xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/mem.4 (revision b1f9167f94059fd55c630891d359bcff987bd7eb)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1991 The Regents of the University of California.
2.\" All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
6.\" are met:
7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
8.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
10.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
11.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
12.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
13.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
14.\"    without specific prior written permission.
15.\"
16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
17.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
18.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
19.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
20.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
21.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
22.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
23.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
24.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
25.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
26.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
27.\"
28.\"	@(#)mem.4	5.3 (Berkeley) 5/2/91
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd October 3, 2004
32.Dt MEM 4
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm mem ,
36.Nm kmem
37.Nd memory files
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.Cd "device mem"
40.Sh DESCRIPTION
41The special file
42.Pa /dev/mem
43is an interface to the physical memory of the computer.
44Byte offsets in this file are interpreted as physical memory addresses.
45Reading and writing this file is equivalent to reading and writing
46memory itself.
47Only offsets within the bounds of
48.Pa /dev/mem
49are allowed.
50.Pp
51Kernel virtual memory is accessed through the interface
52.Pa /dev/kmem
53in the same manner as
54.Pa /dev/mem .
55Only kernel virtual addresses that are currently mapped to memory are allowed.
56.Pp
57On
58.Tn ISA
59the
60.Tn I/O
61memory space begins at physical address 0x000a0000
62and runs to 0x00100000.
63The
64per-process data
65size
66for the current process
67is
68.Dv UPAGES
69long, and ends at virtual
70address 0xf0000000.
71.Sh IOCTL INTERFACE
72Several architectures allow attributes to be associated with ranges of physical
73memory.
74These attributes can be manipulated via
75.Fn ioctl
76calls performed on
77.Pa /dev/mem .
78Declarations and data types are to be found in
79.In sys/memrange.h .
80.Pp
81The specific attributes, and number of programmable ranges may vary between
82architectures.
83The full set of supported attributes is:
84.Bl -tag -width indent
85.It Dv MDF_UNCACHEABLE
86The region is not cached.
87.It Dv MDF_WRITECOMBINE
88Writes to the region may be combined or performed out of order.
89.It Dv MDF_WRITETHROUGH
90Writes to the region are committed synchronously.
91.It Dv MDF_WRITEBACK
92Writes to the region are committed asynchronously.
93.It Dv MDF_WRITEPROTECT
94The region cannot be written to.
95.El
96.Pp
97Memory ranges are described by
98.Vt struct mem_range_desc :
99.Bd -literal -offset indent
100uint64_t	mr_base;	/\(** physical base address \(**/
101uint64_t	mr_len;		/\(** physical length of region \(**/
102int		mr_flags;	/\(** attributes of region \(**/
103char		mr_owner[8];
104.Ed
105.Pp
106In addition to the region attributes listed above, the following flags
107may also be set in the
108.Fa mr_flags
109field:
110.Bl -tag -width indent
111.It MDF_FIXBASE
112The region's base address cannot be changed.
113.It MDF_FIXLEN
114The region's length cannot be changed.
115.It MDF_FIRMWARE
116The region is believed to have been established by the system firmware.
117.It MDF_ACTIVE
118The region is currently active.
119.It MDF_BOGUS
120We believe the region to be invalid or otherwise erroneous.
121.It MDF_FIXACTIVE
122The region cannot be disabled.
123.It MDF_BUSY
124The region is currently owned by another process and may not be
125altered.
126.El
127.Pp
128Operations are performed using
129.Fa struct mem_range_op :
130.Bd -literal -offset indent
131struct mem_range_desc	*mo_desc;
132int			mo_arg[2];
133.Ed
134.Pp
135The
136.Dv MEMRANGE_GET
137ioctl is used to retrieve current memory range attributes.
138If
139.Va mo_arg[0]
140is set to 0, it will be updated with the total number of memory range
141descriptors.
142If greater than 0, the array at
143.Va mo_desc
144will be filled with a corresponding number of descriptor structures,
145or the maximum, whichever is less.
146.Pp
147The
148.Dv MEMRANGE_SET
149ioctl is used to add, alter and remove memory range attributes.
150A range
151with the
152.Dv MDF_FIXACTIVE
153flag may not be removed; a range with the
154.Dv MDF_BUSY
155flag may not be removed or updated.
156.Pp
157.Va mo_arg[0]
158should be set to
159.Dv MEMRANGE_SET_UPDATE
160to update an existing or establish a new range, or to
161.Dv MEMRANGE_SET_REMOVE
162to remove a range.
163.Sh RETURN VALUES
164.Bl -tag -width Er
165.It Bq Er EOPNOTSUPP
166Memory range operations are not supported on this architecture.
167.It Bq Er ENXIO
168No memory range descriptors are available (e.g.\& firmware has not enabled
169any).
170.It Bq Er EINVAL
171The memory range supplied as an argument is invalid or overlaps another
172range in a fashion not supported by this architecture.
173.It Bq Er EBUSY
174An attempt to remove or update a range failed because the range is busy.
175.It Bq Er ENOSPC
176An attempt to create a new range failed due to a shortage of hardware
177resources (e.g.\& descriptor slots).
178.It Bq Er ENOENT
179An attempt to remove a range failed because no range matches the descriptor
180base/length supplied.
181.It Bq Er EPERM
182An attempt to remove a range failed because the range is permanently
183enabled.
184.El
185.Sh FILES
186.Bl -tag -width /dev/kmem -compact
187.It Pa /dev/mem
188.It Pa /dev/kmem
189.El
190.Sh SEE ALSO
191.Xr kvm 3 ,
192.Xr memcontrol 8
193.Sh HISTORY
194The
195.Nm mem
196and
197.Nm kmem
198files appeared in
199.At v6 .
200The ioctl interface for memory range attributes was added in
201.Fx 3.2 .
202.Sh BUGS
203Busy range attributes are not yet managed correctly.
204.Pp
205This device is required for all users of
206.Xr kvm 3
207to operate.
208