xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/mem.4 (revision 9336e0699bda8a301cd2bfa37106b6ec5e32012e)
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32.\"	@(#)mem.4	5.3 (Berkeley) 5/2/91
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd October 3, 2004
36.Dt MEM 4
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm mem ,
40.Nm kmem
41.Nd memory files
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.Cd "device mem"
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45The special file
46.Pa /dev/mem
47is an interface to the physical memory of the computer.
48Byte offsets in this file are interpreted as physical memory addresses.
49Reading and writing this file is equivalent to reading and writing
50memory itself.
51Only offsets within the bounds of
52.Pa /dev/mem
53are allowed.
54.Pp
55Kernel virtual memory is accessed through the interface
56.Pa /dev/kmem
57in the same manner as
58.Pa /dev/mem .
59Only kernel virtual addresses that are currently mapped to memory are allowed.
60.Pp
61On
62.Tn ISA
63the
64.Tn I/O
65memory space begins at physical address 0x000a0000
66and runs to 0x00100000.
67The
68per-process data
69size
70for the current process
71is
72.Dv UPAGES
73long, and ends at virtual
74address 0xf0000000.
75.Sh IOCTL INTERFACE
76Several architectures allow attributes to be associated with ranges of physical
77memory.
78These attributes can be manipulated via
79.Fn ioctl
80calls performed on
81.Pa /dev/mem .
82Declarations and data types are to be found in
83.In sys/memrange.h .
84.Pp
85The specific attributes, and number of programmable ranges may vary between
86architectures.
87The full set of supported attributes is:
88.Bl -tag -width indent
89.It Dv MDF_UNCACHEABLE
90The region is not cached.
91.It Dv MDF_WRITECOMBINE
92Writes to the region may be combined or performed out of order.
93.It Dv MDF_WRITETHROUGH
94Writes to the region are committed synchronously.
95.It Dv MDF_WRITEBACK
96Writes to the region are committed asynchronously.
97.It Dv MDF_WRITEPROTECT
98The region cannot be written to.
99.El
100.Pp
101Memory ranges are described by
102.Vt struct mem_range_desc :
103.Bd -literal -offset indent
104u_int64_t	mr_base;	/\(** physical base address \(**/
105u_int64_t	mr_len;		/\(** physical length of region \(**/
106int		mr_flags;	/\(** attributes of region \(**/
107char		mr_owner[8];
108.Ed
109.Pp
110In addition to the region attributes listed above, the following flags
111may also be set in the
112.Fa mr_flags
113field:
114.Bl -tag -width indent
115.It MDF_FIXBASE
116The region's base address cannot be changed.
117.It MDF_FIXLEN
118The region's length cannot be changed.
119.It MDF_FIRMWARE
120The region is believed to have been established by the system firmware.
121.It MDF_ACTIVE
122The region is currently active.
123.It MDF_BOGUS
124We believe the region to be invalid or otherwise erroneous.
125.It MDF_FIXACTIVE
126The region cannot be disabled.
127.It MDF_BUSY
128The region is currently owned by another process and may not be
129altered.
130.El
131.Pp
132Operations are performed using
133.Fa struct mem_range_op :
134.Bd -literal -offset indent
135struct mem_range_desc	*mo_desc;
136int			mo_arg[2];
137.Ed
138.Pp
139The
140.Dv MEMRANGE_GET
141ioctl is used to retrieve current memory range attributes.
142If
143.Va mo_arg[0]
144is set to 0, it will be updated with the total number of memory range
145descriptors.
146If greater than 0, the array at
147.Va mo_desc
148will be filled with a corresponding number of descriptor structures,
149or the maximum, whichever is less.
150.Pp
151The
152.Dv MEMRANGE_SET
153ioctl is used to add, alter and remove memory range attributes.
154A range
155with the
156.Dv MDF_FIXACTIVE
157flag may not be removed; a range with the
158.Dv MDF_BUSY
159flag may not be removed or updated.
160.Pp
161.Va mo_arg[0]
162should be set to
163.Dv MEMRANGE_SET_UPDATE
164to update an existing or establish a new range, or to
165.Dv MEMRANGE_SET_REMOVE
166to remove a range.
167.Sh RETURN VALUES
168.Bl -tag -width Er
169.It Bq Er EOPNOTSUPP
170Memory range operations are not supported on this architecture.
171.It Bq Er ENXIO
172No memory range descriptors are available (e.g.\& firmware has not enabled
173any).
174.It Bq Er EINVAL
175The memory range supplied as an argument is invalid or overlaps another
176range in a fashion not supported by this architecture.
177.It Bq Er EBUSY
178An attempt to remove or update a range failed because the range is busy.
179.It Bq Er ENOSPC
180An attempt to create a new range failed due to a shortage of hardware
181resources (e.g.\& descriptor slots).
182.It Bq Er ENOENT
183An attempt to remove a range failed because no range matches the descriptor
184base/length supplied.
185.It Bq Er EPERM
186An attempt to remove a range failed because the range is permanently
187enabled.
188.El
189.Sh FILES
190.Bl -tag -width /dev/kmem -compact
191.It Pa /dev/mem
192.It Pa /dev/kmem
193.El
194.Sh SEE ALSO
195.Xr kvm 3 ,
196.Xr memcontrol 8
197.Sh HISTORY
198The
199.Nm mem
200and
201.Nm kmem
202files appeared in
203.At v6 .
204The ioctl interface for memory range attributes was added in
205.Fx 3.2 .
206.Sh BUGS
207Busy range attributes are not yet managed correctly.
208.Pp
209This device is required for all users of
210.Xr kvm 3
211to operate.
212