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Linux kernel mirror (for testing)
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linux
1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" []>
4
5<book id="LinuxKernelAPI">
6 <bookinfo>
7 <title>The Linux Kernel API</title>
8
9 <legalnotice>
10 <para>
11 This documentation is free software; you can redistribute
12 it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
13 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
14 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
15 version.
16 </para>
17
18 <para>
19 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
20 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
21 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
22 See the GNU General Public License for more details.
23 </para>
24
25 <para>
26 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
27 License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
28 Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
29 MA 02111-1307 USA
30 </para>
31
32 <para>
33 For more details see the file COPYING in the source
34 distribution of Linux.
35 </para>
36 </legalnotice>
37 </bookinfo>
38
39<toc></toc>
40
41 <chapter id="Basics">
42 <title>Driver Basics</title>
43 <sect1><title>Driver Entry and Exit points</title>
44!Iinclude/linux/init.h
45 </sect1>
46
47 <sect1><title>Atomic and pointer manipulation</title>
48!Iinclude/asm-i386/atomic.h
49!Iinclude/asm-i386/unaligned.h
50 </sect1>
51
52<!-- FIXME:
53 kernel/sched.c has no docs, which stuffs up the sgml. Comment
54 out until somebody adds docs. KAO
55 <sect1><title>Delaying, scheduling, and timer routines</title>
56X!Ekernel/sched.c
57 </sect1>
58KAO -->
59 </chapter>
60
61 <chapter id="adt">
62 <title>Data Types</title>
63 <sect1><title>Doubly Linked Lists</title>
64!Iinclude/linux/list.h
65 </sect1>
66 </chapter>
67
68 <chapter id="libc">
69 <title>Basic C Library Functions</title>
70
71 <para>
72 When writing drivers, you cannot in general use routines which are
73 from the C Library. Some of the functions have been found generally
74 useful and they are listed below. The behaviour of these functions
75 may vary slightly from those defined by ANSI, and these deviations
76 are noted in the text.
