xref: /freebsd/lib/libkvm/kvm_open.3 (revision 729362425c09cf6b362366aabc6fb547eee8035a)
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36.\"     @(#)kvm_open.3	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
37.\" $FreeBSD$
38.\"
39.Dd April 19, 1994
40.Dt KVM_OPEN 3
41.Os
42.Sh NAME
43.Nm kvm_open ,
44.Nm kvm_openfiles ,
45.Nm kvm_close
46.Nd initialize kernel virtual memory access
47.Sh LIBRARY
48.Lb libkvm
49.Sh SYNOPSIS
50.In fcntl.h
51.In kvm.h
52.Ft kvm_t *
53.Fn kvm_open "const char *execfile" "const char *corefile" "const char *swapfile" "int flags" "const char *errstr"
54.Ft kvm_t *
55.Fn kvm_openfiles "const char *execfile" "const char *corefile" "const char *swapfile" "int flags" "char *errbuf"
56.Ft int
57.Fn kvm_close "kvm_t *kd"
58.Sh DESCRIPTION
59The functions
60.Fn kvm_open
61and
62.Fn kvm_openfiles
63return a descriptor used to access kernel virtual memory
64via the
65.Xr kvm 3
66library routines.  Both active kernels and crash dumps are accessible
67through this interface.
68.Pp
69The
70.Fa execfile
71argument is the executable image of the kernel being examined.
72This file must contain a symbol table.
73If this argument is
74.Dv NULL ,
75the currently running system is assumed,
76as determined from
77.Xr getbootfile 3 .
78.Pp
79The
80.Fa corefile
81argument is the kernel memory device file.  It can be either /dev/mem
82or a crash dump core generated by
83.Xr savecore 8 .
84If
85.Fa corefile
86is
87.Dv NULL ,
88the default indicated by
89.Dv _PATH_MEM
90from <paths.h> is used.
91.Pp
92The
93.Fa swapfile
94argument is currently unused.
95.Pp
96The
97.Fa flags
98argument indicates read/write access as in
99.Xr open 2
100and applies only to the core file.
101Only
102.Dv O_RDONLY ,
103.Dv O_WRONLY ,
104and
105.Dv O_RDWR
106are permitted.
107.Pp
108There are two open routines which differ only with respect to
109the error mechanism.
110One provides backward compatibility with the SunOS kvm library, while the
111other provides an improved error reporting framework.
112.Pp
113The
114.Fn kvm_open
115function is the Sun kvm compatible open call.  Here, the
116.Fa errstr
117argument indicates how errors should be handled.  If it is
118.Dv NULL ,
119no errors are reported and the application cannot know the
120specific nature of the failed kvm call.
121If it is not
122.Dv NULL ,
123errors are printed to
124.Dv stderr
125with
126.Fa errstr
127prepended to the message, as in
128.Xr perror 3 .
129Normally, the name of the program is used here.
130The string is assumed to persist at least until the corresponding
131.Fn kvm_close
132call.
133.Pp
134The
135.Fn kvm_openfiles
136function provides
137.Bx
138style error reporting.
139Here, error messages are not printed out by the library.
140Instead, the application obtains the error message
141corresponding to the most recent kvm library call using
142.Fn kvm_geterr
143(see
144.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ) .
145The results are undefined if the most recent kvm call did not produce
146an error.
147Since
148.Fn kvm_geterr
149requires a kvm descriptor, but the open routines return
150.Dv NULL
151on failure,
152.Fn kvm_geterr
153cannot be used to get the error message if open fails.
154Thus,
155.Fn kvm_openfiles
156will place any error message in the
157.Fa errbuf
158argument.  This buffer should be _POSIX2_LINE_MAX characters large (from
159<limits.h>).
160.Sh RETURN VALUES
161The
162.Fn kvm_open
163and
164.Fn kvm_openfiles
165functions both return a descriptor to be used
166in all subsequent kvm library calls.
167The library is fully re-entrant.
168On failure,
169.Dv NULL
170is returned, in which case
171.Fn kvm_openfiles
172writes the error message into
173.Fa errbuf .
174.Pp
175The
176.Fn kvm_close
177function returns 0 on success and -1 on failure.
178.Sh BUGS
179There should not be two open calls.  The ill-defined error semantics
180of the Sun library and the desire to have a backward-compatible library
181for
182.Bx
183left little choice.
184.Sh SEE ALSO
185.Xr open 2 ,
186.Xr kvm 3 ,
187.Xr kvm_getargv 3 ,
188.Xr kvm_getenvv 3 ,
189.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ,
190.Xr kvm_getprocs 3 ,
191.Xr kvm_nlist 3 ,
192.Xr kvm_read 3 ,
193.Xr kvm_write 3
194