xref: /freebsd/lib/libkvm/kvm_open.3 (revision ebbd4fa8c8427d3dd847ba33c45c996e0500e6ff)
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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
69.Fa execfile
70is the executable image of the kernel being examined.
71This file must contain a symbol table.
72If this argument is
73.Dv NULL ,
74the currently running system is assumed,
75as determined from
76.Xr getbootfile 3 .
77.Pp
78.Fa corefile
79is the kernel memory device file.  It can be either /dev/mem
80or a crash dump core generated by
81.Xr savecore 8 .
82If
83.Fa corefile
84is
85.Dv NULL ,
86the default indicated by
87.Dv _PATH_MEM
88from <paths.h> is used.
89.Pp
90The
91.Fa swapfile
92argument is currently unused.
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
133.Bx
134style error reporting.
135Here, error messages are not printed out by the library.
136Instead, the application obtains the error message
137corresponding to the most recent kvm library call using
138.Fn kvm_geterr
139(see
140.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ) .
141The results are undefined if the most recent kvm call did not produce
142an error.
143Since
144.Fn kvm_geterr
145requires a kvm descriptor, but the open routines return
146.Dv NULL
147on failure,
148.Fn kvm_geterr
149cannot be used to get the error message if open fails.
150Thus,
151.Fn kvm_openfiles
152will place any error message in the
153.Fa errbuf
154argument.  This buffer should be _POSIX2_LINE_MAX characters large (from
155<limits.h>).
156.Sh RETURN VALUES
157The
158.Fn kvm_open
159and
160.Fn kvm_openfiles
161functions both return a descriptor to be used
162in all subsequent kvm library calls.
163The library is fully re-entrant.
164On failure,
165.Dv NULL
166is returned, in which case
167.Fn kvm_openfiles
168writes the error message into
169.Fa errbuf .
170.Pp
171The
172.Fn kvm_close
173function returns 0 on success and -1 on failure.
174.Sh BUGS
175There should not be two open calls.  The ill-defined error semantics
176of the Sun library and the desire to have a backward-compatible library
177for
178.Bx
179left little choice.
180.Sh SEE ALSO
181.Xr open 2 ,
182.Xr kvm 3 ,
183.Xr kvm_getargv 3 ,
184.Xr kvm_getenvv 3 ,
185.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ,
186.Xr kvm_getprocs 3 ,
187.Xr kvm_nlist 3 ,
188.Xr kvm_read 3 ,
189.Xr kvm_write 3
190