| .. _dt-syntax: |
| |
| Syntax and structure |
| #################### |
| |
| As the name indicates, a devicetree is a tree. The human-readable text format |
| for this tree is called DTS (for devicetree source), and is defined in the |
| `Devicetree specification`_. |
| |
| .. _Devicetree specification: https://www.devicetree.org/ |
| |
| This page's purpose is to introduce devicetree in a more gradual way than the |
| specification. However, you may still need to refer to the specification to |
| understand some detailed cases. |
| |
| .. contents:: Contents |
| :local: |
| |
| Example |
| ******* |
| |
| Here is an example DTS file: |
| |
| .. code-block:: devicetree |
| |
| /dts-v1/; |
| |
| / { |
| a-node { |
| subnode_nodelabel: a-sub-node { |
| foo = <3>; |
| }; |
| }; |
| }; |
| |
| The ``/dts-v1/;`` line means the file's contents are in version 1 of the DTS |
| syntax, which has replaced a now-obsolete "version 0". |
| |
| Nodes |
| ***** |
| |
| Like any tree data structure, a devicetree has a hierarchy of *nodes*. |
| The above tree has three nodes: |
| |
| #. A root node: ``/`` |
| #. A node named ``a-node``, which is a child of the root node |
| #. A node named ``a-sub-node``, which is a child of ``a-node`` |
| |
| .. _dt-node-labels: |
| |
| Nodes can be assigned *node labels*, which are unique shorthands that refer to |
| the labeled node. Above, ``a-sub-node`` has the node label |
| ``subnode_nodelabel``. A node can have zero, one, or multiple node labels. You |
| can use node labels to refer to the node elsewhere in the devicetree. |
| |
| Devicetree nodes have *paths* identifying their locations in the tree. Like |
| Unix file system paths, devicetree paths are strings separated by slashes |
| (``/``), and the root node's path is a single slash: ``/``. Otherwise, each |
| node's path is formed by concatenating the node's ancestors' names with the |
| node's own name, separated by slashes. For example, the full path to |
| ``a-sub-node`` is ``/a-node/a-sub-node``. |
| |
| Properties |
| ********** |
| |
| Devicetree nodes can also have *properties*. Properties are name/value pairs. |
| Property values can be any sequence of bytes. In some cases, the values are an |
| array of what are called *cells*. A cell is just a 32-bit unsigned integer. |
| |
| Node ``a-sub-node`` has a property named ``foo``, whose value is a cell with |
| value 3. The size and type of ``foo``\ 's value are implied by the enclosing |
| angle brackets (``<`` and ``>``) in the DTS. |
| |
| See :ref:`dt-writing-property-values` below for more example property values. |
| |
| Devicetrees reflect hardware |
| **************************** |
| |
| In practice, devicetree nodes usually correspond to some hardware, and the node |
| hierarchy reflects the hardware's physical layout. For example, let's consider |
| a board with three I2C peripherals connected to an I2C bus controller on an SoC, |
| like this: |
| |
| .. figure:: zephyr_dt_i2c_high_level.png |
| :alt: representation of a board with three I2C peripherals |
| :figclass: align-center |
| |
| Nodes corresponding to the I2C bus controller and each I2C peripheral would be |
| present in the devicetree. Reflecting the hardware layout, the |
| I2C peripheral nodes would be children of the bus controller node. |
| Similar conventions exist for representing other types of hardware. |
| |
| The DTS would look something like this: |
| |
| .. code-block:: devicetree |
| |
| /dts-v1/; |
| |
| / { |
| soc { |
| i2c-bus-controller { |
| i2c-peripheral-1 { |
| }; |
| i2c-peripheral-2 { |
| }; |
| i2c-peripheral-3 { |
| }; |
| }; |
| }; |
| }; |
| |
| Properties in practice |
| ********************** |
| |
| In practice, properties usually describe or configure the hardware the node |
| represents. For example, an I2C peripheral's node has a property whose value is |
| the peripheral's address on the bus. |
| |
| Here's a tree representing the same example, but with real-world node |
| names and properties you might see when working with I2C devices. |
| |
| .. figure:: zephyr_dt_i2c_example.png |
| :figclass: align-center |
| |
| I2C devicetree example with real-world names and properties. |
