Kernel connector - new userspace <-> kernel space easy to use
communication module which implements easy to use bidirectional
message bus using netlink as it's backend. Connector was created to
eliminate complex skb handling both in send and receive message bus
direction.
Connector driver adds possibility to connect various agents using as
one of it's backends netlink based network. One must register
callback and identifier. When driver receives special netlink message
with appropriate identifier, appropriate callback will be called.
From the userspace point of view it's quite straightforward:
socket();
bind();
send();
recv();
But if kernelspace want to use full power of such connections, driver
writer must create special sockets, must know about struct sk_buff
handling... Connector allows any kernelspace agents to use netlink
based networking for inter-process communication in a significantly
easier way:
int cn_add_callback(struct cb_id *id, char *name, void (*callback) (void *));
void cn_netlink_send(struct cn_msg *msg, u32 __groups, int gfp_mask);
struct cb_id
{
__u32 idx;
__u32 val;
};
idx and val are unique identifiers which must be registered in
connector.h for in-kernel usage. void (*callback) (void *) - is a
callback function which will be called when message with above idx.val
will be received by connector core.
Using connector completely hides low-level transport layer from it's
users.
Connector uses new netlink ability to have many groups in one socket.
[ Incorporating many cleanups and fixes by myself and
Andrew Morton -DaveM ]
Signed-off-by: Evgeniy Polyakov <johnpol@2ka.mipt.ru>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
