Documentation/i2c/dev-interface - kernel/mindspeed - Git at Google

 Usually, i2c devices are controlled by a kernel driver. But it is also
 possible to access all devices on an adapter from userspace, through
 the /dev interface. You need to load module i2c-dev for this.

 Each registered i2c adapter gets a number, counting from 0. You can
 examine /sys/class/i2c-dev/ to see what number corresponds to which adapter.
 Alternatively, you can run "i2cdetect -l" to obtain a formated list of all
 i2c adapters present on your system at a given time. i2cdetect is part of
 the i2c-tools package.

 I2C device files are character device files with major device number 89
 and a minor device number corresponding to the number assigned as
 explained above. They should be called "i2c-%d" (i2c-0, i2c-1, ...,
 i2c-10, ...). All 256 minor device numbers are reserved for i2c.


 C example
 =========

 So let's say you want to access an i2c adapter from a C program. The
 first thing to do is "#include <linux/i2c-dev.h>". Please note that
 there are two files named "i2c-dev.h" out there, one is distributed
 with the Linux kernel and is meant to be included from kernel
 driver code, the other one is distributed with i2c-tools and is
 meant to be included from user-space programs. You obviously want
 the second one here.

 Now, you have to decide which adapter you want to access. You should
 inspect /sys/class/i2c-dev/ or run "i2cdetect -l" to decide this.
 Adapter numbers are assigned somewhat dynamically, so you can not
 assume much about them. They can even change from one boot to the next.

 Next thing, open the device file, as follows:

   int file;
   int adapter_nr = 2; /* probably dynamically determined */
   char filename[20];

   snprintf(filename, 19, "/dev/i2c-%d", adapter_nr);
   file = open(filename, O_RDWR);
   if (file < 0) {
     /* ERROR HANDLING; you can check errno to see what went wrong */
     exit(1);
   }

 When you have opened the device, you must specify with what device
 address you want to communicate:

   int addr = 0x40; /* The I2C address */

   if (ioctl(file, I2C_SLAVE, addr) < 0) {
     /* ERROR HANDLING; you can check errno to see what went wrong */
     exit(1);
   }

 Well, you are all set up now. You can now use SMBus commands or plain
 I2C to communicate with your device. SMBus commands are preferred if
 the device supports them. Both are illustrated below.

   __u8 register = 0x10; /* Device register to access */
   __s32 res;
   char buf[10];

   /* Using SMBus commands */
   res = i2c_smbus_read_word_data(file, register);
   if (res < 0) {
     /* ERROR HANDLING: i2c transaction failed */
   } else {
     /* res contains the read word */
   }

   /* Using I2C Write, equivalent of
      i2c_smbus_write_word_data(file, register, 0x6543) */
   buf[0] = register;
   buf[1] = 0x43;
   buf[2] = 0x65;
   if (write(file, buf, 3) ! =3) {
     /* ERROR HANDLING: i2c transaction failed */
   }

   /* Using I2C Read, equivalent of i2c_smbus_read_byte(file) */
   if (read(file, buf, 1) != 1) {
     /* ERROR HANDLING: i2c transaction failed */
   } else {
     /* buf[0] contains the read byte */
   }

 Note that only a subset of the I2C and SMBus protocols can be achieved by
 the means of read() and write() calls. In particular, so-called combined
 transactions (mixing read and write messages in the same transaction)
 aren't supported. For this reason, this interface is almost never used by
 user-space programs.

 IMPORTANT: because of the use of inline functions, you *have* to use
 '-O' or some variation when you compile your program!


 Full interface description
 ==========================

 The following IOCTLs are defined:

 ioctl(file, I2C_SLAVE, long addr)
   Change slave address. The address is passed in the 7 lower bits of the
   argument (except for 10 bit addresses, passed in the 10 lower bits in this
   case).

 ioctl(file, I2C_TENBIT, long select)
   Selects ten bit addresses if select not equals 0, selects normal 7 bit
   addresses if select equals 0. Default 0.  This request is only valid
   if the adapter has I2C_FUNC_10BIT_ADDR.

 ioctl(file, I2C_PEC, long select)
   Selects SMBus PEC (packet error checking) generation and verification
   if select not equals 0, disables if select equals 0. Default 0.
   Used only for SMBus transactions.  This request only has an effect if the
   the adapter has I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_PEC; it is still safe if not, it just
   doesn't have any effect.

 ioctl(file, I2C_FUNCS, unsigned long *funcs)
   Gets the adapter functionality and puts it in *funcs.

