Linux kernel mirror (for testing)
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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 <sect1><title>Delaying, scheduling, and timer routines</title>
53!Iinclude/linux/sched.h
54!Ekernel/sched.c
55!Ekernel/timer.c
56 </sect1>
57 <sect1><title>High-resolution timers</title>
58!Iinclude/linux/ktime.h
59!Iinclude/linux/hrtimer.h
60!Ekernel/hrtimer.c
61 </sect1>
62 <sect1><title>Workqueues and Kevents</title>
63!Ekernel/workqueue.c
64 </sect1>
65 <sect1><title>Internal Functions</title>
66!Ikernel/exit.c
67!Ikernel/signal.c
68!Iinclude/linux/kthread.h
69!Ekernel/kthread.c
70 </sect1>
71
72 <sect1><title>Kernel objects manipulation</title>
73<!--
74X!Iinclude/linux/kobject.h
75-->
76!Elib/kobject.c
77 </sect1>
78
79 <sect1><title>Kernel utility functions</title>
80!Iinclude/linux/kernel.h
81!Ekernel/printk.c
82!Ekernel/panic.c
83!Ekernel/sys.c
84!Ekernel/rcupdate.c
85 </sect1>
86
87 </chapter>
88
89 <chapter id="adt">
90 <title>Data Types</title>
91 <sect1><title>Doubly Linked Lists</title>
92!Iinclude/linux/list.h
93 </sect1>
94 </chapter>
95
96 <chapter id="libc">
97 <title>Basic C Library Functions</title>
98
99 <para>
100 When writing drivers, you cannot in general use routines which are
101 from the C Library. Some of the functions have been found generally
102 useful and they are listed below. The behaviour of these functions
103 may vary slightly from those defined by ANSI, and these deviations
104 are noted in the text.
105 </para>
106
107 <sect1><title>String Conversions</title>
108!Ilib/vsprintf.c
109!Elib/vsprintf.c
110 </sect1>
111 <sect1><title>String Manipulation</title>
112<!-- All functions are exported at now
113X!Ilib/string.c
114 -->
115!Elib/string.c
116 </sect1>
117 <sect1><title>Bit Operations</title>
118!Iinclude/asm-i386/bitops.h
119 </sect1>
120 </chapter>
121
122 <chapter id="kernel-lib">
123 <title>Basic Kernel Library Functions</title>
124
125 <para>
126 The Linux kernel provides more basic utility functions.
127 </para>
128
129 <sect1><title>Bitmap Operations</title>
130!Elib/bitmap.c
131!Ilib/bitmap.c
132 </sect1>
133
134 <sect1><title>Command-line Parsing</title>
135!Elib/cmdline.c
136 </sect1>
137
138 <sect1><title>CRC Functions</title>
139!Elib/crc16.c
140!Elib/crc32.c
141!Elib/crc-ccitt.c
142 </sect1>
143 </chapter>
144
145 <chapter id="mm">
146 <title>Memory Management in Linux</title>
147 <sect1><title>The Slab Cache</title>
148!Iinclude/linux/slab.h
149!Emm/slab.c
150 </sect1>
151 <sect1><title>User Space Memory Access</title>
152!Iinclude/asm-i386/uaccess.h
153!Earch/i386/lib/usercopy.c
154 </sect1>
155 <sect1><title>More Memory Management Functions</title>
156!Iinclude/linux/rmap.h
157!Emm/readahead.c
158!Emm/filemap.c
159!Emm/memory.c
160!Emm/vmalloc.c
161!Imm/page_alloc.c
162!Emm/mempool.c
163!Emm/page-writeback.c
