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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2010-03-19 23:39:42 +0300
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2010-03-19 23:39:42 +0300
commit2eb645e7b5662da47646f76b41b4141f2c9bf13a (patch)
treeb5b99f8111a72a81d085cc3e3acca706de43062e /Documentation
parent8fdb7e9f612b7c6ba6c3ba460c14263b5ce90f79 (diff)
parent12ee3c0a0ac42bed0939420468fd35f5cdceae4f (diff)
downloadlinux-2eb645e7b5662da47646f76b41b4141f2c9bf13a.tar.xz
Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/driver-core-2.6
* git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/driver-core-2.6: driver core: numa: fix BUILD_BUG_ON for node_read_distance driver-core: document ERR_PTR() return values kobject: documentation: Update to refer to kset-example.c. sysdev: the cpu probe/release attributes should be sysdev_class_attributes kobject: documentation: Fix erroneous example in kobject doc. driver-core: fix missing kernel-doc in firmware_class Driver core: Early platform kernel-doc update sysfs: fix sysfs lockdep warning in mlx4 code sysfs: fix sysfs lockdep warning in infiniband code sysfs: fix sysfs lockdep warning in ipmi code sysfs: Initialised pci bus legacy_mem field before use sysfs: use sysfs_bin_attr_init in firmware class driver
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/kobject.txt60
1 files changed, 40 insertions, 20 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/kobject.txt b/Documentation/kobject.txt
index bdb13817e1e9..3ab2472509cb 100644
--- a/Documentation/kobject.txt
+++ b/Documentation/kobject.txt
@@ -59,37 +59,56 @@ nice to have in other objects. The C language does not allow for the
direct expression of inheritance, so other techniques - such as structure
embedding - must be used.
-So, for example, the UIO code has a structure that defines the memory
-region associated with a uio device:
+(As an aside, for those familiar with the kernel linked list implementation,
+this is analogous as to how "list_head" structs are rarely useful on
+their own, but are invariably found embedded in the larger objects of
+interest.)
-struct uio_mem {
+So, for example, the UIO code in drivers/uio/uio.c has a structure that
+defines the memory region associated with a uio device:
+
+ struct uio_map {
struct kobject kobj;
- unsigned long addr;
- unsigned long size;
- int memtype;
- void __iomem *internal_addr;
-};
+ struct uio_mem *mem;
+ };
-If you have a struct uio_mem structure, finding its embedded kobject is
+If you have a struct uio_map structure, finding its embedded kobject is
just a matter of using the kobj member. Code that works with kobjects will
often have the opposite problem, however: given a struct kobject pointer,
what is the pointer to the containing structure? You must avoid tricks
(such as assuming that the kobject is at the beginning of the structure)
and, instead, use the container_of() macro, found in <linux/kernel.h>:
- container_of(pointer, type, member)
+ container_of(pointer, type, member)
+
+where:
+
+ * "pointer" is the pointer to the embedded kobject,
+ * "type" is the type of the containing structure, and
+ * "member" is the name of the structure field to which "pointer" points.
+
+The return value from container_of() is a pointer to the corresponding
+container type. So, for example, a pointer "kp" to a struct kobject
+embedded *within* a struct uio_map could be converted to a pointer to the
+*containing* uio_map structure with:
+
+ struct uio_map *u_map = container_of(kp, struct uio_map, kobj);
+
+For convenience, programmers often define a simple macro for "back-casting"
+kobject pointers to the containing type. Exactly this happens in the
+earlier drivers/uio/uio.c, as you can see here:
+
+ struct uio_map {
+ struct kobject kobj;
+ struct uio_mem *mem;
+ };
-where pointer is the pointer to the embedded kobject, type is the type of
-the containing structure, and member is the name of the structure field to
-which pointer points. The return value from container_of() is a pointer to
-the given type. So, for example, a pointer "kp" to a struct kobject
-embedded within a struct uio_mem could be converted to a pointer to the
-containing uio_mem structure with:
+ #define to_map(map) container_of(map, struct uio_map, kobj)
- struct uio_mem *u_mem = container_of(kp, struct uio_mem, kobj);
+where the macro argument "map" is a pointer to the struct kobject in
+question. That macro is subsequently invoked with:
-Programmers often define a simple macro for "back-casting" kobject pointers
-to the containing type.
+ struct uio_map *map = to_map(kobj);
Initialization of kobjects
@@ -387,4 +406,5 @@ called, and the objects in the former circle release each other.
Example code to copy from
For a more complete example of using ksets and kobjects properly, see the
-sample/kobject/kset-example.c code.
+example programs samples/kobject/{kobject-example.c,kset-example.c},
+which will be built as loadable modules if you select CONFIG_SAMPLE_KOBJECT.