1 2LED handling under Linux 3======================== 4 5In its simplest form, the LED class just allows control of LEDs from 6userspace. LEDs appear in /sys/class/leds/. The maximum brightness of the 7LED is defined in max_brightness file. The brightness file will set the brightness 8of the LED (taking a value 0-max_brightness). Most LEDs don't have hardware 9brightness support so will just be turned on for non-zero brightness settings. 10 11The class also introduces the optional concept of an LED trigger. A trigger 12is a kernel based source of led events. Triggers can either be simple or 13complex. A simple trigger isn't configurable and is designed to slot into 14existing subsystems with minimal additional code. Examples are the ide-disk, 15nand-disk and sharpsl-charge triggers. With led triggers disabled, the code 16optimises away. 17 18Complex triggers whilst available to all LEDs have LED specific 19parameters and work on a per LED basis. The timer trigger is an example. 20The timer trigger will periodically change the LED brightness between 21LED_OFF and the current brightness setting. The "on" and "off" time can 22be specified via /sys/class/leds/<device>/delay_{on,off} in milliseconds. 23You can change the brightness value of a LED independently of the timer 24trigger. However, if you set the brightness value to LED_OFF it will 25also disable the timer trigger. 26 27You can change triggers in a similar manner to the way an IO scheduler 28is chosen (via /sys/class/leds/<device>/trigger). Trigger specific 29parameters can appear in /sys/class/leds/<device> once a given trigger is 30selected. 31 32 33Design Philosophy 34================= 35 36The underlying design philosophy is simplicity. LEDs are simple devices 37and the aim is to keep a small amount of code giving as much functionality 38as possible. Please keep this in mind when suggesting enhancements. 39 40 41LED Device Naming 42================= 43 44Is currently of the form: 45 46"devicename:colour:function" 47 48There have been calls for LED properties such as colour to be exported as 49individual led class attributes. As a solution which doesn't incur as much 50overhead, I suggest these become part of the device name. The naming scheme 51above leaves scope for further attributes should they be needed. If sections 52of the name don't apply, just leave that section blank. 53 54 55Hardware accelerated blink of LEDs 56================================== 57 58Some LEDs can be programmed to blink without any CPU interaction. To 59support this feature, a LED driver can optionally implement the 60blink_set() function (see <linux/leds.h>). To set an LED to blinking, 61however, it is better to use the API function led_blink_set(), as it 62will check and implement software fallback if necessary. 63 64To turn off blinking again, use the API function led_brightness_set() 65as that will not just set the LED brightness but also stop any software 66timers that may have been required for blinking. 67 68The blink_set() function should choose a user friendly blinking value 69if it is called with *delay_on==0 && *delay_off==0 parameters. In this 70case the driver should give back the chosen value through delay_on and 71delay_off parameters to the leds subsystem. 72 73Setting the brightness to zero with brightness_set() callback function 74should completely turn off the LED and cancel the previously programmed 75hardware blinking function, if any. 76 77 78Known Issues 79============ 80 81The LED Trigger core cannot be a module as the simple trigger functions 82would cause nightmare dependency issues. I see this as a minor issue 83compared to the benefits the simple trigger functionality brings. The 84rest of the LED subsystem can be modular. 85 86 87Future Development 88================== 89 90At the moment, a trigger can't be created specifically for a single LED. 91There are a number of cases where a trigger might only be mappable to a 92particular LED (ACPI?). The addition of triggers provided by the LED driver 93should cover this option and be possible to add without breaking the 94current interface. 95