COMPONENT HELPER USAGE RECOMMENDATIONS(9)

💅 component helper usage recommendations 💅

okay bestie, this is the Kernel API Manual, section 9, and it's literally a vibe guide for DRM drivers 🎀

✨ the actual recommendation ✨

So picture this: you're writing a DRM driver that drives hardware where a logical device is basically a pile of independent hardware blocks (yes, a pile, that's the technical term, no cap 💀). You are recommended to use the :ref:component helper library<component>``. And because consistency is the moment and code reuse is the whole point, here are the guidelines, bestie — read them, they're giving rules 🫶

• The entire device initialization procedure should be run from the component_master_ops.master_bind callback. Start with devm_drm_dev_alloc, then bind all components with component_bind_all, and finish up with drm_dev_register. That's the whole arc, beginning to end, main character energy ⭐
• The opaque pointer you pass to all components through component_bind_all should point at struct drm_device of the device instance — not some driver-specific private structure. Like, please. Don't do that 🙈
• The component helper fills the niche where further standardization of interfaces is just not practical. So if there already is — or will be — a standardized interface like drm_bridge or drm_panel, one that provides its own functions to find such components at driver load time, like drm_of_find_panel_or_bridge, then the component helper should not be used. Periodt. 💅

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• Kernel file ./drivers/gpu/drm/drm_drv.c driver instance overview(9)
• drm_put_dev(9)
• drm_dev_enter(9)
• drm_dev_exit(9)
• drm_dev_unplug(9)
• drm_dev_set_dma_dev(9)
• drm_dev_wedged_event(9)
• __drm_dev_alloc(9)
• drm_dev_alloc(9)
• drm_dev_get(9)
• drm_dev_put(9)
• drmm_cgroup_register_region(9)
• drm_dev_register(9)
• drm_dev_unregister(9)

🦋 and that's the page! it lives at ./drivers/gpu/drm, dated October 2026, and it's still called component he...ommendations(9) because the header had to abbreviate it and honestly? iconic. go forth and bind responsibly, bestie 💖✨🎀