Update the V4L2 sub-device userspace API introduction to provide more details on why complex devices might want to register devnodes for the connected subdevices. Acked-by: Sakari Ailus <sakari.ailus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Suggested-by: Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Jacopo Mondi <jacopo@xxxxxxxxxx> --- Documentation/media/kapi/v4l2-subdev.rst | 9 +++++++-- 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/media/kapi/v4l2-subdev.rst b/Documentation/media/kapi/v4l2-subdev.rst index 29e07e23f888..41ccb3e5c707 100644 --- a/Documentation/media/kapi/v4l2-subdev.rst +++ b/Documentation/media/kapi/v4l2-subdev.rst @@ -275,8 +275,13 @@ system the .unbind() method is called. All three callbacks are optional. V4L2 sub-device userspace API ----------------------------- -Beside exposing a kernel API through the :c:type:`v4l2_subdev_ops` structure, -V4L2 sub-devices can also be controlled directly by userspace applications. +Bridge drivers traditionally expose one or multiple video nodes to userspace, +and control subdevices through the :c:type:`v4l2_subdev_ops` operations in +response to video node operations. This hides the complexity of the underlying +hardware from applications. For complex devices, finer-grained control of the +device than what the video nodes offer may be required. In those cases, bridge +drivers that implement :ref:`the media controller API <media_controller>` may +opt for making the subdevice operations directly accessible from userpace. Device nodes named ``v4l-subdev``\ *X* can be created in ``/dev`` to access sub-devices directly. If a sub-device supports direct userspace configuration -- 2.26.0
