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-rw-r--r--Documentation/networking/timestamping.txt143
1 files changed, 90 insertions, 53 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/networking/timestamping.txt b/Documentation/networking/timestamping.txt
index 0e58b453917..bc355412490 100644
--- a/Documentation/networking/timestamping.txt
+++ b/Documentation/networking/timestamping.txt
@@ -21,31 +21,44 @@ has such a feature).
SO_TIMESTAMPING:
-Instructs the socket layer which kind of information is wanted. The
-parameter is an integer with some of the following bits set. Setting
-other bits is an error and doesn't change the current state.
-
-SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_HARDWARE: try to obtain send time stamp in hardware
-SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE: if SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_HARDWARE is off or
- fails, then do it in software
-SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RX_HARDWARE: return the original, unmodified time stamp
- as generated by the hardware
-SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RX_SOFTWARE: if SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RX_HARDWARE is off or
- fails, then do it in software
-SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RAW_HARDWARE: return original raw hardware time stamp
-SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SYS_HARDWARE: return hardware time stamp transformed to
- the system time base
-SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SOFTWARE: return system time stamp generated in
- software
-
-SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX/RX determine how time stamps are generated.
-SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RAW/SYS determine how they are reported in the
-following control message:
- struct scm_timestamping {
- struct timespec systime;
- struct timespec hwtimetrans;
- struct timespec hwtimeraw;
- };
+Instructs the socket layer which kind of information should be collected
+and/or reported. The parameter is an integer with some of the following
+bits set. Setting other bits is an error and doesn't change the current
+state.
+
+Four of the bits are requests to the stack to try to generate
+timestamps. Any combination of them is valid.
+
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_HARDWARE: try to obtain send time stamps in hardware
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE: try to obtain send time stamps in software
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RX_HARDWARE: try to obtain receive time stamps in hardware
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RX_SOFTWARE: try to obtain receive time stamps in software
+
+The other three bits control which timestamps will be reported in a
+generated control message. If none of these bits are set or if none of
+the set bits correspond to data that is available, then the control
+message will not be generated:
+
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SOFTWARE: report systime if available
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SYS_HARDWARE: report hwtimetrans if available
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RAW_HARDWARE: report hwtimeraw if available
+
+It is worth noting that timestamps may be collected for reasons other
+than being requested by a particular socket with
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_[TR]X_(HARD|SOFT)WARE. For example, most drivers that
+can generate hardware receive timestamps ignore
+SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RX_HARDWARE. It is still a good idea to set that flag
+in case future drivers pay attention.
+
+If timestamps are reported, they will appear in a control message with
+cmsg_level==SOL_SOCKET, cmsg_type==SO_TIMESTAMPING, and a payload like
+this:
+
+struct scm_timestamping {
+ struct timespec systime;
+ struct timespec hwtimetrans;
+ struct timespec hwtimeraw;
+};
recvmsg() can be used to get this control message for regular incoming
packets. For send time stamps the outgoing packet is looped back to
@@ -84,15 +97,16 @@ Filled in if SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SYS_HARDWARE is set. Requires support
by the network device and will be empty without that support.
-SIOCSHWTSTAMP:
+SIOCSHWTSTAMP, SIOCGHWTSTAMP:
Hardware time stamping must also be initialized for each device driver
-that is expected to do hardware time stamping. The parameter is:
+that is expected to do hardware time stamping. The parameter is defined in
+/include/linux/net_tstamp.h as:
struct hwtstamp_config {
- int flags; /* no flags defined right now, must be zero */
- int tx_type; /* HWTSTAMP_TX_* */
- int rx_filter; /* HWTSTAMP_FILTER_* */
+ int flags; /* no flags defined right now, must be zero */
+ int tx_type; /* HWTSTAMP_TX_* */
+ int rx_filter; /* HWTSTAMP_FILTER_* */
};
Desired behavior is passed into the kernel and to a specific device by
@@ -113,6 +127,10 @@ Only a processes with admin rights may change the configuration. User
space is responsible to ensure that multiple processes don't interfere
with each other and that the settings are reset.