164!Emm/truncate.c
165 </sect1>
166 </chapter>
167
168
169 <chapter id="ipc">
170 <title>Kernel IPC facilities</title>
171
172 <sect1><title>IPC utilities</title>
173!Iipc/util.c
174 </sect1>
175 </chapter>
176
177 <chapter id="kfifo">
178 <title>FIFO Buffer</title>
179 <sect1><title>kfifo interface</title>
180!Iinclude/linux/kfifo.h
181!Ekernel/kfifo.c
182 </sect1>
183 </chapter>
184
185 <chapter id="vfs">
186 <title>The Linux VFS</title>
187 <sect1><title>The Filesystem types</title>
188!Iinclude/linux/fs.h
189 </sect1>
190 <sect1><title>The Directory Cache</title>
191!Efs/dcache.c
192!Iinclude/linux/dcache.h
193 </sect1>
194 <sect1><title>Inode Handling</title>
195!Efs/inode.c
196!Efs/bad_inode.c
197 </sect1>
198 <sect1><title>Registration and Superblocks</title>
199!Efs/super.c
200 </sect1>
201 <sect1><title>File Locks</title>
202!Efs/locks.c
203!Ifs/locks.c
204 </sect1>
205 <sect1><title>Other Functions</title>
206!Efs/mpage.c
207!Efs/namei.c
208!Efs/buffer.c
209!Efs/bio.c
210!Efs/seq_file.c
211!Efs/filesystems.c
212!Efs/fs-writeback.c
213!Efs/block_dev.c
214 </sect1>
215 </chapter>
216
217 <chapter id="proc">
218 <title>The proc filesystem</title>
219
220 <sect1><title>sysctl interface</title>
221!Ekernel/sysctl.c
222 </sect1>
223
224 <sect1><title>proc filesystem interface</title>
225!Ifs/proc/base.c
226 </sect1>
227 </chapter>
228
229 <chapter id="sysfs">
230 <title>The Filesystem for Exporting Kernel Objects</title>
231!Efs/sysfs/file.c
232!Efs/sysfs/symlink.c
233!Efs/sysfs/bin.c
234 </chapter>
235
236 <chapter id="debugfs">
237 <title>The debugfs filesystem</title>
238
239 <sect1><title>debugfs interface</title>
240!Efs/debugfs/inode.c
241!Efs/debugfs/file.c
242 </sect1>
243 </chapter>
244
245 <chapter id="relayfs">
246 <title>relay interface support</title>
247
248 <para>
249 Relay interface support
250 is designed to provide an efficient mechanism for tools and
251 facilities to relay large amounts of data from kernel space to
252 user space.
253 </para>
254
255 <sect1><title>relay interface</title>
256!Ekernel/relay.c
257!Ikernel/relay.c
258 </sect1>
259 </chapter>
260
261 <chapter id="netcore">
262 <title>Linux Networking</title>
263 <sect1><title>Networking Base Types</title>
264!Iinclude/linux/net.h
265 </sect1>
266 <sect1><title>Socket Buffer Functions</title>
267!Iinclude/linux/skbuff.h
268!Iinclude/net/sock.h
269!Enet/socket.c
270!Enet/core/skbuff.c
271!Enet/core/sock.c
272!Enet/core/datagram.c
273!Enet/core/stream.c
274 </sect1>
275 <sect1><title>Socket Filter</title>
276!Enet/core/filter.c
277 </sect1>
278 <sect1><title>Generic Network Statistics</title>
279!Iinclude/linux/gen_stats.h
280!Enet/core/gen_stats.c
281!Enet/core/gen_estimator.c
282 </sect1>
283 <sect1><title>SUN RPC subsystem</title>
284<!-- The !D functionality is not perfect, garbage has to be protected by comments
