Linux kernel mirror (for testing) git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git
kernel os linux

docs: backlight: Clarify `actual_brightness`

Currently userspace software systemd treats `brightness` and
`actual_brightness` identically due to a bug found in an out of tree
driver.

This however causes problems for in-tree drivers that use brightness
to report user requested `brightness` and `actual_brightness` to report
what the hardware actually has programmed.

Clarify the documentation to match the behavior described in commit
6ca017658b1f9 ("[PATCH] backlight: Backlight Class Improvements").

Cc: Lee Jones <lee@kernel.org>
Cc: Lennart Poettering <lennart@poettering.net>
Cc: richard.purdie@linuxfoundation.org
Link: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/36881
Reviewed-by: Harry Wentland <harry.wentland@amd.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250415192101.2033518-1-superm1@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Mario Limonciello <mario.limonciello@amd.com>

+6 -1
+6 -1
Documentation/ABI/stable/sysfs-class-backlight
··· 26 26 KernelVersion: 2.6.17 27 27 Contact: Richard Purdie <rpurdie@rpsys.net> 28 28 Description: 29 - Show the actual brightness by querying the hardware. 29 + Show the actual brightness by querying the hardware. Due 30 + to implementation differences in hardware this may not 31 + match the value in 'brightness'. For example some hardware 32 + may treat blanking differently or have custom power saving 33 + features. Userspace should generally use the values in 34 + 'brightness' to make decisions. 30 35 Users: HAL 31 36 32 37 What: /sys/class/backlight/<backlight>/max_brightness