 ioctl(file, I2C_RDWR, struct i2c_rdwr_ioctl_data *msgset)
   Do combined read/write transaction without stop in between.
   Only valid if the adapter has I2C_FUNC_I2C.  The argument is
   a pointer to a

   struct i2c_rdwr_ioctl_data {
       struct i2c_msg *msgs;  /* ptr to array of simple messages */
       int nmsgs;             /* number of messages to exchange */
   }

   The msgs[] themselves contain further pointers into data buffers.
   The function will write or read data to or from that buffers depending
   on whether the I2C_M_RD flag is set in a particular message or not.
   The slave address and whether to use ten bit address mode has to be
   set in each message, overriding the values set with the above ioctl's.

 ioctl(file, I2C_SMBUS, struct i2c_smbus_ioctl_data *args)
   Not meant to be called  directly; instead, use the access functions
   below.

 You can do plain i2c transactions by using read(2) and write(2) calls.
 You do not need to pass the address byte; instead, set it through
 ioctl I2C_SLAVE before you try to access the device.

 You can do SMBus level transactions (see documentation file smbus-protocol
 for details) through the following functions:
   __s32 i2c_smbus_write_quick(int file, __u8 value);
   __s32 i2c_smbus_read_byte(int file);
   __s32 i2c_smbus_write_byte(int file, __u8 value);
   __s32 i2c_smbus_read_byte_data(int file, __u8 command);
   __s32 i2c_smbus_write_byte_data(int file, __u8 command, __u8 value);
   __s32 i2c_smbus_read_word_data(int file, __u8 command);
   __s32 i2c_smbus_write_word_data(int file, __u8 command, __u16 value);
   __s32 i2c_smbus_process_call(int file, __u8 command, __u16 value);
   __s32 i2c_smbus_read_block_data(int file, __u8 command, __u8 *values);
   __s32 i2c_smbus_write_block_data(int file, __u8 command, __u8 length,
                                    __u8 *values);
 All these transactions return -1 on failure; you can read errno to see
 what happened. The 'write' transactions return 0 on success; the
 'read' transactions return the read value, except for read_block, which
 returns the number of values read. The block buffers need not be longer
 than 32 bytes.

 The above functions are all inline functions, that resolve to calls to
 the i2c_smbus_access function, that on its turn calls a specific ioctl
 with the data in a specific format. Read the source code if you
 want to know what happens behind the screens.


 Implementation details
 ======================

 For the interested, here's the code flow which happens inside the kernel
 when you use the /dev interface to I2C:

 1* Your program opens /dev/i2c-N and calls ioctl() on it, as described in
 section "C example" above.

 2* These open() and ioctl() calls are handled by the i2c-dev kernel
 driver: see i2c-dev.c:i2cdev_open() and i2c-dev.c:i2cdev_ioctl(),
 respectively. You can think of i2c-dev as a generic I2C chip driver
 that can be programmed from user-space.

 3* Some ioctl() calls are for administrative tasks and are handled by
 i2c-dev directly. Examples include I2C_SLAVE (set the address of the
 device you want to access) and I2C_PEC (enable or disable SMBus error
 checking on future transactions.)

 4* Other ioctl() calls are converted to in-kernel function calls by
 i2c-dev. Examples include I2C_FUNCS, which queries the I2C adapter
 functionality using i2c.h:i2c_get_functionality(), and I2C_SMBUS, which
 performs an SMBus transaction using i2c-core.c:i2c_smbus_xfer().

 The i2c-dev driver is responsible for checking all the parameters that
 come from user-space for validity. After this point, there is no
 difference between these calls that came from user-space through i2c-dev
 and calls that would have been performed by kernel I2C chip drivers
 directly. This means that I2C bus drivers don't need to implement
 anything special to support access from user-space.

 5* These i2c-core.c/i2c.h functions are wrappers to the actual
 implementation of your I2C bus driver. Each adapter must declare
 callback functions implementing these standard calls.
 i2c.h:i2c_get_functionality() calls i2c_adapter.algo->functionality(),
 while i2c-core.c:i2c_smbus_xfer() calls either
 adapter.algo->smbus_xfer() if it is implemented, or if not,
 i2c-core.c:i2c_smbus_xfer_emulated() which in turn calls
 i2c_adapter.algo->master_xfer().

