xref: /netbsd/share/man/man4/man4.prep/nvram.4 (revision 6550d01e)
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30.Dd March 1, 2007
31.Dt NVRAM 4 prep
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm nvram
35.Nd PReP nvram interface
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.In machine/nvram.h
38.Sh DESCRIPTION
39The file
40.Nm /dev/nvram
41is an interface to the PReP NVRAM, including the Global Environment Area.
42This interface is highly stylized;
43ioctls are used for all operations.
44These ioctls refer to individual variables in the
45Global Environment Area and their values.
46.Pp
47The calls that take and/or return a variable
48use a pointer to an
49.Li int
50variable for this purpose;
51others use a pointer to an
52.Li struct pnviocdesc
53descriptor,
54which contains a variable and two counted strings.
55The first string comprises the fields
56.Li pnv_namelen
57(an
58.Li int )
59and
60.Li pnv_name
61(a
62.Li "char *" ) ,
63giving the name of a field.
64The second string comprises the fields
65.Li pnv_buflen
66and
67.Li pnv_buf ,
68used analogously.
69These two counted strings work in a
70.Dq value-result
71fashion.
72At entry to the ioctl,
73the counts are expected to reflect the buffer size;
74on return,
75the counts are updated to reflect the buffer contents.
76.Pp
77The following ioctls are supported:
78.Bl -tag -width PNVIOCGETNEXTNAME
79.It PNVIOCGETNEXTNAME
80Takes a variable name and returns the name of the following variable.
81If a
82.Dv NULL
83is passed as the variable name, the first variable name
84will be returned.
85If the last variable is given as an argument, the ioctl will return
86.Er EINVAL .
87.It Dv PNVIOCGET
88Fills in the value of the named property for the given variable.
89If no such property is associated with that variable,
90the value length is set to \-1.
91If the named property exists but has no value,
92the value length is set to 0.
93.It Dv PNVIOCSET
94Writes the given value under the given name.
95.It Dv PNVIOCGETNUMGE
96Returns the number of variables in the Global Environment Area.
97.El
98.Sh FILES
99.Pa /dev/nvram
100.Sh ERRORS
101The following may result in rejection of an operation:
102.Bl -tag -width Er
103.It Bq Er EINVAL
104The given variable name does not exist; or
105the buffer set up to retrieve values from the nvram was not large enough
106to hold the result.
107.El
108.Sh SEE ALSO
109.Xr ioctl 2
110.Pp
111.Pa PowerPC Reference Platform Specification Version 1.1, Section 5.5
112.Sh BUGS
113Due to limitations within the
114.Nm
115itself, these functions run at elevated priority
116and may adversely affect system performance.
117.Pp
118.Dv PNVIOCSET
119is not currently supported, making the
120.Nm
121driver read-only at this time.
122