From 8fad71b6771afc1f12f1cdf616ae0fca628802e9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Ivan Orlov Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2024 13:06:59 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Docs/sound: Add documentation for userspace-driven ALSA timers Add the documentation which describes the new userspace-driven timers API introduced in this patch series. The documentation contains: - Description of userspace-driven ALSA timers, what they are for - Description of the timers API - Example of how the timers can be created and triggered - How the timers can be used as a timer sources for snd-aloop module Suggested-by: Axel Holzinger Signed-off-by: Ivan Orlov Signed-off-by: Takashi Iwai Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20240813120701.171743-3-ivan.orlov0322@gmail.com --- Documentation/sound/index.rst | 1 + Documentation/sound/utimers.rst | 126 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 127 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Documentation/sound/utimers.rst diff --git a/Documentation/sound/index.rst b/Documentation/sound/index.rst index 7e67e12730d3..c437f2a4bc85 100644 --- a/Documentation/sound/index.rst +++ b/Documentation/sound/index.rst @@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ Sound Subsystem Documentation alsa-configuration hd-audio/index cards/index + utimers .. only:: subproject and html diff --git a/Documentation/sound/utimers.rst b/Documentation/sound/utimers.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..ec21567d3f72 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/sound/utimers.rst @@ -0,0 +1,126 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +======================= +Userspace-driven timers +======================= + +:Author: Ivan Orlov + +Preface +======= + +This document describes the userspace-driven timers: virtual ALSA timers +which could be created and controlled by userspace applications using +IOCTL calls. Such timers could be useful when synchronizing audio +stream with timer sources which we don't have ALSA timers exported for +(e.g. PTP clocks), and when synchronizing the audio stream going through +two virtual sound devices using ``snd-aloop`` (for instance, when +we have a network application sending frames to one snd-aloop device, +and another sound application listening on the other end of snd-aloop). + +Enabling userspace-driven timers +================================ + +The userspace-driven timers could be enabled in the kernel using the +``CONFIG_SND_UTIMER`` configuration option. It depends on the +``CONFIG_SND_TIMER`` option, so it also should be enabled. + +Userspace-driven timers API +=========================== + +Userspace application can create a userspace-driven ALSA timer by +executing the ``SNDRV_TIMER_IOCTL_CREATE`` ioctl call on the +``/dev/snd/timer`` device file descriptor. The ``snd_timer_uinfo`` +structure should be passed as an ioctl argument: + +:: + + struct snd_timer_uinfo { + __u64 resolution; + int fd; + unsigned int id; + unsigned char reserved[16]; + } + +The ``resolution`` field sets the desired resolution in nanoseconds for +the virtual timer. ``resolution`` field simply provides an information +about the virtual timer, but does not affect the timing itself. ``id`` +field gets overwritten by the ioctl, and the identifier you get in this +field after the call can be used as a timer subdevice number when +passing the timer to ``snd-aloop`` kernel module or other userspace +applications. There could be up to 128 userspace-driven timers in the +system at one moment of time, thus the id value ranges from 0 to 127. + +Besides from overwriting the ``snd_timer_uinfo`` struct, ioctl stores +a timer file descriptor, which can be used to trigger the timer, in the +``fd`` field of the ``snd_timer_uinfo`` struct. Allocation of a file +descriptor for the timer guarantees that the timer can only be triggered +by the process which created it. The timer then can be triggered with +``SNDRV_TIMER_IOCTL_TRIGGER`` ioctl call on the timer file descriptor. + +So, the example code for creating and triggering the timer would be: + +:: + + static struct snd_timer_uinfo utimer_info = { + /* Timer is going to tick (presumably) every 1000000 ns */ + .resolution = 1000000ULL, + .id = -1, + }; + + int timer_device_fd = open("/dev/snd/timer", O_RDWR | O_CLOEXEC); + + if (ioctl(timer_device_fd, SNDRV_TIMER_IOCTL_CREATE, &utimer_info)) { + perror("Failed to create the timer"); + return -1; + } + + ... + + /* + * Now we want to trigger the timer. Callbacks of all of the + * timer instances binded to this timer will be executed after + * this call. + */ + ioctl(utimer_info.fd, SNDRV_TIMER_IOCTL_TRIGGER, NULL); + + ... + + /* Now, destroy the timer */ + close(timer_info.fd); + + +More detailed example of creating and ticking the timer could be found +in the utimer ALSA selftest. + +Userspace-driven timers and snd-aloop +------------------------------------- + +Userspace-driven timers could be easily used with ``snd-aloop`` module +when synchronizing two sound applications on both ends of the virtual +sound loopback. For instance, if one of the applications receives sound +frames from network and sends them to snd-aloop pcm device, and another +application listens for frames on the other snd-aloop pcm device, it +makes sense that the ALSA middle layer should initiate a data +transaction when the new period of data is received through network, but +not when the certain amount of jiffies elapses. Userspace-driven ALSA +timers could be used to achieve this. + +To use userspace-driven ALSA timer as a timer source of snd-aloop, pass +the following string as the snd-aloop ``timer_source`` parameter: + +:: + + # modprobe snd-aloop timer_source="-1.4." + +Where ``utimer_id`` is the id of the timer you created with +``SNDRV_TIMER_IOCTL_CREATE``, and ``4`` is the number of +userspace-driven timers device (``SNDRV_TIMER_GLOBAL_UDRIVEN``). + +``resolution`` for the userspace-driven ALSA timer used with snd-aloop +should be calculated as ``1000000000ULL / frame_rate * period_size`` as +the timer is going to tick every time a new period of frames is ready. + +After that, each time you trigger the timer with +``SNDRV_TIMER_IOCTL_TRIGGER`` the new period of data will be transferred +from one snd-aloop device to another.