 After your I2C bus driver has processed these requests, execution runs
 up the call chain, with almost no processing done, except by i2c-dev to
 package the returned data, if any, in suitable format for the ioctl.
	Usually, i2c devices are controlled by a kernel driver. But it is also
	possible to access all devices on an adapter from userspace, through
	the /dev interface. You need to load module i2c-dev for this.

	Each registered i2c adapter gets a number, counting from 0. You can
	examine /sys/class/i2c-dev/ to see what number corresponds to which adapter.
	Alternatively, you can run "i2cdetect -l" to obtain a formated list of all
	i2c adapters present on your system at a given time. i2cdetect is part of
	the i2c-tools package.

	I2C device files are character device files with major device number 89
	and a minor device number corresponding to the number assigned as
	explained above. They should be called "i2c-%d" (i2c-0, i2c-1, ...,
	i2c-10, ...). All 256 minor device numbers are reserved for i2c.


	C example
	=========

	So let's say you want to access an i2c adapter from a C program. The
	first thing to do is "#include <linux/i2c-dev.h>". Please note that
	there are two files named "i2c-dev.h" out there, one is distributed
	with the Linux kernel and is meant to be included from kernel
	driver code, the other one is distributed with i2c-tools and is
	meant to be included from user-space programs. You obviously want
	the second one here.

	Now, you have to decide which adapter you want to access. You should
	inspect /sys/class/i2c-dev/ or run "i2cdetect -l" to decide this.
	Adapter numbers are assigned somewhat dynamically, so you can not
	assume much about them. They can even change from one boot to the next.

	Next thing, open the device file, as follows:

	int file;
	int adapter_nr = 2; /* probably dynamically determined */
	char filename[20];

	snprintf(filename, 19, "/dev/i2c-%d", adapter_nr);
	file = open(filename, O_RDWR);
	if (file < 0) {
	/* ERROR HANDLING; you can check errno to see what went wrong */
	exit(1);
	}

	When you have opened the device, you must specify with what device
	address you want to communicate:

	int addr = 0x40; /* The I2C address */

	if (ioctl(file, I2C_SLAVE, addr) < 0) {
	/* ERROR HANDLING; you can check errno to see what went wrong */
	exit(1);
	}

	Well, you are all set up now. You can now use SMBus commands or plain
	I2C to communicate with your device. SMBus commands are preferred if
	the device supports them. Both are illustrated below.

	__u8 register = 0x10; /* Device register to access */
	__s32 res;
	char buf[10];

	/* Using SMBus commands */
	res = i2c_smbus_read_word_data(file, register);
	if (res < 0) {
	/* ERROR HANDLING: i2c transaction failed */
	} else {
	/* res contains the read word */
	}

	/* Using I2C Write, equivalent of
	i2c_smbus_write_word_data(file, register, 0x6543) */
	buf[0] = register;
	buf[1] = 0x43;
	buf[2] = 0x65;
	if (write(file, buf, 3) ! =3) {
	/* ERROR HANDLING: i2c transaction failed */
	}

	/* Using I2C Read, equivalent of i2c_smbus_read_byte(file) */
	if (read(file, buf, 1) != 1) {
	/* ERROR HANDLING: i2c transaction failed */
	} else {
	/* buf[0] contains the read byte */
	}

	Note that only a subset of the I2C and SMBus protocols can be achieved by
	the means of read() and write() calls. In particular, so-called combined
	transactions (mixing read and write messages in the same transaction)
	aren't supported. For this reason, this interface is almost never used by
	user-space programs.

	IMPORTANT: because of the use of inline functions, you have to use
	'-O' or some variation when you compile your program!


	Full interface description
	==========================

	The following IOCTLs are defined:

	ioctl(file, I2C_SLAVE, long addr)
	Change slave address. The address is passed in the 7 lower bits of the
	argument (except for 10 bit addresses, passed in the 10 lower bits in this
	case).

	ioctl(file, I2C_TENBIT, long select)
	Selects ten bit addresses if select not equals 0, selects normal 7 bit
	addresses if select equals 0. Default 0. This request is only valid
	if the adapter has I2C_FUNC_10BIT_ADDR.

	ioctl(file, I2C_PEC, long select)
	Selects SMBus PEC (packet error checking) generation and verification
	if select not equals 0, disables if select equals 0. Default 0.
	Used only for SMBus transactions. This request only has an effect if the
	the adapter has I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_PEC; it is still safe if not, it just
	doesn't have any effect.

	ioctl(file, I2C_FUNCS, unsigned long *funcs)
	Gets the adapter functionality and puts it in *funcs.

