xref: /illumos-gate/usr/src/man/man9s/Intro.9s (revision 9b9d39d2a32ff806d2431dbcc50968ef1e6d46b2)
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14.Dd April 28, 2024
15.Dt INTRO 9S
16.Os
17.Sh NAME
18.Nm Intro
19.Nd introduction to kernel data structures
20.Sh DESCRIPTION
21Section 9S describes the data structures that are used by the kernel and
22the various device driver frameworks.
23The structure manual pages should generally be considered documentation
24for the structure itself and the companions in sections 9, 9E, and 9F,
25provide more of the surrounding context.
26.Pp
27The structures listed here have varying ABI guarantees.
28While the majority of structures documented here are part of committed
29interfaces, that is not true of all of them.
30Uncommitted structures have no ABI guarantees and may change at any
31time.
32They are documented to aid folks working on the system.
33.Pp
34The rest of this manual groups documented structures into categories
35with additional information about what to read for more information.
36.Ss Module and Driver Initialization
37The structures here are all fundamental to initializing a device driver.
38See
39.Xr Intro 9E
40for more on their use and the examples in
41.Xr _init 9E
42for more information.
43These structures are generally required for every kernel module.
44.Bl -column -offset -indent "mac_capab_transceiver" "mac_capab_transceiver"
45.It Xr cb_ops 9S Ta Xr dev_ops 9S
46.It Xr modldrv 9S Ta Xr modlinkage 9S
47.It Xr modlmisc 9S Ta Xr modlstrmod 9S
48.El
49.Ss Character and Block I/O
50These structures are used as part of the fundamental units of performing
51I/O for character and block devices and are related to how a driver will
52implement the corresponding
53.Xr read 9E ,
54.Xr write 9E ,
55and
56.Xr strategy 9E
57entry points.
58.Bl -column -offset -indent "mac_capab_transceiver" "mac_capab_transceiver"
59.It Xr aio_req 9S Ta Xr buf 9S
60.It Xr iovec 9S Ta Xr uio 9S
61.El
62.Ss Message Block Structures
63Message blocks,
64.Vt mblk_t ,
65are the fundamental building block of networking, USB, and STREAMS
66device drivers.
67An overview to their design and structure can be found in the
68.Sy Message Block Functions
69of
70.Xr Intro 9F .
71The data for a message block is generally found in a corresponding data
72block structure.
73The following structures are relevant:
74.Bl -column -offset -indent "mac_capab_transceiver" "mac_capab_transceiver"
75.It Xr dblk 9S Ta Xr free_rtn 9S
76.It Xr mblk 9S Ta
77.El
78.Ss DMA Related Structures
79Direct Memory Access is one of the primary things that most device
80drivers facilitate.
81See
82.Xr Intro 9F
83for more on DMA itself and how these structures fit into those
84functions.
85.Bl -column -offset -indent "mac_capab_transceiver" "mac_capab_transceiver"
86.It Xr ddi_device_acc_attr 9S Ta Xr ddi_dma_attr 9S
87.It Xr ddi_dma_cookie 9S Ta Xr ddi_dmae_req 9S
88.El
89.Ss MAC Related Structures
90The following structures are all part of the
91.Xr mac 9E
92device driver framework that is used for networking device drivers.
93See
94.Xr mac 9E
95for more information on how they fit in.
96Networking device drivers use the
97.Sx Message Blocks
98related data structures for I/O purposes.
99These structures describe specific parts of interfacing with the MAC
100framework.
101.Bl -column -offset -indent "mac_capab_transceiver" "mac_capab_transceiver"
102.It Xr mac_callbacks 9S Ta Xr mac_group_info 9S
103.It Xr mac_intr 9S Ta Xr mac_register 9S
104.It Xr mac_ring_info 9S Ta
105.El
106.Ss SCSA Related Structures
107These structures are part of the SCSI/SAS device driver framework and
108are used in implementing device drivers for host bus adapters
109.Pq HBAs .