| Node names are at the top of each node with a gray background. |
| Properties are shown as "name=value" lines. |
| |
| This is the corresponding DTS: |
| |
| .. code-block:: devicetree |
| |
| /dts-v1/; |
| |
| / { |
| soc { |
| i2c@40003000 { |
| compatible = "nordic,nrf-twim"; |
| reg = <0x40003000 0x1000>; |
| |
| apds9960@39 { |
| compatible = "avago,apds9960"; |
| reg = <0x39>; |
| }; |
| ti_hdc@43 { |
| compatible = "ti,hdc", "ti,hdc1010"; |
| reg = <0x43>; |
| }; |
| mma8652fc@1d { |
| compatible = "nxp,fxos8700", "nxp,mma8652fc"; |
| reg = <0x1d>; |
| }; |
| }; |
| }; |
| }; |
| |
| .. _dt-unit-address: |
| |
| Unit addresses |
| ************** |
| |
| In addition to showing more real-world names and properties, the above example |
| introduces a new devicetree concept: unit addresses. Unit addresses are the |
| parts of node names after an "at" sign (``@``), like ``40003000`` in |
| ``i2c@40003000``, or ``39`` in ``apds9960@39``. Unit addresses are optional: |
| the ``soc`` node does not have one. |
| |
| In devicetree, unit addresses give a node's address in the |
| address space of its parent node. Here are some example unit addresses for |
| different types of hardware. |
| |
| Memory-mapped peripherals |
| The peripheral's register map base address. |
| For example, the node named ``i2c@40003000`` represents an I2C controller |
| whose register map base address is 0x40003000. |
| |
| I2C peripherals |
| The peripheral's address on the I2C bus. |
| For example, the child node ``apds9960@39`` of the I2C controller |
| in the previous section has I2C address 0x39. |
| |
| SPI peripherals |
| An index representing the peripheral's chip select line number. |
| (If there is no chip select line, 0 is used.) |
| |
| Memory |
| The physical start address. |
| For example, a node named ``memory@2000000`` represents RAM starting at |
| physical address 0x2000000. |
| |
| Memory-mapped flash |
| Like RAM, the physical start address. |
| For example, a node named ``flash@8000000`` represents a flash device |
| whose physical start address is 0x8000000. |
| |
| Fixed flash partitions |
| This applies when the devicetree is used to store a flash partition table. |
| The unit address is the partition's start offset within the flash memory. |
| For example, take this flash device and its partitions: |
| |
| .. code-block:: devicetree |
| |
| flash@8000000 { |
| /* ... */ |
| partitions { |
| partition@0 { /* ... */ }; |
| partition@20000 { /* ... */ }; |
| /* ... */ |
| }; |
| }; |
| |
| The node named ``partition@0`` has offset 0 from the start of its flash |
| device, so its base address is 0x8000000. Similarly, the base address of |
| the node named ``partition@20000`` is 0x8020000. |
| |
| .. _dt-important-props: |
| |
| Important properties |
| ******************** |
| |
| .. Documentation maintainers: If you add a property to this list, |
| make sure it gets linked to from gen_devicetree_rest.py too. |
| |
| The devicetree specification defines several standard properties. |
| Some of the most important ones are: |
| |
| compatible |
| The name of the hardware device the node represents. |
| |
| The recommended format is ``"vendor,device"``, like ``"avago,apds9960"``, |
| or a sequence of these, like ``"ti,hdc", "ti,hdc1010"``. The ``vendor`` |
| part is an abbreviated name of the vendor. The file |
| :zephyr_file:`dts/bindings/vendor-prefixes.txt` contains a list of commonly |
| accepted ``vendor`` names. The ``device`` part is usually taken from the |
| datasheet. |
| |
| It is also sometimes a value like ``gpio-keys``, ``mmio-sram``, or |
| ``fixed-clock`` when the hardware's behavior is generic. |
| |
| The build system uses the compatible property to find the right |
| :ref:`bindings <dt-bindings>` for the node. Device drivers use |
| ``devicetree.h`` to find nodes with relevant compatibles, in order to |
| determine the available hardware to manage. |
| |
| The ``compatible`` property can have multiple values. Additional values are |
| useful when the device is a specific instance of a more general family, to |
| allow the system to match from most- to least-specific device drivers. |
| |
| Within Zephyr's bindings syntax, this property has type ``string-array``. |
| |
| reg |