285!Dnet/sunrpc/sunrpc_syms.c
286-->
287!Enet/sunrpc/xdr.c
288!Enet/sunrpc/svcsock.c
289!Enet/sunrpc/sched.c
290 </sect1>
291 </chapter>
292
293 <chapter id="netdev">
294 <title>Network device support</title>
295 <sect1><title>Driver Support</title>
296!Enet/core/dev.c
297!Enet/ethernet/eth.c
298!Iinclude/linux/etherdevice.h
299<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
300X!Enet/core/wireless.c
301-->
302 </sect1>
303 <sect1><title>Synchronous PPP</title>
304!Edrivers/net/wan/syncppp.c
305 </sect1>
306 </chapter>
307
308 <chapter id="modload">
309 <title>Module Support</title>
310 <sect1><title>Module Loading</title>
311!Ekernel/kmod.c
312 </sect1>
313 <sect1><title>Inter Module support</title>
314 <para>
315 Refer to the file kernel/module.c for more information.
316 </para>
317<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
318X!Ekernel/module.c
319-->
320 </sect1>
321 </chapter>
322
323 <chapter id="hardware">
324 <title>Hardware Interfaces</title>
325 <sect1><title>Interrupt Handling</title>
326!Ekernel/irq/manage.c
327 </sect1>
328
329 <sect1><title>DMA Channels</title>
330!Ekernel/dma.c
331 </sect1>
332
333 <sect1><title>Resources Management</title>
334!Ikernel/resource.c
335!Ekernel/resource.c
336 </sect1>
337
338 <sect1><title>MTRR Handling</title>
339!Earch/i386/kernel/cpu/mtrr/main.c
340 </sect1>
341
342 <sect1><title>PCI Support Library</title>
343!Edrivers/pci/pci.c
344!Edrivers/pci/pci-driver.c
345!Edrivers/pci/remove.c
346!Edrivers/pci/pci-acpi.c
347!Edrivers/pci/search.c
348!Edrivers/pci/msi.c
349!Edrivers/pci/bus.c
350<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
351X!Edrivers/pci/hotplug.c
352-->
353!Edrivers/pci/probe.c
354!Edrivers/pci/rom.c
355 </sect1>
356 <sect1><title>PCI Hotplug Support Library</title>
357!Edrivers/pci/hotplug/pci_hotplug_core.c
358 </sect1>
359 <sect1><title>MCA Architecture</title>
360 <sect2><title>MCA Device Functions</title>
361 <para>
362 Refer to the file arch/i386/kernel/mca.c for more information.
363 </para>
364<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
365X!Earch/i386/kernel/mca.c
366-->
367 </sect2>
368 <sect2><title>MCA Bus DMA</title>
369!Iinclude/asm-i386/mca_dma.h
370 </sect2>
371 </sect1>
372 </chapter>
373
374 <chapter id="firmware">
375 <title>Firmware Interfaces</title>
376 <sect1><title>DMI Interfaces</title>
377!Edrivers/firmware/dmi_scan.c
378 </sect1>
379 </chapter>
380
381 <chapter id="security">
382 <title>Security Framework</title>
383!Esecurity/security.c
384 </chapter>
385
386 <chapter id="audit">
387 <title>Audit Interfaces</title>
388!Ekernel/audit.c
389!Ikernel/auditsc.c
390!Ikernel/auditfilter.c
391 </chapter>
392
393 <chapter id="accounting">
394 <title>Accounting Framework</title>
395!Ikernel/acct.c
396 </chapter>
397
398 <chapter id="pmfuncs">
399 <title>Power Management</title>
400!Ekernel/power/pm.c
401 </chapter>
402
403 <chapter id="devdrivers">
404 <title>Device drivers infrastructure</title>
405 <sect1><title>Device Drivers Base</title>
406<!--
407X!Iinclude/linux/device.h
408-->
409!Edrivers/base/driver.c
410!Edrivers/base/core.c
411!Edrivers/base/class.c
412!Edrivers/base/firmware_class.c
413!Edrivers/base/transport_class.c
414!Edrivers/base/dmapool.c
415<!-- Cannot be included, because
416 attribute_container_add_class_device_adapter
417 and attribute_container_classdev_to_container
418 exceed allowed 44 characters maximum
419X!Edrivers/base/attribute_container.c
420-->
421!Edrivers/base/sys.c
422<!--
423X!Edrivers/base/interface.c
424-->
425!Edrivers/base/platform.c
426!Edrivers/base/bus.c
427 </sect1>
428 <sect1><title>Device Drivers Power Management</title>
429!Edrivers/base/power/main.c
430!Edrivers/base/power/resume.c
431!Edrivers/base/power/suspend.c
432 </sect1>
433 <sect1><title>Device Drivers ACPI Support</title>
434<!-- Internal functions only
435X!Edrivers/acpi/sleep/main.c
436X!Edrivers/acpi/sleep/wakeup.c
437X!Edrivers/acpi/motherboard.c
438X!Edrivers/acpi/bus.c
439-->
440!Edrivers/acpi/scan.c
441!Idrivers/acpi/scan.c
442<!-- No correct structured comments
443X!Edrivers/acpi/pci_bind.c
444-->
445 </sect1>
446 <sect1><title>Device drivers PnP support</title>
447!Edrivers/pnp/core.c
448<!-- No correct structured comments
449X!Edrivers/pnp/system.c
450 -->
451!Edrivers/pnp/card.c
452!Edrivers/pnp/driver.c
453!Edrivers/pnp/manager.c
454!Edrivers/pnp/support.c
