The commit documents how to use ttyvs driver to create/delete
virtual tty devices, how to emulate various serial port events
through this driver etc.
Signed-off-by: Rishi Gupta <gupt21@xxxxxxxxx>
---
Changes in v3:
- Rebased on top of v5.7-rc1
- Moved virtual-tty-ttyvs.rst from Documentation/virtual to Documentation/admin-guide
Changes in v2:
- Added this file from v2 only
Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst | 1 +
Documentation/admin-guide/virtual-tty-ttyvs.rst | 142 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
2 files changed, 143 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 Documentation/admin-guide/virtual-tty-ttyvs.rst
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst
index 5a6269f..9a72fb8 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ ABI will be found here.
:maxdepth: 1
sysfs-rules
+ virtual-tty-ttyvs
The rest of this manual consists of various unordered guides on how to
configure specific aspects of kernel behavior to your liking.
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/virtual-tty-ttyvs.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/virtual-tty-ttyvs.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c30b768
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/virtual-tty-ttyvs.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
+================================================
+Kernel driver for virtual tty null modem devices
+================================================
+
+Author: Rishi Gupta <gupt21@xxxxxxxxx>
+
+The ttyvs driver (drivers/tty/ttyvs.c) creates virtual tty devices
+that can be used with standard POSIX APIs for terminal devices.
+
+Applications can write to the sysfs file provided by this driver to
+emulate various serial port communication events and error conditions.
+
+This driver creates a virtual card which can have 0 to 65535 virtual
+tty devices.
+
+Use cases
+=========
+- Automated performance and scalability testing
+- Serial port redirector to any other subsystem like TCP/IP
+- Feeding data to GPS simulator
+- Segregating hardware issues from software bugs quickly
+- Serial port communication sniffer or test sniffer application itself
+- Application development when hardware is still not available
+- Testing user space drivers & corner case by injecting handcrafted data
+- Migrate binary only or legacy applications to new communication medium
+- Analyze and reverse-engineer serial protocols
+- Cases where socat utility does not meet requirements for unix-like OS
+- Cases where available physical serial ports don't meet requirements
+- Product demo where data from hardware needs to be sent to the GUI app
+- Stress and corner case testing of user space application
+
+How to create devices
+=====================
+There are two ways to create devices:
+
+1. Using device tree:
+The card is modelled as a node with zero or more child nodes each
+representing a virtual tty device. To create a device simply define
+a child node with the required device parameters. This is explained
+in detail in DT binding file:
+Documentation/devicetree/bindings/serial/ttyvs.yaml
+
+2. Using configfs:
+When ttyvs driver is loaded, it will create ttyvs directory inside
+configfs mount point. For ex; if configfs is mounted at /config, then
+/config/ttyvs directory will be created. To create a device, simply
+create directory inside this, write values to be used as device
+parameters and finally write 1 to create attribute. Defining ownidx
+and devtype is mandatory.
+
+Pin mappings are bit maps; set bit 0 to connect a pin to CTS pin,
+set bit 1 to connect to DCD pin, set bit 2 to connect to DSR and
+set bit 3 to connect to RI. Pin naming conventions are follows
+standard RS232 DB9 connector naming conventions.
+
+An example to create a loop-back device with device number as 0
+(/dev/ttyvs0), RTS and DTR pins unconnected, no need to assert DTR
+when device is opened would be something like this:
+
+.. code-block:: sh
+
+ mkdir /config/ttyvs/devlb-0
+ echo 0 > /config/ttyvs/devlb-0/ownidx
+ echo lb > /config/ttyvs/devlb-0/devtype
+ echo 0 > /config/ttyvs/devlb-0/ortsmap
+ echo 0 > /config/ttyvs/devlb-0/odtrmap
+ echo 0 > /config/ttyvs/devlb-0/odtratopn
+ echo 1 > /config/ttyvs/devlb-0/create
+
+An example to create a standard null modem pair with device numbers
+0 and 1 with pin numbers as per RS232 standards will be something
+like this:
+
+.. code-block:: sh
+
+ /dev/ttyvs0 /dev/ttyvs1
+ TX (3) ----> (2) RX
+ RX (2) <---- (3) TX
+ RTS (7) ----> (8) CTS
+ DTR (4) --+-> (1) DCD
+ +-> (6) DSR
+ CTS (8) <---- (7) RTS
+ DCD (1) <-+-- (4) DTR
+ DSR (6) <-+
+
+ mkdir /config/ttyvs/devnm-0-1
+ echo nm > /config/ttyvs/devnm-0-1/devtype
+ echo 0 > /config/ttyvs/devnm-0-1/ownidx
+ echo 1 > /config/ttyvs/devnm-0-1/ortsmap
+ echo 6 > /config/ttyvs/devnm-0-1/odtrmap
+ echo 0 > /config/ttyvs/devnm-0-1/odtratopn
+ echo 1 > /config/ttyvs/devnm-0-1/peeridx
+ echo 1 > /config/ttyvs/devnm-0-1/prtsmap
+ echo 6 > /config/ttyvs/devnm-0-1/pdtrmap
+ echo 0 > /config/ttyvs/devnm-0-1/pdtratopn
+ echo 1 > /config/ttyvs/devnm-0-1/create
+
+Directory name devnm-0-1 can be user defined. We used this simple style
+as it is intuitive to understand that the device is null modem with
+numbers 0 and 1. Further, to use configfs based approach, kernel must
+be compiled with CONFIG_CONFIGFS_FS=y option.
+
+How to delete devices
+=====================
+To delete a device created by configfs simply delete the directory
+created in /config/ttyvs directory. If the device is part of a null
+modem pair, peer device will also be deleted automatically.
+
+How to emulate events
+=====================
+When a virtual tty device is created, an event sysfs file will also
+be created by the driver (/sys/class/tty/ttyvsN/event N is device
+number).
+
+1. Emulating framing error: the driver inserts -7 in data buffer as
+the byte that got corrupted due to framing error while receiving data.
+To emulate this write 1 to /sys/class/tty/ttyvsN/event file.
+
+2. Emulating parity error: the driver inserts -8 in data buffer as
+the byte that got corrupted due to parity error while receiving data.
+To emulate this write 2 to /sys/class/tty/ttyvsN/event file.
+
+3. Emulating overrun error: the driver reports to tty layer that an
+overrun has happened.To emulate this write 3 to /sys/class/tty/ttyvsN/event
+file.
+
+4. Emulating ring indication: to emulate as if ring indication has been
+observed write 4 to the event file. To emulate as if ring indication has
+been removed write 5 to the event file.
+
+5. Emulate break received: to emulate as if break condition has been received
+write 6 to the /sys/class/tty/ttyvsN/event file.
+
+6. Emulate faulty cable: to emulate as if the cable is faulty write 7
+to the event file. In this case data sent from sender will not be received
+by the receiver end. To remove this condition write 8 to the event file.
+
+How to support more devices
+===========================
+By default ttyvs driver supports upto 64 devices. This can be
+changed by passing module parameter max_num_vs_devs or by defining
+max-num-vs-devs device tree property.
--
2.7.4