+Any process can read the actual configuration by passing this
+structure to ioctl(SIOCGHWTSTAMP) in the same way. However, this has
+not been implemented in all drivers.
+
/* possible values for hwtstamp_config->tx_type */
enum {
/*
@@ -139,42 +157,61 @@ enum {
/* time stamp any incoming packet */
HWTSTAMP_FILTER_ALL,
- /* return value: time stamp all packets requested plus some others */
- HWTSTAMP_FILTER_SOME,
+ /* return value: time stamp all packets requested plus some others */
+ HWTSTAMP_FILTER_SOME,
/* PTP v1, UDP, any kind of event packet */
HWTSTAMP_FILTER_PTP_V1_L4_EVENT,
- ...
+ /* for the complete list of values, please check
+ * the include file /include/linux/net_tstamp.h
+ */
};
DEVICE IMPLEMENTATION
A driver which supports hardware time stamping must support the
-SIOCSHWTSTAMP ioctl. Time stamps for received packets must be stored
-in the skb with skb_hwtstamp_set().
+SIOCSHWTSTAMP ioctl and update the supplied struct hwtstamp_config with
+the actual values as described in the section on SIOCSHWTSTAMP. It
+should also support SIOCGHWTSTAMP.
+
+Time stamps for received packets must be stored in the skb. To get a pointer
+to the shared time stamp structure of the skb call skb_hwtstamps(). Then
+set the time stamps in the structure:
+
+struct skb_shared_hwtstamps {
+ /* hardware time stamp transformed into duration
+ * since arbitrary point in time
+ */
+ ktime_t hwtstamp;
+ ktime_t syststamp; /* hwtstamp transformed to system time base */
+};
Time stamps for outgoing packets are to be generated as follows:
-- In hard_start_xmit(), check if skb_hwtstamp_check_tx_hardware()
- returns non-zero. If yes, then the driver is expected
- to do hardware time stamping.
+- In hard_start_xmit(), check if (skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags & SKBTX_HW_TSTAMP)
+ is set no-zero. If yes, then the driver is expected to do hardware time
+ stamping.
- If this is possible for the skb and requested, then declare
- that the driver is doing the time stamping by calling
- skb_hwtstamp_tx_in_progress(). A driver not supporting
- hardware time stamping doesn't do that. A driver must never
- touch sk_buff::tstamp! It is used to store how time stamping
- for an outgoing packets is to be done.
+ that the driver is doing the time stamping by setting the flag
+ SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS in skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags , e.g. with
+
+ skb_shinfo(skb)->tx_flags |= SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS;
+
+ You might want to keep a pointer to the associated skb for the next step
+ and not free the skb. A driver not supporting hardware time stamping doesn't
+ do that. A driver must never touch sk_buff::tstamp! It is used to store
+ software generated time stamps by the network subsystem.
+- Driver should call skb_tx_timestamp() as close to passing sk_buff to hardware
+ as possible. skb_tx_timestamp() provides a software time stamp if requested
+ and hardware timestamping is not possible (SKBTX_IN_PROGRESS not set).
- As soon as the driver has sent the packet and/or obtained a
hardware time stamp for it, it passes the time stamp back by
calling skb_hwtstamp_tx() with the original skb, the raw
- hardware time stamp and a handle to the device (necessary
- to convert the hardware time stamp to system time). If obtaining
- the hardware time stamp somehow fails, then the driver should
- not fall back to software time stamping. The rationale is that
- this would occur at a later time in the processing pipeline
- than other software time stamping and therefore could lead
- to unexpected deltas between time stamps.
-- If the driver did not call skb_hwtstamp_tx_in_progress(), then
- dev_hard_start_xmit() checks whether software time stamping
- is wanted as fallback and potentially generates the time stamp.
+ hardware time stamp. skb_hwtstamp_tx() clones the original skb and
+ adds the timestamps, therefore the original skb has to be freed now.
+ If obtaining the hardware time stamp somehow fails, then the driver
+ should not fall back to software time stamping. The rationale is that
+ this would occur at a later time in the processing pipeline than other
+ software time stamping and therefore could lead to unexpected deltas
+ between time stamps.