xref: /freebsd/lib/libkvm/kvm_open.3 (revision 17ee9d00bc1ae1e598c38f25826f861e4bc6c3ce)
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36.\"     @(#)kvm_open.3	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
37.\"
38.Dd April 19, 1994
39.Dt KVM_OPEN 3
40.Os
41.Sh NAME
42.Nm kvm_open ,
43.Nm kvm_openfiles ,
44.Nm kvm_close
45.Nd initialize kernel virtual memory access
46.Sh SYNOPSIS
47.Fd #include <fcntl.h>
48.Fd #include <kvm.h>
49.br
50.Ft kvm_t *
51.Fn kvm_open "const char *execfile" "const char *corefile" "char *swapfile" "int flags" "const char *errstr"
52.Ft kvm_t *
53.Fn kvm_openfiles "const char *execfile" "const char *corefile" "char *swapfile" "int flags" "char *errbuf"
54.Ft int
55.Fn kvm_close "kvm_t *kd"
56.Sh DESCRIPTION
57The functions
58.Fn kvm_open
59and
60.Fn kvm_openfiles
61return a descriptor used to access kernel virtual memory
62via the
63.Xr kvm 3
64library routines.  Both active kernels and crash dumps are accessible
65through this interface.
66.Pp
67.Fa execfile
68is the executable image of the kernel being examined.
69This file must contain a symbol table.
70If this argument is
71.Dv NULL ,
72the currently running system is assumed,
73as determined from
74.Xr getbootfile 3 .
75.Pp
76.Fa corefile
77is the kernel memory device file.  It can be either /dev/mem
78or a crash dump core generated by
79.Xr savecore 8 .
80If
81.Fa corefile
82is
83.Dv NULL ,
84the default indicated by
85.Dv _PATH_MEM
86from <paths.h> is used.
87.Pp
88.Fa swapfile
89should indicate the swap device.  If
90.Dv NULL ,
91.Dv _PATH_DRUM
92from <paths.h> is used.
93.Pp
94The
95.Fa flags
96argument indicates read/write access as in
97.Xr open 2
98and applies only to the core file.
99Only
100.Dv O_RDONLY ,
101.Dv O_WRONLY ,
102and
103.Dv O_RDWR
104are permitted.
105.Pp
106There are two open routines which differ only with respect to
107the error mechanism.
108One provides backward compatibility with the SunOS kvm library, while the
109other provides an improved error reporting framework.
110.Pp
111The
112.Fn kvm_open
113function is the Sun kvm compatible open call.  Here, the
114.Fa errstr
115argument indicates how errors should be handled.  If it is
116.Dv NULL ,
117no errors are reported and the application cannot know the
118specific nature of the failed kvm call.
119If it is not
120.Dv NULL ,
121errors are printed to stderr with
122.Fa errstr
123prepended to the message, as in
124.Xr perror 3 .
125Normally, the name of the program is used here.
126The string is assumed to persist at least until the corresponding
127.Fn kvm_close
128call.
129.Pp
130The
131.Fn kvm_openfiles
132function provides BSD style error reporting.
133Here, error messages are not printed out by the library.
134Instead, the application obtains the error message
135corresponding to the most recent kvm library call using
136.Fn kvm_geterr
137(see
138.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ).
139The results are undefined if the most recent kvm call did not produce
140an error.
141Since
142.Fn kvm_geterr
143requires a kvm descriptor, but the open routines return
144.Dv NULL
145on failure,
146.Fn kvm_geterr
147cannot be used to get the error message if open fails.
148Thus,
149.Fn kvm_openfiles
150will place any error message in the
151.Fa errbuf
152argument.  This buffer should be _POSIX2_LINE_MAX characters large (from
153<limits.h>).
154.Sh RETURN VALUES
155The
156.Fn kvm_open
157and
158.Fn kvm_openfiles
159functions both return a descriptor to be used
160in all subsequent kvm library calls.
161The library is fully re-entrant.
162On failure,
163.Dv NULL
164is returned, in which case
165.Fn kvm_openfiles
166writes the error message into
167.Fa errbuf .
168.Pp
169The
170.Fn kvm_close
171function returns 0 on success and -1 on failure.
172.Sh BUGS
173There should not be two open calls.  The ill-defined error semantics
174of the Sun library and the desire to have a backward-compatible library
175for BSD left little choice.
176.Sh SEE ALSO
177.Xr open 2 ,
178.Xr kvm 3 ,
179.Xr kvm_getargv 3 ,
180.Xr kvm_getenvv 3 ,
181.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ,
182.Xr kvm_getprocs 3 ,
183.Xr kvm_nlist 3 ,
184.Xr kvm_read 3 ,
185.Xr kvm_write 3
186