	ioctl(file, I2C_RDWR, struct i2c_rdwr_ioctl_data *msgset)
	Do combined read/write transaction without stop in between.
	Only valid if the adapter has I2C_FUNC_I2C. The argument is
	a pointer to a

	struct i2c_rdwr_ioctl_data {
	struct i2c_msg msgs; / ptr to array of simple messages */
	int nmsgs; /* number of messages to exchange */
	}

	The msgs[] themselves contain further pointers into data buffers.
	The function will write or read data to or from that buffers depending
	on whether the I2C_M_RD flag is set in a particular message or not.
	The slave address and whether to use ten bit address mode has to be
	set in each message, overriding the values set with the above ioctl's.

	ioctl(file, I2C_SMBUS, struct i2c_smbus_ioctl_data *args)
	Not meant to be called directly; instead, use the access functions
	below.

	You can do plain i2c transactions by using read(2) and write(2) calls.
	You do not need to pass the address byte; instead, set it through
	ioctl I2C_SLAVE before you try to access the device.

	You can do SMBus level transactions (see documentation file smbus-protocol
	for details) through the following functions:
	__s32 i2c_smbus_write_quick(int file, __u8 value);
	__s32 i2c_smbus_read_byte(int file);
	__s32 i2c_smbus_write_byte(int file, __u8 value);
	__s32 i2c_smbus_read_byte_data(int file, __u8 command);
	__s32 i2c_smbus_write_byte_data(int file, __u8 command, __u8 value);
	__s32 i2c_smbus_read_word_data(int file, __u8 command);
	__s32 i2c_smbus_write_word_data(int file, __u8 command, __u16 value);
	__s32 i2c_smbus_process_call(int file, __u8 command, __u16 value);
	__s32 i2c_smbus_read_block_data(int file, __u8 command, __u8 *values);
	__s32 i2c_smbus_write_block_data(int file, __u8 command, __u8 length,
	__u8 *values);
	All these transactions return -1 on failure; you can read errno to see
	what happened. The 'write' transactions return 0 on success; the
	'read' transactions return the read value, except for read_block, which
	returns the number of values read. The block buffers need not be longer
	than 32 bytes.

	The above functions are all inline functions, that resolve to calls to
	the i2c_smbus_access function, that on its turn calls a specific ioctl
	with the data in a specific format. Read the source code if you
	want to know what happens behind the screens.


	Implementation details
	======================

	For the interested, here's the code flow which happens inside the kernel
	when you use the /dev interface to I2C:

	1* Your program opens /dev/i2c-N and calls ioctl() on it, as described in
	section "C example" above.

	2* These open() and ioctl() calls are handled by the i2c-dev kernel
	driver: see i2c-dev.c:i2cdev_open() and i2c-dev.c:i2cdev_ioctl(),
	respectively. You can think of i2c-dev as a generic I2C chip driver
	that can be programmed from user-space.

	3* Some ioctl() calls are for administrative tasks and are handled by
	i2c-dev directly. Examples include I2C_SLAVE (set the address of the
	device you want to access) and I2C_PEC (enable or disable SMBus error
	checking on future transactions.)

	4* Other ioctl() calls are converted to in-kernel function calls by
	i2c-dev. Examples include I2C_FUNCS, which queries the I2C adapter
	functionality using i2c.h:i2c_get_functionality(), and I2C_SMBUS, which
	performs an SMBus transaction using i2c-core.c:i2c_smbus_xfer().

	The i2c-dev driver is responsible for checking all the parameters that
	come from user-space for validity. After this point, there is no
	difference between these calls that came from user-space through i2c-dev
	and calls that would have been performed by kernel I2C chip drivers
	directly. This means that I2C bus drivers don't need to implement
	anything special to support access from user-space.

	5* These i2c-core.c/i2c.h functions are wrappers to the actual
	implementation of your I2C bus driver. Each adapter must declare
	callback functions implementing these standard calls.
	i2c.h:i2c_get_functionality() calls i2c_adapter.algo->functionality(),
	while i2c-core.c:i2c_smbus_xfer() calls either
	adapter.algo->smbus_xfer() if it is implemented, or if not,
	i2c-core.c:i2c_smbus_xfer_emulated() which in turn calls
	i2c_adapter.algo->master_xfer().

	After your I2C bus driver has processed these requests, execution runs
	up the call chain, with almost no processing done, except by i2c-dev to
	package the returned data, if any, in suitable format for the ioctl.