xref: /freebsd/lib/libkvm/kvm_open.3 (revision f39bffc62c1395bde25d152c7f68fdf7cbaab414)
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32.\"     @(#)kvm_open.3	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd March 20, 2017
36.Dt KVM_OPEN 3
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm kvm_open ,
40.Nm kvm_open2 ,
41.Nm kvm_openfiles ,
42.Nm kvm_close
43.Nd initialize kernel virtual memory access
44.Sh LIBRARY
45.Lb libkvm
46.Sh SYNOPSIS
47.In fcntl.h
48.In kvm.h
49.Ft kvm_t *
50.Fn kvm_open "const char *execfile" "const char *corefile" "const char *swapfile" "int flags" "const char *errstr"
51.Ft kvm_t *
52.Fo kvm_open2
53.Fa "const char *execfile"
54.Fa "const char *corefile"
55.Fa "int flags"
56.Fa "char *errbuf"
57.Fa "int (*resolver)(const char *name, kvaddr_t *addr)"
58.Fc
59.Ft kvm_t *
60.Fn kvm_openfiles "const char *execfile" "const char *corefile" "const char *swapfile" "int flags" "char *errbuf"
61.Ft int
62.Fn kvm_close "kvm_t *kd"
63.Sh DESCRIPTION
64The functions
65.Fn kvm_open ,
66.Fn kvm_open2 ,
67and
68.Fn kvm_openfiles
69return a descriptor used to access kernel virtual memory
70via the
71.Xr kvm 3
72library routines.
73Both active kernels and crash dumps are accessible
74through this interface.
75.Pp
76The
77.Fa execfile
78argument is the executable image of the kernel being examined.
79This file must contain a symbol table.
80If this argument is
81.Dv NULL ,
82the currently running system is assumed,
83as determined from
84.Xr getbootfile 3 .
85.Pp
86The
87.Fa corefile
88argument is the kernel memory device file.
89It can be either
90.Pa /dev/mem
91or a crash dump core generated by
92.Xr savecore 8 .
93If
94.Fa corefile
95is
96.Dv NULL ,
97the default indicated by
98.Dv _PATH_MEM
99from
100.In paths.h
101is used.
102It can also be set to a special value
103.Pa /dev/null
104by utilities like
105.Xr ps 1
106that do not directly access kernel memory.
107.Pp
108The
109.Fa swapfile
110argument is currently unused.
111.Pp
112The
113.Fa flags
114argument indicates read/write access as in
115.Xr open 2
116and applies only to the core file.
117Only
118.Dv O_RDONLY ,
119.Dv O_WRONLY ,
120and
121.Dv O_RDWR
122are permitted.
123.Pp
124The
125.Nm kvm
126library provides two different error reporting mechanisms.
127One provides backward compatibility with the SunOS kvm library, while the
128other provides an improved error reporting framework.
129The mechanism used by a descriptor is determined by the function used to
130open the descriptor.
131.Pp
132The
133.Fn kvm_open
134function is the Sun kvm compatible open call.
135Here, the
136.Fa errstr
137argument indicates how errors should be handled.
138If it is
139.Dv NULL ,
140no errors are reported and the application cannot know the
141specific nature of the failed kvm call.
142If it is not
143.Dv NULL ,
144errors are printed to
145.Dv stderr
146with
147.Fa errstr
148prepended to the message, as in
149.Xr perror 3 .
150Normally, the name of the program is used here.
151The string is assumed to persist at least until the corresponding
152.Fn kvm_close
153call.
154.Pp
155The
156.Fn kvm_open2
157and
158.Fn kvm_openfiles
159functions provide
160.Bx
161style error reporting.
162Here, error messages are not printed out by the library.
163Instead, the application obtains the error message
164corresponding to the most recent kvm library call using
165.Fn kvm_geterr
166(see
167.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ) .
168The results are undefined if the most recent kvm call did not produce
169an error.
170Since
171.Fn kvm_geterr
172requires a kvm descriptor, but the open routines return
173.Dv NULL
174on failure,
175.Fn kvm_geterr
176cannot be used to get the error message if open fails.
177Thus,
178.Fn kvm_open2
179and
180.Fn kvm_openfiles
181will place any error message in the
182.Fa errbuf
183argument.
184This buffer should be _POSIX2_LINE_MAX characters large (from
185<limits.h>).
186.Pp
187The
188.Fa resolver
189argument points to a function used by the
190.Nm kvm
191library to map symbol names to kernel virtual addresses.
192When the
193.Fa resolver
194function is called,
195.Fa name
196specifies the requested symbol name.
197If the function is able to resolve the name to an address,
198the address should be set in
199.Fa addr
200and the function should return zero.
201If the function is not able to resolve the name to an address,
202it should return a non-zero value.
203When opening a native kernel image,
204.Fa resolver
205may be set to
206.Dv NULL
207to use an internal function to resolve symbol names.
208Non-native kernel images
209.Pq such as when cross-debugging a crash dump
210require a valid
211.Fa resolver .
212.Sh RETURN VALUES
213The
214.Fn kvm_open ,
215.Fn kvm_open2 ,
216and
217.Fn kvm_openfiles
218functions return a descriptor to be used
219in all subsequent kvm library calls.
220The library is fully re-entrant.
221On failure,
222.Dv NULL
223is returned, in which case
224.Fn kvm_open2
225and
226.Fn kvm_openfiles
227write the error message into
228.Fa errbuf .
229.Pp
230.Rv -std kvm_close
231.Sh ERRORS
232The
233.Fn kvm_close
234function may fail and set the global variable
235.Va errno
236for any of the errors specified for
237.Xr close 2 .
238.Pp
239The
240.Fn kvm_close
241function may also fail and set
242.Va errno
243if:
244.Bl -tag -width Er
245.It Bq Er EINVAL
246The value passed via
247.Fa kd
248was
249.Dv NULL .
250.El
251.Sh SEE ALSO
252.Xr close 2 ,
253.Xr open 2 ,
254.Xr kvm 3 ,
255.Xr kvm_getargv 3 ,
256.Xr kvm_getenvv 3 ,
257.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ,
258.Xr kvm_getprocs 3 ,
259.Xr kvm_native 3 ,
260.Xr kvm_nlist 3 ,
261.Xr kvm_read 3 ,
262.Xr kvm_write 3 ,
263.Xr kmem 4 ,
264.Xr mem 4
265.Sh BUGS
266There should not be three open calls.
267The ill-defined error semantics
268of the Sun library and the desire to have a backward-compatible library
269for
270.Bx
271left little choice.
272