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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+The Virtual PCM Test Driver
+===========================
+
+The Virtual PCM Test Driver emulates a generic PCM device, and can be used for
+testing/fuzzing of the userspace ALSA applications, as well as for testing/fuzzing of
+the PCM middle layer. Additionally, it can be used for simulating hard to reproduce
+problems with PCM devices.
+
+What can this driver do?
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+At this moment the driver can do the following things:
+ * Simulate both capture and playback processes
+ * Generate random or pattern-based capturing data
+ * Inject delays into the playback and capturing processes
+ * Inject errors during the PCM callbacks
+
+It supports up to 8 substreams and 4 channels. Also it supports both interleaved and
+non-interleaved access modes.
+
+Also, this driver can check the playback stream for containing the predefined pattern,
+which is used in the corresponding selftest (alsa/pcmtest-test.sh) to check the PCM middle
+layer data transferring functionality. Additionally, this driver redefines the default
+RESET ioctl, and the selftest covers this PCM API functionality as well.
+
+Configuration
+-------------
+
+The driver has several parameters besides the common ALSA module parameters:
+
+ * fill_mode (bool) - Buffer fill mode (see below)
+ * inject_delay (int)
+ * inject_hwpars_err (bool)
+ * inject_prepare_err (bool)
+ * inject_trigger_err (bool)
+
+
+Capture Data Generation
+-----------------------
+
+The driver has two modes of data generation: the first (0 in the fill_mode parameter)
+means random data generation, the second (1 in the fill_mode) - pattern-based
+data generation. Let's look at the second mode.
+
+First of all, you may want to specify the pattern for data generation. You can do it
+by writing the pattern to the debugfs file. There are pattern buffer debugfs entries
+for each channel, as well as entries which contain the pattern buffer length.
+
+ * /sys/kernel/debug/pcmtest/fill_pattern[0-3]
+ * /sys/kernel/debug/pcmtest/fill_pattern[0-3]_len
+
+To set the pattern for the channel 0 you can execute the following command:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+ echo -n mycoolpattern > /sys/kernel/debug/pcmtest/fill_pattern0
+
+Then, after every capture action performed on the 'pcmtest' device the buffer for the
+channel 0 will contain 'mycoolpatternmycoolpatternmycoolpatternmy...'.
+
+The pattern itself can be up to 4096 bytes long.
+
+Delay injection
+---------------
+
+The driver has 'inject_delay' parameter, which has very self-descriptive name and
+can be used for time delay/speedup simulations. The parameter has integer type, and
+it means the delay added between module's internal timer ticks.
+
+If the 'inject_delay' value is positive, the buffer will be filled slower, if it is
+negative - faster. You can try it yourself by starting a recording in any
+audiorecording application (like Audacity) and selecting the 'pcmtest' device as a
+source.
+
+This parameter can be also used for generating a huge amount of sound data in a very
+short period of time (with the negative 'inject_delay' value).
+
+Errors injection
+----------------
+
+This module can be used for injecting errors into the PCM communication process. This
+action can help you to figure out how the userspace ALSA program behaves under unusual
+circumstances.
+
+For example, you can make all 'hw_params' PCM callback calls return EBUSY error by
+writing '1' to the 'inject_hwpars_err' module parameter:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+ echo 1 > /sys/module/snd_pcmtest/parameters/inject_hwpars_err
+
+Errors can be injected into the following PCM callbacks:
+
+ * hw_params (EBUSY)
+ * prepare (EINVAL)
+ * trigger (EINVAL)
+
+Playback test
+-------------
+
+This driver can be also used for the playback functionality testing - every time you
+write the playback data to the 'pcmtest' PCM device and close it, the driver checks the
+buffer for containing the looped pattern (which is specified in the fill_pattern
+debugfs file for each channel). If the playback buffer content represents the looped
+pattern, 'pc_test' debugfs entry is set into '1'. Otherwise, the driver sets it to '0'.
+
+ioctl redefinition test
+-----------------------
+
+The driver redefines the 'reset' ioctl, which is default for all PCM devices. To test
+this functionality, we can trigger the reset ioctl and check the 'ioctl_test' debugfs
+entry:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+ cat /sys/kernel/debug/pcmtest/ioctl_test
+
+If the ioctl is triggered successfully, this file will contain '1', and '0' otherwise.