The Banjo Tutorial

This document is part of the Zircon Driver Development Kit documentation.

Banjo is a “transpiler” (like FIDL's fidlc) — a program that converts an interface definition language (IDL) into target language specific files.

This tutorial is structured as follows:

  • brief overview of Banjo
  • simple example (I2C)
  • explanation of generated code from example

There's also a reference section that includes:

  • a list of builtin keywords and primitive types.

Overview

Banjo generates C and C++ code that can be used by both the protocol implementer and the protocol user.

A simple example

As a first step, let's take a look at a relatively simple Banjo specification. This is the file //zircon/system/banjo/ddk-protocol-i2c/i2c.banjo:

Note that the line numbers in the code samples throughout this tutorial are not part of the files.

[01] // Copyright 2018 The Fuchsia Authors. All rights reserved.
[02] // Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
[03] // found in the LICENSE file.
[04]
[05] library ddk.protocol.i2c;
[06]
[07] using zx;
[08]
[09] const uint32 I2C_10_BIT_ADDR_MASK = 0xF000;
[10] const uint32 I2C_MAX_RW_OPS = 8;
[11]
[12] /// See `Transact` below for usage.
[13] struct I2cOp {
[14]     vector<voidptr> data;
[15]     bool is_read;
[16]     bool stop;
[17] };
[18]
[19] [Layout = "ddk-protocol"]
[20] protocol I2c {
[21]     /// Writes and reads data on an i2c channel. Up to I2C_MAX_RW_OPS operations can be passed in.
[22]     /// For write ops, i2c_op_t.data points to data to write.  The data to write does not need to be
[23]     /// kept alive after this call.  For read ops, i2c_op_t.data is ignored.  Any combination of reads
[24]     /// and writes can be specified.  At least the last op must have the stop flag set.
[25]     /// The results of the operations are returned asynchronously via the transact_cb.
[26]     /// The cookie parameter can be used to pass your own private data to the transact_cb callback.
[27]     [Async]
[28]     Transact(vector<I2cOp> op) -> (zx.status status, vector<I2cOp> op);
[29]     /// Returns the maximum transfer size for read and write operations on the channel.
[30]     GetMaxTransferSize() -> (zx.status s, usize size);
[31]     GetInterrupt(uint32 flags) -> (zx.status s, handle<interrupt> irq);
[32] };

It defines an interface that allows an application to read and write data on an I2C bus. In the I2C bus, data must first be written to the device in order to solicit a response. If a response is desired, the response can be read from the device. (A response might not be required when setting a write-only register, for example.)

Let's look at the individual components, line-by-line:

  • [05] — the library directive tells the Banjo compiler what prefix it should use on the generated output; think of it as a namespace specifier.
  • [07] — the using directive tells Banjo to include the zx library.
  • [09] and [10] — these introduce two constants for use by the programmer.
  • [13 .. 17] — these define a structure, called I2cOp, that the programmer will then use for transferring data to and from the bus.
  • [19 .. 32] — these lines define the interface methods that are provided by this Banjo specification; we'll discuss this in greater detail below.

Don‘t be confused by the comments on [21 .. 26] (and elsewhere) — they’re “flow through” comments that are intended to be emitted into the generated source. Any comment that starts with “///” (three! slashes) is a “flow through” comment. Ordinary comments (that is, “//”) are intended for the current module. This will become clear when we look at the generated code.

The operation structure

In our I2C sample, the struct I2cOp structure defines three elements:

ElementTypeUse
datavector<voidptr>contains the data sent to, and optionally received from, the bus
is_readboolflag indicating read functionality desired
stopboolflag indicating a stop byte should be sent after the operation

The structure defines the communications area that will be used between the protocol implementation (the driver) and the protocol user (the program that's using the bus).

The interface

The more interesting part is the protocol specification.

We'll skip the [Layout] (line [19]) and [Async] (line [27]) attributes for now, but will return to them below, in Attributes.

The protocol section defines three interface methods:

  • Transact
  • GetMaxTransferSize
  • GetInterrupt

Without going into details about their internal operations (this isn‘t a tutorial on I2C, after all), let’s see how they translate into the target language. We‘ll look at the C and C++ implementations separately, using the C description to include the structure definition that’s common to the C++ version as well.

