xref: /openbsd/share/man/man4/man4.amd64/mem.4 (revision 404b540a)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: mem.4,v 1.3 2007/05/31 19:19:53 jmc Exp $
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30.\"	from: @(#)mem.4	5.3 (Berkeley) 5/2/91
31.\"
32.Dd $Mdocdate: May 31 2007 $
33.Dt MEM 4 amd64
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm mem ,
37.Nm kmem
38.Nd memory files
39.Sh DESCRIPTION
40The special file
41.Pa /dev/mem
42is an interface to the physical memory of the computer.
43Byte offsets in this file are interpreted as physical memory addresses.
44Reading and writing this file is equivalent to reading and writing
45memory itself.
46Only offsets within the bounds of
47.Pa /dev/mem
48are allowed.
49.Pp
50Kernel virtual memory is accessed through the interface
51.Pa /dev/kmem
52in the same manner as
53.Pa /dev/mem .
54Only kernel virtual addresses that are currently mapped to memory are allowed.
55.Pp
56On amd64, physical memory is discontiguous; especially,
57the ISA I/O memory space covers the physical address range from
58.Li 0x000a0000
59to
60.Li 0x00100000 .
61.Pp
62The kernel virtual memory begins at address
63.Li 0xffffffff80000000 .
64.Pp
65Writeability of these devices is controlled by the system
66.Xr securelevel 7 .
67.Sh FILES
68.Bl -tag -width Pa -compact
69.It Pa /dev/mem
70.It Pa /dev/kmem
71.El
72.Sh SEE ALSO
73.Xr securelevel 7
74.Sh HISTORY
75The
76.Pa /dev/mem
77and
78.Pa /dev/kmem
79files appeared in
80.At v6 .
81