Initial import

1 files changed, 119 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/hid/hidraw.txt b/Documentation/hid/hidraw.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..029e6cb9a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/hid/hidraw.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,119 @@
+      HIDRAW - Raw Access to USB and Bluetooth Human Interface Devices
+     ==================================================================
+
+The hidraw driver provides a raw interface to USB and Bluetooth Human
+Interface Devices (HIDs).  It differs from hiddev in that reports sent and
+received are not parsed by the HID parser, but are sent to and received from
+the device unmodified.
+
+Hidraw should be used if the userspace application knows exactly how to
+communicate with the hardware device, and is able to construct the HID
+reports manually.  This is often the case when making userspace drivers for
+custom HID devices.
+
+Hidraw is also useful for communicating with non-conformant HID devices
+which send and receive data in a way that is inconsistent with their report
+descriptors.  Because hiddev parses reports which are sent and received
+through it, checking them against the device's report descriptor, such
+communication with these non-conformant devices is impossible using hiddev.
+Hidraw is the only alternative, short of writing a custom kernel driver, for
+these non-conformant devices.
+
+A benefit of hidraw is that its use by userspace applications is independent
+of the underlying hardware type.  Currently, Hidraw is implemented for USB
+and Bluetooth.  In the future, as new hardware bus types are developed which
+use the HID specification, hidraw will be expanded to add support for these
+new bus types.
+
+Hidraw uses a dynamic major number, meaning that udev should be relied on to
+create hidraw device nodes.  Udev will typically create the device nodes
+directly under /dev (eg: /dev/hidraw0).  As this location is distribution-
+and udev rule-dependent, applications should use libudev to locate hidraw
+devices attached to the system.  There is a tutorial on libudev with a
+working example at:
+	http://www.signal11.us/oss/udev/
+
+The HIDRAW API
+---------------
+
+read()
+-------
+read() will read a queued report received from the HID device. On USB
+devices, the reports read using read() are the reports sent from the device
+on the INTERRUPT IN endpoint.  By default, read() will block until there is
+a report available to be read.  read() can be made non-blocking, by passing
+the O_NONBLOCK flag to open(), or by setting the O_NONBLOCK flag using
+fcntl().
+
+On a device which uses numbered reports, the first byte of the returned data
+will be the report number; the report data follows, beginning in the second
+byte.  For devices which do not use numbered reports, the report data
+will begin at the first byte.
+
+write()
+--------
+The write() function will write a report to the device. For USB devices, if
+the device has an INTERRUPT OUT endpoint, the report will be sent on that
+endpoint. If it does not, the report will be sent over the control endpoint,
+using a SET_REPORT transfer.
+
+The first byte of the buffer passed to write() should be set to the report
+number.  If the device does not use numbered reports, the first byte should
+be set to 0. The report data itself should begin at the second byte.
+
+ioctl()
+--------
+Hidraw supports the following ioctls:
+
+HIDIOCGRDESCSIZE: Get Report Descriptor Size
+This ioctl will get the size of the device's report descriptor.
+
+HIDIOCGRDESC: Get Report Descriptor
+This ioctl returns the device's report descriptor using a
+hidraw_report_descriptor struct.  Make sure to set the size field of the
+hidraw_report_descriptor struct to the size returned from HIDIOCGRDESCSIZE.
+
+HIDIOCGRAWINFO: Get Raw Info
+This ioctl will return a hidraw_devinfo struct containing the bus type, the
+vendor ID (VID), and product ID (PID) of the device. The bus type can be one
+of:
+	BUS_USB
+	BUS_HIL
+	BUS_BLUETOOTH
+	BUS_VIRTUAL
+which are defined in linux/input.h.
+
+HIDIOCGRAWNAME(len): Get Raw Name
+This ioctl returns a string containing the vendor and product strings of
+the device.  The returned string is Unicode, UTF-8 encoded.
+
+HIDIOCGRAWPHYS(len): Get Physical Address
+This ioctl returns a string representing the physical address of the device.
+For USB devices, the string contains the physical path to the device (the
+USB controller, hubs, ports, etc).  For Bluetooth devices, the string
+contains the hardware (MAC) address of the device.
+
+HIDIOCSFEATURE(len): Send a Feature Report
+This ioctl will send a feature report to the device.  Per the HID
+specification, feature reports are always sent using the control endpoint.
+Set the first byte of the supplied buffer to the report number.  For devices
+which do not use numbered reports, set the first byte to 0. The report data
+begins in the second byte. Make sure to set len accordingly, to one more
+than the length of the report (to account for the report number).
+
+HIDIOCGFEATURE(len): Get a Feature Report
+This ioctl will request a feature report from the device using the control
+endpoint.  The first byte of the supplied buffer should be set to the report
+number of the requested report.  For devices which do not use numbered
+reports, set the first byte to 0.  The report will be returned starting at
+the first byte of the buffer (ie: the report number is not returned).
+
+Example
+---------
+In samples/, find hid-example.c, which shows examples of read(), write(),
+and all the ioctls for hidraw.  The code may be used by anyone for any
+purpose, and can serve as a starting point for developing applications using
+hidraw.
+
+Document by:
+	Alan Ott <alan@signal11.us>, Signal 11 Software