Currently, generation of C and C++ code is supported, with Rust support planned in the future.

C

The C implementation is relatively straightforward:

  • structs and unions map almost directly into their C language counterparts.
  • enums and constants are generated as #define macros.
  • protocols are generated as two structs:
    • a function table, and
    • a struct with pointers to the function table and a context.
  • Some helper functions are also generated.

The C version is generated into //zircon/build-TARGET/system/banjo/ddk-protocol-i2c/gen/include/ddk/protocol/i2c.h, where TARGET is the target architecture, e.g., arm64.

The file is relatively long, so we'll look at it in several parts.

Boilerplate

The first part has some boilerplate which we'll show without further comment:

[01] // Copyright 2018 The Fuchsia Authors. All rights reserved.
[02] // Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
[03] // found in the LICENSE file.
[04]
[05] // WARNING: THIS FILE IS MACHINE GENERATED. DO NOT EDIT.
[06] //          MODIFY system/banjo/ddk-protocol-i2c/i2c.banjo INSTEAD.
[07]
[08] #pragma once
[09]
[10] #include <zircon/compiler.h>
[11] #include <zircon/types.h>
[12]
[13] __BEGIN_CDECLS

Forward declarations

Next are forward declarations for our structures and functions:

[15] // Forward declarations
[16]
[17] typedef struct i2c_op i2c_op_t;
[18] typedef struct i2c_protocol i2c_protocol_t;
[19] typedef void (*i2c_transact_callback)(void* ctx, zx_status_t status, const i2c_op_t* op_list, size_t op_count);
[20]
[21] // Declarations
[22]
[23] // See `Transact` below for usage.
[24] struct i2c_op {
[25]     const void* data_buffer;
[26]     size_t data_size;
[27]     bool is_read;
[28]     bool stop;
[29] };

Note that lines [17 .. 19] only declare types, they don't actually define structures or prototypes for functions.

Notice how the “flow through” comments (original .banjo file line [12], for example) got emitted into the generated code (line [23] above), with one slash stripped off to make them look like normal comments.

Lines [24 .. 29] are, as advertised, an almost direct mapping of the struct I2cOp from the .banjo file above (lines [13 .. 17]).

Astute C programmers will immediately see how the C++ style vector<voidptr> data (original .banjo file line [14]) is handled in C: it gets converted to a pointer (“data_buffer”) and a size (“data_size”).

As far as the naming goes, the base name is data (as given in the .banjo file). For a vector of voidptr, the transpiler appends _buffer and _size to convert the vector into a C compatible structure. For all other vector types, the transpiler appends _list and _count instead (for code readability).

Constants

Next, we see our const uint32 constants converted into #define statements:

[31] #define I2C_MAX_RW_OPS UINT32_C(8)
[32]
[33] #define I2C_10_BIT_ADDR_MASK UINT32_C(0xF000)

In the C version, We chose #define instead of “passing through” the const uint32_t representation because:

  • #define statements only exist at compile time, and get inlined at every usage site, whereas a const uint32_t would get embedded in the binary, and
  • #define allows for more compile time optimizations (e.g., doing math with the constant value).

The downside is that we don't get type safety, which is why you see the helper macros (like UINT32_C() above); they just cast the constant to the appropriate type.

Protocol structures

And now we get into the good parts.

[35] typedef struct i2c_protocol_ops {
[36]     void (*transact)(void* ctx, const i2c_op_t* op_list, size_t op_count, i2c_transact_callback callback, void* cookie);
[37]     zx_status_t (*get_max_transfer_size)(void* ctx, size_t* out_size);
[38]     zx_status_t (*get_interrupt)(void* ctx, uint32_t flags, zx_handle_t* out_irq);
[39] } i2c_protocol_ops_t;

This typedef creates a structure definition that contains the three protocol methods that were defined in the original .banjo file at lines [28], [30] and [31].