| Information used to address the device. The value is specific to the device |
| (i.e. is different depending on the compatible property). |
| |
| The ``reg`` property is a sequence of ``(address, length)`` pairs. Each |
| pair is called a "register block". Values are conventionally written |
| in hex. |
| |
| Here are some common patterns: |
| |
| - Devices accessed via memory-mapped I/O registers (like ``i2c@40003000``): |
| ``address`` is usually the base address of the I/O register space, and |
| ``length`` is the number of bytes occupied by the registers. |
| - I2C devices (like ``apds9960@39`` and its siblings): |
| ``address`` is a slave address on the I2C bus. There is no ``length`` |
| value. |
| - SPI devices: ``address`` is a chip select line number; there is no |
| ``length``. |
| |
| You may notice some similarities between the ``reg`` property and common |
| unit addresses described above. This is not a coincidence. The ``reg`` |
| property can be seen as a more detailed view of the addressable resources |
| within a device than its unit address. |
| |
| status |
| A string which describes whether the node is enabled. |
| |
| The devicetree specification allows this property to have values |
| ``"okay"``, ``"disabled"``, ``"reserved"``, ``"fail"``, and ``"fail-sss"``. |
| Only the values ``"okay"`` and ``"disabled"`` are currently relevant to |
| Zephyr; use of other values currently results in undefined behavior. |
| |
| A node is considered enabled if its status property is either ``"okay"`` or |
| not defined (i.e. does not exist in the devicetree source). Nodes with |
| status ``"disabled"`` are explicitly disabled. (For backwards |
| compatibility, the value ``"ok"`` is treated the same as ``"okay"``, but |
| this usage is deprecated.) Devicetree nodes which correspond to physical |
| devices must be enabled for the corresponding ``struct device`` in the |
| Zephyr driver model to be allocated and initialized. |
| |
| interrupts |
| Information about interrupts generated by the device, encoded as an array |
| of one or more *interrupt specifiers*. Each interrupt specifier has some |
| number of cells. See section 2.4, *Interrupts and Interrupt Mapping*, in the |
| `Devicetree Specification release v0.3`_ for more details. |
| |
| Zephyr's devicetree bindings language lets you give a name to each cell in |
| an interrupt specifier. |
| |
| .. _Devicetree Specification release v0.3: |
| https://www.devicetree.org/specifications/ |
| |
| .. highlight:: none |
| |
| .. note:: |
| |
| Earlier versions of Zephyr made frequent use of the ``label`` property, |
| which is distinct from the standard :ref:`node label <dt-node-labels>`. |
| Use of the label *property* in new devicetree bindings, as well as use of |
| the :c:macro:`DT_LABEL` macro in new code, are actively discouraged. Label |
| properties continue to persist for historical reasons in some existing |
| bindings and overlays, but should not be used in new bindings or device |
| implementations. |
| |
| .. _dt-writing-property-values: |
| |
| Writing property values |
| *********************** |
| |
| This section describes how to write property values in DTS format. The property |
| types in the table below are described in detail in :ref:`dt-bindings`. |
| |
| Some specifics are skipped in the interest of keeping things simple; if you're |
| curious about details, see the devicetree specification. |
| |
| .. list-table:: |
| :header-rows: 1 |
| :widths: 1 4 4 |
| |
| * - Property type |
| - How to write |
| - Example |
| |
| * - string |
| - Double quoted |
| - ``a-string = "hello, world!";`` |
| |
| * - int |
| - between angle brackets (``<`` and ``>``) |
| - ``an-int = <1>;`` |
| |
| * - boolean |
| - for ``true``, with no value (for ``false``, use ``/delete-property/``) |
| - ``my-true-boolean;`` |
| |
| * - array |
| - between angle brackets (``<`` and ``>``), separated by spaces |
| - ``foo = <0xdeadbeef 1234 0>;`` |
| |
| * - uint8-array |
| - in hexadecimal *without* leading ``0x``, between square brackets (``[`` and ``]``). |
| - ``a-byte-array = [00 01 ab];`` |
| |
| * - string-array |
| - separated by commas |
| - ``a-string-array = "string one", "string two", "string three";`` |