455 </sect1>
456 </chapter>
457
458 <chapter id="blkdev">
459 <title>Block Devices</title>
460!Eblock/ll_rw_blk.c
461 </chapter>
462
463 <chapter id="chrdev">
464 <title>Char devices</title>
465!Efs/char_dev.c
466 </chapter>
467
468 <chapter id="miscdev">
469 <title>Miscellaneous Devices</title>
470!Edrivers/char/misc.c
471 </chapter>
472
473 <chapter id="parportdev">
474 <title>Parallel Port Devices</title>
475!Iinclude/linux/parport.h
476!Edrivers/parport/ieee1284.c
477!Edrivers/parport/share.c
478!Idrivers/parport/daisy.c
479 </chapter>
480
481 <chapter id="viddev">
482 <title>Video4Linux</title>
483!Edrivers/media/video/videodev.c
484 </chapter>
485
486 <chapter id="snddev">
487 <title>Sound Devices</title>
488!Iinclude/sound/core.h
489!Esound/sound_core.c
490!Iinclude/sound/pcm.h
491!Esound/core/pcm.c
492!Esound/core/device.c
493!Esound/core/info.c
494!Esound/core/rawmidi.c
495!Esound/core/sound.c
496!Esound/core/memory.c
497!Esound/core/pcm_memory.c
498!Esound/core/init.c
499!Esound/core/isadma.c
500!Esound/core/control.c
501!Esound/core/pcm_lib.c
502!Esound/core/hwdep.c
503!Esound/core/pcm_native.c
504!Esound/core/memalloc.c
505<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
506X!Isound/sound_firmware.c
507-->
508 </chapter>
509
510 <chapter id="uart16x50">
511 <title>16x50 UART Driver</title>
512!Iinclude/linux/serial_core.h
513!Edrivers/serial/serial_core.c
514!Edrivers/serial/8250.c
515 </chapter>
516
517 <chapter id="z85230">
518 <title>Z85230 Support Library</title>
519!Edrivers/net/wan/z85230.c
520 </chapter>
521
522 <chapter id="fbdev">
523 <title>Frame Buffer Library</title>
524
525 <para>
526 The frame buffer drivers depend heavily on four data structures.
527 These structures are declared in include/linux/fb.h. They are
528 fb_info, fb_var_screeninfo, fb_fix_screeninfo and fb_monospecs.
529 The last three can be made available to and from userland.
530 </para>
531
532 <para>
533 fb_info defines the current state of a particular video card.
534 Inside fb_info, there exists a fb_ops structure which is a
535 collection of needed functions to make fbdev and fbcon work.
536 fb_info is only visible to the kernel.
537 </para>
538
539 <para>
540 fb_var_screeninfo is used to describe the features of a video card
541 that are user defined. With fb_var_screeninfo, things such as
542 depth and the resolution may be defined.
543 </para>
544
545 <para>
546 The next structure is fb_fix_screeninfo. This defines the
547 properties of a card that are created when a mode is set and can't
548 be changed otherwise. A good example of this is the start of the
549 frame buffer memory. This "locks" the address of the frame buffer
550 memory, so that it cannot be changed or moved.
551 </para>
552
553 <para>
554 The last structure is fb_monospecs. In the old API, there was
555 little importance for fb_monospecs. This allowed for forbidden things
556 such as setting a mode of 800x600 on a fix frequency monitor. With
557 the new API, fb_monospecs prevents such things, and if used
558 correctly, can prevent a monitor from being cooked. fb_monospecs
559 will not be useful until kernels 2.5.x.
560 </para>
561
562 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Memory</title>
563!Edrivers/video/fbmem.c
564 </sect1>
565<!--
566 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Console</title>
567X!Edrivers/video/console/fbcon.c
568 </sect1>
569-->
570 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Colormap</title>
571!Edrivers/video/fbcmap.c
572 </sect1>
573<!-- FIXME:
574 drivers/video/fbgen.c has no docs, which stuffs up the sgml. Comment
575 out until somebody adds docs. KAO
576 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Generic Functions</title>
577X!Idrivers/video/fbgen.c
578 </sect1>
579KAO -->
580 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Video Mode Database</title>
581!Idrivers/video/modedb.c
582!Edrivers/video/modedb.c
583 </sect1>
584 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Macintosh Video Mode Database</title>
585!Edrivers/video/macmodes.c
586 </sect1>
587 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Fonts</title>
588 <para>
589 Refer to the file drivers/video/console/fonts.c for more information.
590 </para>
591<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
592X!Idrivers/video/console/fonts.c
593-->
594 </sect1>
595 </chapter>
596</book>