Notice the name mangling that has occurred — this is how you can map the protocol method names to the C function pointer names so that you know what they're called:

BanjoCRule
TransacttransactConvert leading uppercase to lowercase
GetMaxTransferSizeget_max_transfer_sizeAs above, and convert camel-case to underscore-separated style
GetInterruptget_interruptSame as above

Next, the interface definitions are wrapped in a context-bearing structure:

[41] struct i2c_protocol {
[42]     i2c_protocol_ops_t* ops;
[43]     void* ctx;
[44] };

And now the “flow-through” comments (.banjo file, lines [21 .. 26]) suddenly make way more sense!

[46] // Writes and reads data on an i2c channel. Up to I2C_MAX_RW_OPS operations can be passed in.
[47] // For write ops, i2c_op_t.data points to data to write.  The data to write does not need to be
[48] // kept alive after this call.  For read ops, i2c_op_t.data is ignored.  Any combination of reads
[49] // and writes can be specified.  At least the last op must have the stop flag set.
[50] // The results of the operations are returned asynchronously via the transact_cb.
[51] // The cookie parameter can be used to pass your own private data to the transact_cb callback.

Finally, we see the actual generated code for the three methods:

[52] static inline void i2c_transact(const i2c_protocol_t* proto, const i2c_op_t* op_list, size_t op_count, i2c_transact_callback callback, void* cookie) {
[53]     proto->ops->transact(proto->ctx, op_list, op_count, callback, cookie);
[54] }
[55] // Returns the maximum transfer size for read and write operations on the channel.
[56] static inline zx_status_t i2c_get_max_transfer_size(const i2c_protocol_t* proto, size_t* out_size) {
[57]     return proto->ops->get_max_transfer_size(proto->ctx, out_size);
[58] }
[59] static inline zx_status_t i2c_get_interrupt(const i2c_protocol_t* proto, uint32_t flags, zx_handle_t* out_irq) {
[60]     return proto->ops->get_interrupt(proto->ctx, flags, out_irq);
[61] }

Prefixes and paths

Notice how the prefix i2c_ (from the interface name, .banjo file line [20]) got added to the method names; thus, Transact became i2c_transact, and so on. This is part of the mapping between .banjo names and their C equivalents.

Also, the library name (line [05] in the .banjo file) is transformed into the include path: so library ddk.protocol.i2c implies a path of <ddk/protocol/i2c.h>.

C++

The C++ code is slightly more complex than the C version. Let's take a look.

The Banjo transpiler generates three files: the first is the C file discussed above, and the other two are under //zircon/build-TARGET/system/banjo/ddk-protocol-i2c/gen/include/ddktl/protocol/:

  • i2c.h — the file your program should include, and
  • i2c-internal.h — an internal file, included by i2c.h

As usual, TARGET is the build target architecture (e.g., x64).

The “internal” file contains declarations and assertions, which we can safely skip.

The C++ version of i2c.h is fairly long, so we‘ll look at it in smaller pieces. Here’s an overview “map” of what we'll be looking at, showing the starting line number of each piece:

LineSection
1boilerplate
20auto generated usage comments
55class I2cProtocol
99class I2cProtocolClient

Boilerplate

The boilerplate is pretty much what you'd expect:

[001] // Copyright 2018 The Fuchsia Authors. All rights reserved.
[002] // Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
[003] // found in the LICENSE file.
[004]
[005] // WARNING: THIS FILE IS MACHINE GENERATED. DO NOT EDIT.
[006] //          MODIFY system/banjo/ddk-protocol-i2c/i2c.banjo INSTEAD.
[007]
[008] #pragma once
[009]
[010] #include <ddk/driver.h>
[011] #include <ddk/protocol/i2c.h>
[012] #include <ddktl/device-internal.h>
[013] #include <zircon/assert.h>
[014] #include <zircon/compiler.h>
[015] #include <zircon/types.h>
[016] #include <lib/zx/interrupt.h>
[017]
[018] #include "i2c-internal.h"

It #includes a bunch of DDK and OS headers, including:

  • the C version of the header (line [011], which means that everything discussed above in the C section applies here as well), and
  • the generated i2c-internal.h file (line [018]).

Next is the “auto generated usage comments” section; we‘ll come back to that later as it will make more sense once we’ve seen the actual class declarations.