| |
| * - phandle |
| - between angle brackets (``<`` and ``>``) |
| - ``a-phandle = <&mynode>;`` |
| |
| * - phandles |
| - between angle brackets (``<`` and ``>``), separated by spaces |
| - ``some-phandles = <&mynode0 &mynode1 &mynode2>;`` |
| |
| * - phandle-array |
| - between angle brackets (``<`` and ``>``), separated by spaces |
| - ``a-phandle-array = <&mynode0 1 2>, <&mynode1 3 4>;`` |
| |
| Additional notes on the above: |
| |
| - The values in the ``phandle``, ``phandles``, and ``phandle-array`` types are |
| are described further in :ref:`dt-phandles` |
| |
| - Boolean properties are true if present. They should not have a value. |
| A boolean property is only false if it is completely missing in the DTS. |
| |
| - The ``foo`` property value above has three *cells* with values 0xdeadbeef, 1234, |
| and 0, in that order. Note that hexadecimal and decimal numbers are allowed and |
| can be intermixed. Since Zephyr transforms DTS to C sources, it is not |
| necessary to specify the endianness of an individual cell here. |
| |
| - 64-bit integers are written as two 32-bit cells in big-endian order. The value |
| 0xaaaa0000bbbb1111 would be written ``<0xaaaa0000 0xbbbb1111>``. |
| |
| - The ``a-byte-array`` property value is the three bytes 0x00, 0x01, and 0xab, in |
| that order. |
| |
| - Parentheses, arithmetic operators, and bitwise operators are allowed. The |
| ``bar`` property contains a single cell with value 64:: |
| |
| bar = <(2 * (1 << 5))>; |
| |
| Note that the entire expression must be parenthesized. |
| |
| - Property values refer to other nodes in the devicetree by their *phandles*. |
| You can write a phandle using ``&foo``, where ``foo`` is a :ref:`node label |
| <dt-node-labels>`. Here is an example devicetree fragment: |
| |
| .. code-block:: devicetree |
| |
| foo: device@0 { }; |
| device@1 { |
| sibling = <&foo 1 2>; |
| }; |
| |
| The ``sibling`` property of node ``device@1`` contains three cells, in this order: |
| |
| #. The ``device@0`` node's phandle, which is written here as ``&foo`` since |
| the ``device@0`` node has a node label ``foo`` |
| #. The value 1 |
| #. The value 2 |
| |
| In the devicetree, a phandle value is a cell -- which again is just a 32-bit |
| unsigned int. However, the Zephyr devicetree API generally exposes these |
| values as *node identifiers*. Node identifiers are covered in more detail in |
| :ref:`dt-from-c`. |
| |
| - Array and similar type property values can be split into several ``<>`` |
| blocks, like this: |
| |
| .. code-block:: none |
| |
| foo = <1 2>, <3 4>; // Okay for 'type: array' |
| foo = <&label1 &label2>, <&label3 &label4>; // Okay for 'type: phandles' |
| foo = <&label1 1 2>, <&label2 3 4>; // Okay for 'type: phandle-array' |
| |
| This is recommended for readability when possible if the value can be |
| logically grouped into blocks of sub-values. |
| |
| .. _dt-alias-chosen: |
| |
| Aliases and chosen nodes |
| ************************ |
| |
| There are two additional ways beyond :ref:`node labels <dt-node-labels>` to |
| refer to a particular node without specifying its entire path: by alias, or by |
| chosen node. |
| |
| Here is an example devicetree which uses both: |
| |
| .. code-block:: devicetree |
| |
| /dts-v1/; |
| |
| / { |
| chosen { |
| zephyr,console = &uart0; |
| }; |
| |
| aliases { |
| my-uart = &uart0; |
| }; |
| |
| soc { |
| uart0: serial@12340000 { |
| ... |
| }; |
| }; |
| }; |
| |
| The ``/aliases`` and ``/chosen`` nodes do not refer to an actual hardware |
| device. Their purpose is to specify other nodes in the devicetree. |
| |
| Above, ``my-uart`` is an alias for the node with path ``/soc/serial@12340000``. |
| Using its node label ``uart0``, the same node is set as the value of the chosen |
| ``zephyr,console`` node. |
| |
| Zephyr sample applications sometimes use aliases to allow overriding the |
| particular hardware device used by the application in a generic way. For |
| example, :ref:`blinky-sample` uses this to abstract the LED to blink via the |
| ``led0`` alias. |
| |
| The ``/chosen`` node's properties are used to configure system- or |
| subsystem-wide values. See :ref:`devicetree-chosen-nodes` for more information. |