Dereference a pointer

General Usage
5

yuichao - I just want you to know that I do appreciate the help you’ve given me on several posts. So, here’s my question (and I claim ignorance). All of the “read” routines that I’m trying access in i2c-dev return some form of the following:

#define I2C_SMBUS_BLOCK_MAX	32	/* As specified in SMBus standard */
#define I2C_SMBUS_I2C_BLOCK_MAX	32	/* Not specified but we use same structure */
union i2c_smbus_data {
	__u8 byte;
	__u16 word;
	__u8 block[I2C_SMBUS_BLOCK_MAX + 2]; /* block[0] is used for length */
	                                            /* and one more for PEC */
};

Here are some of the routines (they all have corresponding “write” routines):

static inline __s32 i2c_smbus_access(int file, char read_write, __u8 command,
                                     int size, union i2c_smbus_data *data)
{
	struct i2c_smbus_ioctl_data args;

	args.read_write = read_write;
	args.command = command;
	args.size = size;
	args.data = data;
	return ioctl(file,I2C_SMBUS,&args);
}

static inline __s32 i2c_smbus_read_byte(int file)
{
	union i2c_smbus_data data;
	if (i2c_smbus_access(file,I2C_SMBUS_READ,0,I2C_SMBUS_BYTE,&data))
		return -1;
	else
		return 0x0FF & data.byte;
}

static inline __s32 i2c_smbus_read_byte_data(int file, __u8 command)
{
	union i2c_smbus_data data;
	if (i2c_smbus_access(file,I2C_SMBUS_READ,command,
	                     I2C_SMBUS_BYTE_DATA,&data))
		return -1;
	else
		return 0x0FF & data.byte;
}

static inline __s32 i2c_smbus_read_word_data(int file, __u8 command)
{
	union i2c_smbus_data data;
	if (i2c_smbus_access(file,I2C_SMBUS_READ,command,
	                     I2C_SMBUS_WORD_DATA,&data))
		return -1;
	else
		return 0x0FFFF & data.word;
}

/* Returns the number of read bytes */
static inline __s32 i2c_smbus_read_block_data(int file, __u8 command,
                                              __u8 *values)
{
	union i2c_smbus_data data;
	int i;
	if (i2c_smbus_access(file,I2C_SMBUS_READ,command,
	                     I2C_SMBUS_BLOCK_DATA,&data))
		return -1;
	else {
		for (i = 1; i <= data.block[0]; i++)
			values[i-1] = data.block[i];
		return data.block[0];
	}
}

/* Returns the number of read bytes */
/* Until kernel 2.6.22, the length is hardcoded to 32 bytes. If you
   ask for less than 32 bytes, your code will only work with kernels
   2.6.23 and later. */
static inline __s32 i2c_smbus_read_i2c_block_data(int file, __u8 command,
                                                  __u8 length, __u8 *values)
{
	union i2c_smbus_data data;
	int i;

	if (length > 32)
		length = 32;
	data.block[0] = length;
	if (i2c_smbus_access(file,I2C_SMBUS_READ,command,
	                     length == 32 ? I2C_SMBUS_I2C_BLOCK_BROKEN :
	                      I2C_SMBUS_I2C_BLOCK_DATA,&data))
		return -1;
	else {
		for (i = 1; i <= data.block[0]; i++)
			values[i-1] = data.block[i];
		return data.block[0];
	}
}

I see the return type on each as __s32 (a signed 32-bit integer), but if the union can address a memory space as large as be as 34 unsigned 8-bit integers - how do I capture that as a return value from a ccall? Wouldn’t it have to be an address to a block of memory? How would you write a ccall for i2c_smbus_read_block_data - for instance?

Frank