The two class declarations are wrapped in the DDK namespace:

[053] namespace ddk {
...
[150] } // namespace ddk

The I2cProtocolClient wrapper class

The I2cProtocolClient class is a simple wrapper around the i2c_protocol_t structure (defined in the C include file, line [41] which we discussed in Protocol structures, above).

[099] class I2cProtocolClient {
[100] public:
[101]     I2cProtocolClient()
[102]         : ops_(nullptr), ctx_(nullptr) {}
[103]     I2cProtocolClient(const i2c_protocol_t* proto)
[104]         : ops_(proto->ops), ctx_(proto->ctx) {}
[105]
[106]     I2cProtocolClient(zx_device_t* parent) {
[107]         i2c_protocol_t proto;
[108]         if (device_get_protocol(parent, ZX_PROTOCOL_I2C, &proto) == ZX_OK) {
[109]             ops_ = proto.ops;
[110]             ctx_ = proto.ctx;
[111]         } else {
[112]             ops_ = nullptr;
[113]             ctx_ = nullptr;
[114]         }
[115]     }
[116]
[117]     void GetProto(i2c_protocol_t* proto) const {
[118]         proto->ctx = ctx_;
[119]         proto->ops = ops_;
[120]     }
[121]     bool is_valid() const {
[122]         return ops_ != nullptr;
[123]     }
[124]     void clear() {
[125]         ctx_ = nullptr;
[126]         ops_ = nullptr;
[127]     }
[128]     // Writes and reads data on an i2c channel. Up to I2C_MAX_RW_OPS operations can be passed in.
[129]     // For write ops, i2c_op_t.data points to data to write.  The data to write does not need to be
[130]     // kept alive after this call.  For read ops, i2c_op_t.data is ignored.  Any combination of reads
[131]     // and writes can be specified.  At least the last op must have the stop flag set.
[132]     // The results of the operations are returned asynchronously via the transact_cb.
[133]     // The cookie parameter can be used to pass your own private data to the transact_cb callback.
[134]     void Transact(const i2c_op_t* op_list, size_t op_count, i2c_transact_callback callback, void* cookie) const {
[135]         ops_->transact(ctx_, op_list, op_count, callback, cookie);
[136]     }
[137]     // Returns the maximum transfer size for read and write operations on the channel.
[138]     zx_status_t GetMaxTransferSize(size_t* out_size) const {
[139]         return ops_->get_max_transfer_size(ctx_, out_size);
[140]     }
[141]     zx_status_t GetInterrupt(uint32_t flags, zx::interrupt* out_irq) const {
[142]         return ops_->get_interrupt(ctx_, flags, out_irq->reset_and_get_address());
[143]     }
[144]
[145] private:
[146]     i2c_protocol_ops_t* ops_;
[147]     void* ctx_;
[148] };

There are three constructors:

  • the default one ([101]) that sets ops_ and ctx_ to nullptr,
  • an initializer ([103]) that takes a pointer to an i2c_protocol_t structure and populates the ops_ and ctx_ fields from their namesakes in the structure, and
  • another initializer ([106]) that extracts the ops_ and ctx_ information from a zx_device_t.

The last constructor is the preferred one, and can be used like this:

ddk::I2cProtocolClient i2c(parent);
if (!i2c.is_valid()) {
  return ZX_ERR_*; // return an appropriate error
}

Three convenience member functions are provided:

  • [117] GetProto() fetches the ctx_ and ops_ members into a protocol structure,
  • [121] is_valid() returns a bool indicating if the class has been initialized with a protocol, and
  • [124] clear() invalidates the ctx_ and ops_ pointers.

Next we find the three member functions that were specified in the .banjo file:

  • [134] Transact(),
  • [138] GetMaxTransferSize(), and
  • [141] GetInterrupt().

These work just liked the three wrapper functions from the C version of the include file — that is, they pass their arguments into a call through the respective function pointer.

In fact, compare i2c_get_max_transfer_size() from the C version:

[56] static inline zx_status_t i2c_get_max_transfer_size(const i2c_protocol_t* proto, size_t* out_size) {
[57]     return proto->ops->get_max_transfer_size(proto->ctx, out_size);
[58] }

with the C++ version above:

[138] zx_status_t GetMaxTransferSize(size_t* out_size) const {
[139]   return ops_->get_max_transfer_size(ctx_, out_size);
[140] }

As advertised, all that this class does is store the operations and context pointers for later use, so that the call through the wrapper is more elegant.

