new file mode 100644
@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
+
+GPIO Aggregator
+===============
+
+The GPIO Aggregator provides a mechanism to aggregate GPIOs, and expose them as
+a new gpio_chip. This supports the following use cases.
+
+
+Aggregating GPIOs using Sysfs
+-----------------------------
+
+GPIO controllers are exported to userspace using /dev/gpiochip* character
+devices. Access control to these devices is provided by standard UNIX file
+system permissions, on an all-or-nothing basis: either a GPIO controller is
+accessible for a user, or it is not.
+
+The GPIO Aggregator provides access control for a set of one or more GPIOs, by
+aggregating them into a new gpio_chip, which can be assigned to a group or user
+using standard UNIX file ownership and permissions. Furthermore, this
+simplifies and hardens exporting GPIOs to a virtual machine, as the VM can just
+grab the full GPIO controller, and no longer needs to care about which GPIOs to
+grab and which not, reducing the attack surface.
+
+Aggregated GPIO controllers are instantiated and destroyed by writing to
+write-only attribute files in sysfs.
+
+ /sys/bus/platform/drivers/gpio-aggregator/
+
+ "new_device" ...
+ Userspace may ask the kernel to instantiate an aggregated GPIO
+ controller by writing a string describing the GPIOs to
+ aggregate to the "new_device" file, using the format
+
+ .. code-block:: none
+
+ [<gpioA>] [<gpiochipB> <offsets>] ...
+
+ Where:
+
+ "<gpioA>" ...
+ is a GPIO line name,
+
+ "<gpiochipB>" ...
+ is a GPIO chip label, and
+
+ "<offsets>" ...
+ is a comma-separated list of GPIO offsets and/or
+ GPIO offset ranges denoted by dashes.
+
+ Example: Instantiate a new GPIO aggregator by aggregating GPIO
+ line 19 of "e6052000.gpio" and GPIO lines 20-21 of
+ "e6050000.gpio" into a new gpio_chip:
+
+ .. code-block:: sh
+
+ $ echo 'e6052000.gpio 19 e6050000.gpio 20-21' > new_device
+
+ "delete_device" ...
+ Userspace may ask the kernel to destroy an aggregated GPIO
+ controller after use by writing its device name to the
+ "delete_device" file.
+
+ Example: Destroy the previously-created aggregated GPIO
+ controller, assumed to be "gpio-aggregator.0":
+
+ .. code-block:: sh
+
+ $ echo gpio-aggregator.0 > delete_device
+
+
+Generic GPIO Driver
+-------------------
+
+The GPIO Aggregator can also be used as a generic driver for a simple
+GPIO-operated device described in DT, without a dedicated in-kernel driver.
+This is useful in industrial control, and is not unlike e.g. spidev, which
+allows the user to communicate with an SPI device from userspace.
+
+Binding a device to the GPIO Aggregator is performed either by modifying the
+gpio-aggregator driver, or by writing to the "driver_override" file in Sysfs.
+
+Example: If "door" is a GPIO-operated device described in DT, using its own
+compatible value::
+
+ door {
+ compatible = "myvendor,mydoor";
+
+ gpios = <&gpio2 19 GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH>,
+ <&gpio2 20 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>;
+ gpio-line-names = "open", "lock";
+ };
+
+it can be bound to the GPIO Aggregator by either:
+
+1. Adding its compatible value to ``gpio_aggregator_dt_ids[]``,
+2. Binding manually using "driver_override":
+
+.. code-block:: sh
+
+ $ echo gpio-aggregator > /sys/bus/platform/devices/door/driver_override
+ $ echo door > /sys/bus/platform/drivers/gpio-aggregator/bind
+
+After that, a new gpiochip "door" has been created:
+
+.. code-block:: sh
+
+ $ gpioinfo door
+ gpiochip12 - 2 lines:
+ line 0: "open" unused input active-high
+ line 1: "lock" unused input active-high
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ gpio
.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 1
+ gpio-aggregator
sysfs
.. only:: subproject and html