[alsa-devel] Signaling user-space through kcontrol

[Clemens Ladisch]

Patrick Lai wrote:
> The codec I am working on, beside headset detection, also have other
> type of events to be propagated to user space. Per our discussion at
> IPC, there is way to signal user-space through kcontrol. Is it through 
> calling snd_ctl_notify()?

Yes.

> What is the ALSA library API to intercept the event?

snd_ctl_open() and snd_ctl_subscribe(), then snd_ctl_read() in
a loop.  To integrate this into a poll()-based event loop, use
the snd_ctl_poll_descriptors*() functions.

Do you want to write a specific tool that does nothing but waiting
for these events, or will this be integrated into another program?

> Is there an sample user-space code which gets kcontrol event?

Not really.  There is alsamixer, but it uses a different API (the
snd_mixer* functions implement an abstracation on top of the snd_ctl*
stuff).  In the main loop (alsa-utils/alsamixer/mainloop.c), the
snd_mixer_poll_descriptors* functions work similar to the snd_ctl*
functions, but the snd_mixer_handle_events() function then reads the
event(s) from the ctl device and calls callback functions, in this case
elem_callback() and mixer_callback() in mixer_widget.c.


Regards,
Clemens