You‘ll also notice that the C++ wrapper function doesn’t have any name mangling — to use a tautology, GetMaxTransferSize() is GetMaxTransferSize().

The I2cProtocol mixin class

Ok, that was the easy part. For this next part, we're going to talk about mixins and CRTPs — or Curiously Recurring Template Patterns.

Let's understand the “shape” of the class first (comment lines deleted for outlining purposes):

[055] template <typename D, typename Base = internal::base_mixin>
[056] class I2cProtocol : public Base {
[057] public:
[058]     I2cProtocol() {
[059]         internal::CheckI2cProtocolSubclass<D>();
[060]         i2c_protocol_ops_.transact = I2cTransact;
[061]         i2c_protocol_ops_.get_max_transfer_size = I2cGetMaxTransferSize;
[062]         i2c_protocol_ops_.get_interrupt = I2cGetInterrupt;
[063]
[064]         if constexpr (internal::is_base_proto<Base>::value) {
[065]             auto dev = static_cast<D*>(this);
[066]             // Can only inherit from one base_protocol implementation.
[067]             ZX_ASSERT(dev->ddk_proto_id_ == 0);
[068]             dev->ddk_proto_id_ = ZX_PROTOCOL_I2C;
[069]             dev->ddk_proto_ops_ = &i2c_protocol_ops_;
[070]         }
[071]     }
[072]
[073] protected:
[074]     i2c_protocol_ops_t i2c_protocol_ops_ = {};
[075]
[076] private:
...
[083]     static void I2cTransact(void* ctx, const i2c_op_t* op_list, size_t op_count, i2c_transact_callback callback, void* cookie) {
[084]         static_cast<D*>(ctx)->I2cTransact(op_list, op_count, callback, cookie);
[085]     }
...
[087]     static zx_status_t I2cGetMaxTransferSize(void* ctx, size_t* out_size) {
[088]         auto ret = static_cast<D*>(ctx)->I2cGetMaxTransferSize(out_size);
[089]         return ret;
[090]     }
[091]     static zx_status_t I2cGetInterrupt(void* ctx, uint32_t flags, zx_handle_t* out_irq) {
[092]         zx::interrupt out_irq2;
[093]         auto ret = static_cast<D*>(ctx)->I2cGetInterrupt(flags, &out_irq2);
[094]         *out_irq = out_irq2.release();
[095]         return ret;
[096]     }
[097] };

The I2CProtocol class inherits from a base class, specified by the second template parameter. If it's left unspecified, it defaults to internal::base_mixin, and no special magic happens. If, however, the base class is explicitly specified, it should be ddk::base_protocol, in which case additional asserts are added (to double check that only one mixin is the base protocol). In addition, special DDKTL fields are set to automatically register this protocol as the base protocol when the driver triggers DdkAdd().

The constructor calls an internal validation function, CheckI2cProtocolSubclass() [059] (defined in the generated i2c-internal.h file), which has several static_assert() calls. The class D is expected to implement the three member functions (I2cTransact(), I2cGetMaxTransferSize(), and I2cGetInterrupt()) in order for the static methods to work. If they're not provided by D, then the compiler would (in the absence of the static asserts) produce gnarly templating errors. The static asserts serve to produce diagnostic errors that are understandable by mere humans.

Next, the three pointer-to-function operations members (transact, get_max_transfer_size, and get_interrupt) are bound (lines [060 .. 062]).

Finally, the constexpr expression provides a default initialization if required.

