xref: /dragonfly/lib/libkvm/kvm_read.3 (revision 1847e88f)
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36.\"     @(#)kvm_read.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
37.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libkvm/kvm_read.3,v 1.6.2.3 2001/12/17 10:08:30 ru Exp $
38.\" $DragonFly: src/lib/libkvm/kvm_read.3,v 1.3 2006/01/11 01:12:59 corecode Exp $
39.\"
40.Dd January 8, 2006
41.Dt KVM_READ 3
42.Os
43.Sh NAME
44.Nm kvm_read ,
45.Nm kvm_write
46.Nd read or write kernel virtual memory
47.Sh LIBRARY
48.Lb libkvm
49.Sh SYNOPSIS
50.In kvm.h
51.Ft ssize_t
52.Fn kvm_read "kvm_t *kd" "unsigned long addr" "void *buf" "size_t nbytes"
53.Ft "char *"
54.Fn kvm_readstr "kvm_t *kd" "unsigned long addr" "char *buf" "size_t *len"
55.Ft ssize_t
56.Fn kvm_write "kvm_t *kd" "unsigned long addr" "const void *buf" "size_t nbytes"
57.Sh DESCRIPTION
58The
59.Fn kvm_read ,
60.Fn kvm_readstr
61and
62.Fn kvm_write
63functions are used to read and write kernel virtual memory (or a crash
64dump file). See
65.Fn kvm_open 3
66or
67.Fn kvm_openfiles 3
68for information regarding opening kernel virtual memory and crash dumps.
69.Pp
70The
71.Fn kvm_read
72function transfers
73.Fa nbytes
74bytes of data from
75the kernel space address
76.Fa addr
77to
78.Fa buf .
79Conversely,
80.Fn kvm_write
81transfers data from
82.Fa buf
83to
84.Fa addr .
85Unlike their SunOS counterparts, these functions cannot be used to
86read or write process address spaces.
87.Pp
88The
89.Fn kvm_readstr
90function exists for convenience to read NUL terminated strings
91from the kernel address space.
92If
93.Fa buf
94is
95.Dv NULL ,
96.Fn kvm_readstr
97will allocate a sufficiently large buffer, which needs to be
98deallocated via
99.Xr free 3
100by the caller.
101If
102.Fa len
103is not
104.Dv NULL ,
105.Fn kvm_readstr
106will interpret the value it is pointing to as the size of
107.Fa buf
108and will store the size of the complete string at
109.Fa addr .
110Note that if only
111.Fa buf
112is too small to hold the complete string,
113.Fn kvm_readstr
114will return
115.Dv NULL
116but set
117.Fa len
118to the size needed.
119.Sh RETURN VALUES
120For
121.Fn kvm_read
122and
123.Fn kvm_write
124the number of bytes actually transferred is returned, if the request
125was successful.
126Otherwise, -1 is returned.
127.Pp
128For
129.Fn kvm_readstr
130.Dv NULL
131is returned on failure.
132Upon success, the address of the string is returned, which will be
133.Fa buf
134if this was supplied.
135.Sh SEE ALSO
136.Xr kvm 3 ,
137.Xr kvm_close 3 ,
138.Xr kvm_getargv 3 ,
139.Xr kvm_getenvv 3 ,
140.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ,
141.Xr kvm_getprocs 3 ,
142.Xr kvm_nlist 3 ,
143.Xr kvm_open 3 ,
144.Xr kvm_openfiles 3
145