xref: /freebsd/lib/libkvm/kvm_open.3 (revision a79b71281cd63ad7a6cc43a6d5673a2510b51630)
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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.Fd #include <fcntl.h>
51.Fd #include <kvm.h>
52.br
53.Ft kvm_t *
54.Fn kvm_open "const char *execfile" "const char *corefile" "const char *swapfile" "int flags" "const char *errstr"
55.Ft kvm_t *
56.Fn kvm_openfiles "const char *execfile" "const char *corefile" "const char *swapfile" "int flags" "char *errbuf"
57.Ft int
58.Fn kvm_close "kvm_t *kd"
59.Sh DESCRIPTION
60The functions
61.Fn kvm_open
62and
63.Fn kvm_openfiles
64return a descriptor used to access kernel virtual memory
65via the
66.Xr kvm 3
67library routines.  Both active kernels and crash dumps are accessible
68through this interface.
69.Pp
70.Fa execfile
71is 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
79.Fa corefile
80is the kernel memory device file.  It can be either /dev/mem
81or a crash dump core generated by
82.Xr savecore 8 .
83If
84.Fa corefile
85is
86.Dv NULL ,
87the default indicated by
88.Dv _PATH_MEM
89from <paths.h> is used.
90.Pp
91.Fa swapfile
92should indicate the swap device.  If
93.Dv NULL ,
94.Dv _PATH_DRUM
95from <paths.h> is used.
96.Pp
97The
98.Fa flags
99argument indicates read/write access as in
100.Xr open 2
101and applies only to the core file.
102Only
103.Dv O_RDONLY ,
104.Dv O_WRONLY ,
105and
106.Dv O_RDWR
107are permitted.
108.Pp
109There are two open routines which differ only with respect to
110the error mechanism.
111One provides backward compatibility with the SunOS kvm library, while the
112other provides an improved error reporting framework.
113.Pp
114The
115.Fn kvm_open
116function is the Sun kvm compatible open call.  Here, the
117.Fa errstr
118argument indicates how errors should be handled.  If it is
119.Dv NULL ,
120no errors are reported and the application cannot know the
121specific nature of the failed kvm call.
122If it is not
123.Dv NULL ,
124errors are printed to stderr with
125.Fa errstr
126prepended to the message, as in
127.Xr perror 3 .
128Normally, the name of the program is used here.
129The string is assumed to persist at least until the corresponding
130.Fn kvm_close
131call.
132.Pp
133The
134.Fn kvm_openfiles
135function provides BSD style error reporting.
136Here, error messages are not printed out by the library.
137Instead, the application obtains the error message
138corresponding to the most recent kvm library call using
139.Fn kvm_geterr
140(see
141.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ).
142The results are undefined if the most recent kvm call did not produce
143an error.
144Since
145.Fn kvm_geterr
146requires a kvm descriptor, but the open routines return
147.Dv NULL
148on failure,
149.Fn kvm_geterr
150cannot be used to get the error message if open fails.
151Thus,
152.Fn kvm_openfiles
153will place any error message in the
154.Fa errbuf
155argument.  This buffer should be _POSIX2_LINE_MAX characters large (from
156<limits.h>).
157.Sh RETURN VALUES
158The
159.Fn kvm_open
160and
161.Fn kvm_openfiles
162functions both return a descriptor to be used
163in all subsequent kvm library calls.
164The library is fully re-entrant.
165On failure,
166.Dv NULL
167is returned, in which case
168.Fn kvm_openfiles
169writes the error message into
170.Fa errbuf .
171.Pp
172The
173.Fn kvm_close
174function returns 0 on success and -1 on failure.
175.Sh BUGS
176There should not be two open calls.  The ill-defined error semantics
177of the Sun library and the desire to have a backward-compatible library
178for BSD left little choice.
179.Sh SEE ALSO
180.Xr open 2 ,
181.Xr kvm 3 ,
182.Xr kvm_getargv 3 ,
183.Xr kvm_getenvv 3 ,
184.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ,
185.Xr kvm_getprocs 3 ,
186.Xr kvm_nlist 3 ,
187.Xr kvm_read 3 ,
188.Xr kvm_write 3
189