How is /proc/io* populated?

问题

So if I understand things correctly, cat /proc/iomem lists the memory addresses that are mapped to this and that device register and similarily for ioports. If you pick up some book on Linux device drivers, it will state something about iomem being populated by the driver calling request_region() or something like that.

But how does the device driver know where the hardware register is located at from the get-go? For example, rtc0 seems to occupy 0070:0071 for most people - how does Linux/the device driver know that the transistors and wires of my system are hooked up so that flipping exactly those bits corresponds to reading a signal from the RTC?

回答1:

If you pick up some book on Linux device drivers, it will state something about iomem being populated by the driver calling request_region() or something like that.

The information in /proc/iomem comes from drivers calling request_mem_region().
See Content of /proc/iomem.

how does the device driver know where the hardware register is located

The address of a device register is typically specified by either the board (for an external peripheral) or SoC designer (for an integrated peripheral), and then conveyed in the board or SoC documentation. Some boards (e.g. PC ISA adapter boards) may allow address specification by some DIP switches.

The writer of the device driver then can
(a) hardcode the device address in the driver itself or a board file, or
(b) retrieve the device address using some bus configuration method (e.g. PCI configuration space), or
(c) retrieve the device address using a (handwritten) configuration list (e.g. Device Tree, FEX, ATAGs), or
(d) try to probe the device at runtime.

Note that conveying the system configuration and device addresses to device drivers is a longstanding issue.
The IBM PC's method of assigned addresses that were then hardcoded eventually led to the plug and play initiative for x86 PCs.
Issues with unique Linux kernel builds for each and every ARM board led to the adoption of Device Tree (from PowerPC) for that architecture.

来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43760524/how-is-proc-io-populated