77 </para>
78
79 <sect1><title>String Conversions</title>
80!Ilib/vsprintf.c
81!Elib/vsprintf.c
82 </sect1>
83 <sect1><title>String Manipulation</title>
84!Ilib/string.c
85!Elib/string.c
86 </sect1>
87 <sect1><title>Bit Operations</title>
88!Iinclude/asm-i386/bitops.h
89 </sect1>
90 </chapter>
91
92 <chapter id="mm">
93 <title>Memory Management in Linux</title>
94 <sect1><title>The Slab Cache</title>
95!Emm/slab.c
96 </sect1>
97 <sect1><title>User Space Memory Access</title>
98!Iinclude/asm-i386/uaccess.h
99!Iarch/i386/lib/usercopy.c
100 </sect1>
101 </chapter>
102
103 <chapter id="kfifo">
104 <title>FIFO Buffer</title>
105 <sect1><title>kfifo interface</title>
106!Iinclude/linux/kfifo.h
107!Ekernel/kfifo.c
108 </sect1>
109 </chapter>
110
111 <chapter id="proc">
112 <title>The proc filesystem</title>
113
114 <sect1><title>sysctl interface</title>
115!Ekernel/sysctl.c
116 </sect1>
117 </chapter>
118
119 <chapter id="debugfs">
120 <title>The debugfs filesystem</title>
121
122 <sect1><title>debugfs interface</title>
123!Efs/debugfs/inode.c
124!Efs/debugfs/file.c
125 </sect1>
126 </chapter>
127
128 <chapter id="vfs">
129 <title>The Linux VFS</title>
130 <sect1><title>The Directory Cache</title>
131!Efs/dcache.c
132!Iinclude/linux/dcache.h
133 </sect1>
134 <sect1><title>Inode Handling</title>
135!Efs/inode.c
136!Efs/bad_inode.c
137 </sect1>
138 <sect1><title>Registration and Superblocks</title>
139!Efs/super.c
140 </sect1>
141 <sect1><title>File Locks</title>
142!Efs/locks.c
143!Ifs/locks.c
144 </sect1>
145 </chapter>
146
147 <chapter id="netcore">
148 <title>Linux Networking</title>
149 <sect1><title>Socket Buffer Functions</title>
150!Iinclude/linux/skbuff.h
151!Enet/core/skbuff.c
152 </sect1>
153 <sect1><title>Socket Filter</title>
154!Enet/core/filter.c
155 </sect1>
156 <sect1><title>Generic Network Statistics</title>
157!Iinclude/linux/gen_stats.h
158!Enet/core/gen_stats.c
159!Enet/core/gen_estimator.c
160 </sect1>
161 </chapter>
162
163 <chapter id="netdev">
164 <title>Network device support</title>
165 <sect1><title>Driver Support</title>
166!Enet/core/dev.c
167 </sect1>
168 <sect1><title>8390 Based Network Cards</title>
169!Edrivers/net/8390.c
170 </sect1>
171 <sect1><title>Synchronous PPP</title>
172!Edrivers/net/wan/syncppp.c
173 </sect1>
174 </chapter>
175
176 <chapter id="modload">
177 <title>Module Support</title>
178 <sect1><title>Module Loading</title>
179!Ekernel/kmod.c
180 </sect1>
181 <sect1><title>Inter Module support</title>
182 <para>
183 Refer to the file kernel/module.c for more information.
184 </para>
185<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
186X!Ekernel/module.c
187-->
188 </sect1>
189 </chapter>
190
191 <chapter id="hardware">
192 <title>Hardware Interfaces</title>
193 <sect1><title>Interrupt Handling</title>
194!Iarch/i386/kernel/irq.c
195 </sect1>
196
197 <sect1><title>MTRR Handling</title>
198!Earch/i386/kernel/cpu/mtrr/main.c
199 </sect1>
200 <sect1><title>PCI Support Library</title>
201!Edrivers/pci/pci.c
202 </sect1>
203 <sect1><title>PCI Hotplug Support Library</title>
204!Edrivers/pci/hotplug/pci_hotplug_core.c
205 </sect1>
206 <sect1><title>MCA Architecture</title>
207 <sect2><title>MCA Device Functions</title>
208 <para>
209 Refer to the file arch/i386/kernel/mca.c for more information.
210 </para>
211<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
212X!Earch/i386/kernel/mca.c
213-->
214 </sect2>
215 <sect2><title>MCA Bus DMA</title>
216!Iinclude/asm-i386/mca_dma.h
217 </sect2>
218 </sect1>
219 </chapter>
220
221 <chapter id="devfs">
222 <title>The Device File System</title>
223!Efs/devfs/base.c
224 </chapter>
225
226 <chapter id="security">
227 <title>Security Framework</title>
228!Esecurity/security.c
229 </chapter>
230
231 <chapter id="pmfuncs">
232 <title>Power Management</title>
233!Ekernel/power/pm.c
234 </chapter>
235
236 <chapter id="blkdev">
237 <title>Block Devices</title>
238!Edrivers/block/ll_rw_blk.c
239 </chapter>
240
241 <chapter id="miscdev">
242 <title>Miscellaneous Devices</title>
243!Edrivers/char/misc.c
244 </chapter>
245
246 <chapter id="viddev">
247 <title>Video4Linux</title>
248!Edrivers/media/video/videodev.c
249 </chapter>
250
251 <chapter id="snddev">
252 <title>Sound Devices</title>
253!Esound/sound_core.c
254<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
255X!Isound/sound_firmware.c
256-->
257 </chapter>
258
259 <chapter id="uart16x50">
260 <title>16x50 UART Driver</title>
261!Edrivers/serial/serial_core.c
262!Edrivers/serial/8250.c
263 </chapter>
264
265 <chapter id="z85230">
266 <title>Z85230 Support Library</title>
267!Edrivers/net/wan/z85230.c
268 </chapter>
269
270 <chapter id="fbdev">
271 <title>Frame Buffer Library</title>
272
273 <para>
274 The frame buffer drivers depend heavily on four data structures.
275 These structures are declared in include/linux/fb.h. They are
276 fb_info, fb_var_screeninfo, fb_fix_screeninfo and fb_monospecs.
277 The last three can be made available to and from userland.
278 </para>
279
280 <para>
281 fb_info defines the current state of a particular video card.
282 Inside fb_info, there exists a fb_ops structure which is a
283 collection of needed functions to make fbdev and fbcon work.
284 fb_info is only visible to the kernel.
285 </para>
286
287 <para>
288 fb_var_screeninfo is used to describe the features of a video card
289 that are user defined. With fb_var_screeninfo, things such as
290 depth and the resolution may be defined.
291 </para>
292
293 <para>
294 The next structure is fb_fix_screeninfo. This defines the
295 properties of a card that are created when a mode is set and can't
296 be changed otherwise. A good example of this is the start of the
297 frame buffer memory. This "locks" the address of the frame buffer
298 memory, so that it cannot be changed or moved.
299 </para>
300
301 <para>
302 The last structure is fb_monospecs. In the old API, there was
303 little importance for fb_monospecs. This allowed for forbidden things
304 such as setting a mode of 800x600 on a fix frequency monitor. With
305 the new API, fb_monospecs prevents such things, and if used
306 correctly, can prevent a monitor from being cooked. fb_monospecs
307 will not be useful until kernels 2.5.x.
308 </para>
309
310 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Memory</title>
311!Edrivers/video/fbmem.c
312 </sect1>
313 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Console</title>
314!Edrivers/video/console/fbcon.c
315 </sect1>
316 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Colormap</title>
317!Edrivers/video/fbcmap.c
318 </sect1>
319<!-- FIXME:
320 drivers/video/fbgen.c has no docs, which stuffs up the sgml. Comment
321 out until somebody adds docs. KAO
322 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Generic Functions</title>
323X!Idrivers/video/fbgen.c
324 </sect1>
325KAO -->
326 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Video Mode Database</title>
327!Idrivers/video/modedb.c
328!Edrivers/video/modedb.c
329 </sect1>
330 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Macintosh Video Mode Database</title>
331!Idrivers/video/macmodes.c
332 </sect1>
333 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Fonts</title>
334 <para>
335 Refer to the file drivers/video/console/fonts.c for more information.
336 </para>
337<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
338X!Idrivers/video/console/fonts.c
339-->
340 </sect1>
341 </chapter>
342</book>