Using the mixin class

The I2cProtocol class can be used as follows (from //zircon/system/dev/bus/platform/platform-proxy-device.h):

[01] class ProxyI2c : public ddk::I2cProtocol<ProxyI2c> {
[02] public:
[03]     explicit ProxyI2c(uint32_t device_id, uint32_t index, fbl::RefPtr<PlatformProxy> proxy)
[04]         : device_id_(device_id), index_(index), proxy_(proxy) {}
[05]
[06]     // I2C protocol implementation.
[07]     void I2cTransact(const i2c_op_t* ops, size_t cnt, i2c_transact_callback transact_cb,
[08]                      void* cookie);
[09]     zx_status_t I2cGetMaxTransferSize(size_t* out_size);
[10]     zx_status_t I2cGetInterrupt(uint32_t flags, zx::interrupt* out_irq);
[11]
[12]     void GetProtocol(i2c_protocol_t* proto) {
[13]         proto->ops = &i2c_protocol_ops_;
[14]         proto->ctx = this;
[15]     }
[16]
[17] private:
[18]     uint32_t device_id_;
[19]     uint32_t index_;
[20]     fbl::RefPtr<PlatformProxy> proxy_;
[21] };

Here we see that class ProxyI2c inherits from the DDK's I2cProtocol and provides itself as the argument to the template — this is the “mixin” concept. This causes the ProxyI2c type to be substituted for D in the template definition of the class (from the i2c.h header file above, lines [084], [088], and [093]).

Taking a look at just the I2cGetMaxTransferSize() function as an example, it's effectively as if the source code read:

[087] static zx_status_t I2cGetMaxTransferSize(void* ctx, size_t* out_size) {
[088]     auto ret = static_cast<ProxyI2c*>(ctx)->I2cGetMaxTransferSize(out_size);
[089]     return ret;
[090] }

This ends up eliminating the cast-to-self boilerplate in your code. This casting is necessary because the type information is erased at the DDK boundary — recall that the context ctx is a void * pointer.

Auto-generated comments

Banjo automatically generates comments in the include file that basically summarize what we talked about above:

[020] // DDK i2c-protocol support
[021] //
[022] // :: Proxies ::
[023] //
[024] // ddk::I2cProtocolClient is a simple wrapper around
[025] // i2c_protocol_t. It does not own the pointers passed to it
[026] //
[027] // :: Mixins ::
[028] //
[029] // ddk::I2cProtocol is a mixin class that simplifies writing DDK drivers
[030] // that implement the i2c protocol. It doesn't set the base protocol.
[031] //
[032] // :: Examples ::
[033] //
[034] // // A driver that implements a ZX_PROTOCOL_I2C device.
[035] // class I2cDevice;
[036] // using I2cDeviceType = ddk::Device<I2cDevice, /* ddk mixins */>;
[037] //
[038] // class I2cDevice : public I2cDeviceType,
[039] //                   public ddk::I2cProtocol<I2cDevice> {
[040] //   public:
[041] //     I2cDevice(zx_device_t* parent)
[042] //         : I2cDeviceType(parent) {}
[043] //
[044] //     void I2cTransact(const i2c_op_t* op_list, size_t op_count, i2c_transact_callback callback, void* cookie);
[045] //
[046] //     zx_status_t I2cGetMaxTransferSize(size_t* out_size);
[047] //
[048] //     zx_status_t I2cGetInterrupt(uint32_t flags, zx::interrupt* out_irq);
[049] //
[050] //     ...
[051] // };

Using Banjo

Suraj says:

We also need something in-between a FIDL tutorial and a driver writing tutorial, in order to describe banjo usage. Basically, writing a simple protocol, and then describing a driver that emits it, and another driver that binds on top of it and makes use of that protocol. If it makes sense, the existing driver writing tutorial could just be modified to have more fleshed out details on banjo usage. I think the current driver tutorial is focused on C usage as well, and getting a C++ version (using ddktl) would probably bring the most value [this is already on my work queue, “Tutorial on using ddktl (C++ DDK wrappers)” -RK].

Now that we‘ve seen the generated code for the I2C driver, let’s take a look at how we would use it.

@@@ to be completed

Reference

@@@ This is where we should list all builtin keywords and primitve types

Attributes

Recall from the example above that the protocol section had two attributes; a [Layout] and an [Async] attribute.

The Layout attribute

The line just before the protocol is the [Layout] attribute:

[19] [Layout = "ddk-protocol"]
[20] protocol I2c {

The attribute applies to the next item; so in this case, the entire protocol. Only one layout is allowed per interface.

There are in fact 3 Layout attribute types currently supported:

  • ddk-protocol
  • ddk-interface
  • ddk-callback

In order to understand how these layout types work, let's assume we have two drivers, A and B. Driver A spawns a device, which B then attaches to, (making B a child of A).

