自动创建设备节点

我们在编写好驱动的时候（单纯注册字符设备），使用insmod或者modprobe 加载驱动程序以后还需使用命令“mknod”手动创建设备节点。这样比较繁琐，Linux提供了一种机制来自动创建设备节点（在驱动模块加载后自动在/dev 目录下创建对应的设备文件。） ：

mdev 机制

udev 是一个用户程序，在 Linux 下通过 udev 来实现设备文件的创建与删除， udev 可以检测系统中硬件设备状态，可以根据系统中硬件设备状态来创建或者删除设备文件。比如使用modprobe 命令成功加载驱动模块以后就自动在/dev 目录下创建对应的设备节点文件,使用rmmod 命令卸载驱动模块以后就删除掉/dev 目录下的设备节点文件。 使用 busybox 构建根文件系统的时候， busybox 会创建一个 udev 的简化版本—mdev，所以在嵌入式 Linux 中我们使用mdev 来实现设备节点文件的自动创建与删除， Linux 系统中的热插拔事件也由 mdev 管理。

1.创建和删除类

自动创建设备节点的工作是在驱动程序的入口函数中完成的，一般在 cdev_add 函数后面添加自动创建设备节点相关代码。首先要创建一个 class 类， class 是个结构体，定义在文件include/linux/device.h 里面。 class_create 是类创建函数， class_create 是个宏定义，内容如下：

/* This is a #define to keep the compiler from merging different
 * instances of the __key variable */
#define class_create(owner, name)		\
({						\
	static struct lock_class_key __key;	\
	__class_create(owner, name, &__key);	\
})

/**
 * class_create - create a struct class structure
 * @owner: pointer to the module that is to "own" this struct class
 * @name: pointer to a string for the name of this class.
 * @key: the lock_class_key for this class; used by mutex lock debugging
 *
 * This is used to create a struct class pointer that can then be used
 * in calls to device_create().
 *
 * Returns &struct class pointer on success, or ERR_PTR() on error.
 *
 * Note, the pointer created here is to be destroyed when finished by
 * making a call to class_destroy().
 */
struct class *__class_create(struct module *owner, const char *name,
			     struct lock_class_key *key)
{
	struct class *cls;
	int retval;

	cls = kzalloc(sizeof(*cls), GFP_KERNEL);
	if (!cls) {
		retval = -ENOMEM;
		goto error;
	}

	cls->name = name;
	cls->owner = owner;
	cls->class_release = class_create_release;

	retval = __class_register(cls, key);
	if (retval)
		goto error;

	return cls;

error:
	kfree(cls);
	return ERR_PTR(retval);
}

class_create 一共有两个参数，参数 owner 一般为 THIS_MODULE，参数 name 是类名字。返回值是个指向结构体 class 的指针，也就是创建的类。

卸载驱动程序的时候需要删除掉类，类删除函数为 class_destroy，函数原型如下：

/**
 * class_destroy - destroys a struct class structure
 * @cls: pointer to the struct class that is to be destroyed
 *
 * Note, the pointer to be destroyed must have been created with a call
 * to class_create().
 */
void class_destroy(struct class *cls)
{
	if ((cls == NULL) || (IS_ERR(cls)))
		return;

	class_unregister(cls);
}

2.创建和删除设备

创建好类以后还不能实现自动创建设备节点，我们还需要在这个类下创建一个设备。使用 device_create 函数在类下面创建设备， device_create 函数原型如下：

/**
 * device_create - creates a device and registers it with sysfs
 * @class: pointer to the struct class that this device should be registered to
 * @parent: pointer to the parent struct device of this new device, if any
 * @devt: the dev_t for the char device to be added
 * @drvdata: the data to be added to the device for callbacks
 * @fmt: string for the device's name
 *
 * This function can be used by char device classes.  A struct device
 * will be created in sysfs, registered to the specified class.
 *
 * A "dev" file will be created, showing the dev_t for the device, if
 * the dev_t is not 0,0.
 * If a pointer to a parent struct device is passed in, the newly created
 * struct device will be a child of that device in sysfs.
 * The pointer to the struct device will be returned from the call.
 * Any further sysfs files that might be required can be created using this
 * pointer.
 *
 * Returns &struct device pointer on success, or ERR_PTR() on error.
 *
 * Note: the struct class passed to this function must have previously
 * been created with a call to class_create().
 */
struct device *device_create(struct class *class, struct device *parent,
			     dev_t devt, void *drvdata, const char *fmt, ...)
{
	va_list vargs;
	struct device *dev;

	va_start(vargs, fmt);
	dev = device_create_vargs(class, parent, devt, drvdata, fmt, vargs);
	va_end(vargs);
	return dev;
}

 device_create 是个可变参数函数，参数 class 就是设备要创建在哪个类下面；参数 parent 是父设备，一般为 NULL，也就是没有父设备；参数 devt 是设备号；参数 drvdata 是设备可能会使用的一些数据，一般为 NULL；参数 fmt 是设备名字，如果设置 fmt=xxx 的话，就会生成/dev/xxx这个设备文件。返回值就是创建好的设备。

同样的，卸载驱动的时候需要删除掉创建的设备，设备删除函数为 device_destroy，函数原型如下：

/**
 * device_destroy - removes a device that was created with device_create()
 * @class: pointer to the struct class that this device was registered with
 * @devt: the dev_t of the device that was previously registered
 *
 * This call unregisters and cleans up a device that was created with a
 * call to device_create().
 */
void device_destroy(struct class *class, dev_t devt)
{
	struct device *dev;

	dev = class_find_device(class, NULL, &devt, __match_devt);
	if (dev) {
		put_device(dev);
		device_unregister(dev);
	}
}

注：在旧版的Linux内核源码里面，class_create和device_create对应为：class_device_create和class_device_destroy！ 

代码举例：

struct class *class; //类
struct device *device; //设备
dev_t devid; //设备号

/* 驱动入口函数 */
static int __init xxx_init(void)
{
	/* 创建类 */
	class_create(THIS_MODULE, "xxx");

	/* 创建设备 */
	device_create(class, NULL, devid, NULL, "xxx")
	return 0;
}

/* 驱动出口函数 */
static void __exit xxx_exit(void)
{
	/* 删除设备 */
	device_destroy( class, devid);

	/* 删除类 */
	class_destroy(class);
}

module_init( xxx_init);
module_exit(xxx_exit);