110.Bl -column -offset -indent "mac_capab_transceiver" "mac_capab_transceiver"
111.It Xr scsi_address 9S Ta Xr scsi_arq_status 9S
112.It Xr scsi_asc_key_strings 9S Ta Xr scsi_device 9S
113.It Xr scsi_extended_sense 9S Ta Xr scsi_hba_tran 9S
114.It Xr scsi_inquiry 9S Ta Xr scsi_pkt 9S
115.It Xr scsi_status 9S Ta
116.El
117.Ss Kernel Statistics
118Kernel statistics, or kstats, are a means for communicating data to
119userland through the
120.Xr kstat 4D
121driver,
122.Xr libkstat 3LIB
123library, and
124.Xr kstat 8
125command.
126Drivers can create their own kstats through the use of
127.Xr kstat_create 9F
128and some device driver frameworks create and manage kstats on behalf of
129drivers.
130The root kstat structure is discussed in
131.Xr kstat 9S .
132The other manuals listed discuss the different types of kstats that
133exist.
134.Bl -column -offset -indent "mac_capab_transceiver" "mac_capab_transceiver"
135.It Xr kstat_intr 9S Ta Xr kstat_io 9S
136.It Xr kstat_named 9S Ta Xr kstat 9S
137.El
138.Ss Miscellaneous Device Driver Interfaces
139The following structures are all related to the broader device driver
140interface and serve different parts of it.
141They cover memory mapping, error handling, interrupts, etc.
142.Bl -column -offset -indent "mac_capab_transceiver" "mac_capab_transceiver"
143.It Xr ddi_fm_error 9S Ta Xr ddi_idevice_cookie 9S
144.It Xr devmap_callback_ctl 9S Ta
145.El
146.Ss STREAMS Related Structures
147These structures include the fundamental structures required for
148registering a STREAMS based device driver with the kernel as well as the
149different structures, such as the
150.Xr copyreq 9S ,
151that are used as part of handling specific classes of operations.
152The
153.Xr queue 9S
154is the fundamental building block of STREAMS communication.
155Like with networking device drivers, STREAMS drivers also leverage the
156.Sx Message Blocks
157data structures for communication.
158.Bl -column -offset -indent "mac_capab_transceiver" "mac_capab_transceiver"
159.It Xr copyreq 9S Ta Xr copyresp 9S
160.It Xr fmodsw 9S Ta Xr iocblk 9S
161.It Xr linkblk 9S Ta Xr module_info 9S
162.It Xr qband 9S Ta Xr qinit 9S
163.It Xr queclass 9S Ta Xr queue 9S
164.It Xr streamtab 9S Ta Xr stroptions 9S
165.El
166.Ss Network Hooks
167Network hooks provide a way for firewalls to participate and manipulate
168packets as they flow through the system.
169The following structures are related to the network hooks interfaces.
170.Bl -column -offset -indent "mac_capab_transceiver" "mac_capab_transceiver"
171.It Xr hook_nic_event 9S Ta Xr hook_pkt_event 9S
172.It Xr hook_t 9S Ta Xr net_inject_t 9S
173.It Xr net_instance_t 9S Ta
174.El
175.Ss Historical Structures
176The following structures correspond to subsystems that generally are no
177longer used
178.Po
179.Xr mac 9E
180aka GLDv3 has replaced the GLDv2 functions mentioned below
181.Pc
182or refer to hardware that is no longer commonly found.
183.Bl -column -offset -indent "mac_capab_transceiver" "mac_capab_transceiver"
184.It Xr gld_mac_info 9S Ta Xr gld_stats 9S
185.It Xr tuple 9S Ta
186.El
187.Ss Manual Organization
188In addition to the standard manual sections that exist, entries in 9S
189contain an additional section titled
190.Dq STRUCTURE MEMBERS .
191This enumerates and describes the different members of the structures,
192their types, their purposes, and any constraints on when they should be
193used or how they should be interpreted.
194.Sh SEE ALSO
195.Xr Intro 9 ,
196.Xr Intro 9E ,
197.Xr Intro 9F
198