If B then queries the DDK for its parent‘s “protocol” via device_get_protocol(), it’ll get a ddk-protocol. A ddk-protocol is a set of callbacks that a parent provides to its child.

One of the protocol functions can be to register a “reverse-protocol”, whereby the child provides a set of callbacks for the parent to trigger instead. This is a ddk-interface.

From a code generation perspective, these two (ddk-protocol and ddk-interface) look almost identical, except for some slight naming differences (ddk-protocol automatically appends the word “protocol” to the end of generated structs / classes, whereas ddk-interface doesn't).

ddk-callback is a slight optimization over ddk-interface, and is used when an interface has just one single function. Instead of generating two structures, like:

struct interface {
   void* ctx;
   inteface_function_ptr_table* callbacks;
};

struct interface_function_ptr_table {
   void (*one_function)(...);
}

a ddk-callback will generate a single structure with the function pointer inlined:

struct callback {
  void* ctx;
  void (*one_function)(...);
};

The Async attribute

Within the protocl section, we see another attribute: the [Async] attribute:

[20] protocl I2c {
...      /// comments (removed)
[27]     [Async]

The [Async] attribute is a way to make protocol messages not be synchronous. It autogenerates a callback type in which the output arguments are inputs to the callback. The original method will not have any of the output parameters specified in its signatures.

Recall from the example above that we had a Transact method:

[27] [Async]
[28] Transact(vector<I2cOp> op) -> (zx.status status, vector<I2cOp> op);

When used (as above) in conjunction with the [Async] attribute, it means that we want Banjo to invoke a callback function, so that we can handle the output data (the second vector<I2cOp> above, representing the data from the I2C bus).

Here's how it works. We send data to the I2C bus via the first vector<I2cOp> argument. Some time later, the I2C bus may generate data in response to our request. Because we specified [Async], Banjo generates the functions to take a callback function as input.

In C, these two lines (from the i2c.h file) are important:

[19] typedef void (*i2c_transact_callback)(void* ctx, zx_status_t status, const i2c_op_t* op_list, size_t op_count);
...
[36] void (*transact)(void* ctx, const i2c_op_t* op_list, size_t op_count, i2c_transact_callback callback, void* cookie);

In C++, we have two place where the callback is referenced:

[083] static void I2cTransact(void* ctx, const i2c_op_t* op_list, size_t op_count, i2c_transact_callback callback, void* cookie) {
[084]     static_cast<D*>(ctx)->I2cTransact(op_list, op_count, callback, cookie);
[085] }

and

[134] void Transact(const i2c_op_t* op_list, size_t op_count, i2c_transact_callback callback, void* cookie) const {
[135]     ops_->transact(ctx_, op_list, op_count, callback, cookie);
[136] }

Notice how the C++ is similar to the C: that's because the generated code includes the C header file as part of the C++ header file.

The transaction callback has the following arguments:

ArgumentMeaning
ctxthe cookie
statusstatus of the asynchronous response (provided by callee)
op_listthe data from the transfer
op_countthe number of elements in the transfer

How is this different than just using the ddk-callback [Layout] attribute we discussed above?

First, there‘s no struct with the callback and cookie value in it, they’re inlined as arguments instead.

Second, the callback provided is a “one time use” function. That is to say, it should be called once, and only once, for each invocation of the protocol method it was supplied to. For contrast, a method provided by a ddk-callback is a “register once, call many times” type of function (similar to ddk-interface and ddk-protocol). For this reason, ddk-callback and ddk-interface structures usually have paired register() and unregister() calls in order to tell the parent device when it should stop calling those callbacks.

One more caveat with [Async] is that its callback MUST be called for each protocol method invocation, and the accompanying cookie must be provided. Failure to do so will result in undefined behavior (likely a leak, deadlock, timeout, or crash).

Although not the case currently, C++ and future language bindings (like Rust) will provide “future” / “promise” style based APIs in the generated code, built on top of these callbacks in order to prevent mistakes.

Ok, one more caveat with [Async] — the [Async] attribute applies only to the immediately following method; not any other methods.