1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: (GPL-2.0-only OR BSD-2-Clause)
7 The ``devlink-info`` mechanism enables device drivers to report device
8 (hardware and firmware) information in a standard, extensible fashion.
10 The original motivation for the ``devlink-info`` API was twofold:
12 - making it possible to automate device and firmware management in a fleet
13 of machines in a vendor-independent fashion (see also
14 :ref:`Documentation/networking/devlink/devlink-flash.rst <devlink_flash>`);
15 - name the per component FW versions (as opposed to the crowded ethtool
18 ``devlink-info`` supports reporting multiple types of objects. Reporting driver
19 versions is generally discouraged - here, and via any other Linux API.
21 .. list-table:: List of top level info objects
27 - Name of the currently used device driver, also available through sysfs.
30 - Serial number of the device.
32 This is usually the serial number of the ASIC, also often available
33 in PCI config space of the device in the *Device Serial Number*
36 The serial number should be unique per physical device.
37 Sometimes the serial number of the device is only 48 bits long (the
38 length of the Ethernet MAC address), and since PCI DSN is 64 bits long
39 devices pad or encode additional information into the serial number.
40 One example is adding port ID or PCI interface ID in the extra two bytes.
41 Drivers should make sure to strip or normalize any such padding
42 or interface ID, and report only the part of the serial number
43 which uniquely identifies the hardware. In other words serial number
44 reported for two ports of the same device or on two hosts of
45 a multi-host device should be identical.
47 .. note:: ``devlink-info`` API should be extended with a new field
48 if devices want to report board/product serial number (often
49 reported in PCI *Vital Product Data* capability).
52 - Group for hardware identifiers, and versions of components
53 which are not field-updatable.
55 Versions in this section identify the device design. For example,
56 component identifiers or the board version reported in the PCI VPD.
57 Data in ``devlink-info`` should be broken into the smallest logical
58 components, e.g. PCI VPD may concatenate various information
59 to form the Part Number string, while in ``devlink-info`` all parts
60 should be reported as separate items.
62 This group must not contain any frequently changing identifiers,
63 such as serial numbers. See
64 :ref:`Documentation/networking/devlink/devlink-flash.rst <devlink_flash>`
68 - Group for information about currently running software/firmware.
69 These versions often only update after a reboot, sometimes device reset.
72 - Group for software/firmware versions in device flash.
74 Stored values must update to reflect changes in the flash even
75 if reboot has not yet occurred. If device is not capable of updating
76 ``stored`` versions when new software is flashed, it must not report
79 Each version can be reported at most once in each version group. Firmware
80 components stored on the flash should feature in both the ``running`` and
81 ``stored`` sections, if device is capable of reporting ``stored`` versions
82 (see :ref:`Documentation/networking/devlink/devlink-flash.rst <devlink_flash>`).
83 In case software/firmware components are loaded from the disk (e.g.
84 ``/lib/firmware``) only the running version should be reported via
90 It is expected that drivers use the following generic names for exporting
91 version information. If a generic name for a given component doesn't exist yet,
92 driver authors should consult existing driver-specific versions and attempt
93 reuse. As last resort, if a component is truly unique, using driver-specific
94 names is allowed, but these should be documented in the driver-specific file.
96 All versions should try to use the following terminology:
98 .. list-table:: List of common version suffixes
103 * - ``id``, ``revision``
104 - Identifiers of designs and revision, mostly used for hardware versions.
107 - Version of API between components. API items are usually of limited
108 value to the user, and can be inferred from other versions by the vendor,
109 so adding API versions is generally discouraged as noise.
112 - Identifier of a distribution package which was flashed onto the device.
113 This is an attribute of a firmware package which covers multiple versions
114 for ease of managing firmware images (see
115 :ref:`Documentation/networking/devlink/devlink-flash.rst <devlink_flash>`).
117 ``bundle_id`` can appear in both ``running`` and ``stored`` versions,
118 but it must not be reported if any of the components covered by the
119 ``bundle_id`` was changed and no longer matches the version from
125 Unique identifier of the board design.
130 Board design revision.
135 ASIC design identifier.
140 ASIC design revision/stepping.
145 An identifier of the company or the facility which produced the part.
150 Overall firmware version, often representing the collection of
151 fw.mgmt, fw.app, etc.
156 Control unit firmware version. This firmware is responsible for house
157 keeping tasks, PHY control etc. but not the packet-by-packet data path
163 Data path microcode controlling high-speed packet processing.
168 UNDI software, may include the UEFI driver, firmware or both.
173 Version of the software responsible for supporting/handling the
174 Network Controller Sideband Interface.
179 Unique identifier of the firmware parameter set. These are usually
180 parameters of a particular board, defined at manufacturing time.
185 RoCE firmware version which is responsible for handling roce
191 Unique identifier of the entire firmware bundle.
196 The following extensions could be useful:
198 - product serial number - NIC boards often get labeled with a board serial
199 number rather than ASIC serial number; it'd be useful to add board serial
200 numbers to the API if they can be retrieved from the device;
202 - on-disk firmware file names - drivers list the file names of firmware they
203 may need to load onto devices via the ``MODULE_FIRMWARE()`` macro. These,
204 however, are per module, rather than per device. It'd be useful to list
205 the names of firmware files the driver will try to load for a given device,
206 in order of priority.