	PC:  Dev# 1, root hub, 2 ports, 12 Mbps
+	|_ CN.0:  Dev# 2, hub, 4 ports, 12 Mbps
+	     |_ CN.0:  Dev #3, mouse, 1.5 Mbps
+	     |_ CN.1:
+	     |_ CN.2:  Dev #4, serial, 12 Mbps
+	     |_ CN.3:
+	|_ CN.1: