xref: /dflybsd-src/lib/libkvm/kvm_read.3 (revision 15b85273287111e7f177850e47c2bd7a1f804ca1)
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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 1.4 2008/09/07 08:36:54 swildner Exp $
39.\"
40.Dd January 8, 2006
41.Dt KVM_READ 3
42.Os
43.Sh NAME
44.Nm kvm_read ,
45.Nm kvm_readstr ,
46.Nm kvm_write
47.Nd read or write kernel virtual memory
48.Sh LIBRARY
49.Lb libkvm
50.Sh SYNOPSIS
51.In kvm.h
52.Ft ssize_t
53.Fn kvm_read "kvm_t *kd" "unsigned long addr" "void *buf" "size_t nbytes"
54.Ft "char *"
55.Fn kvm_readstr "kvm_t *kd" "unsigned long addr" "char *buf" "size_t *len"
56.Ft ssize_t
57.Fn kvm_write "kvm_t *kd" "unsigned long addr" "const void *buf" "size_t nbytes"
58.Sh DESCRIPTION
59The
60.Fn kvm_read ,
61.Fn kvm_readstr
62and
63.Fn kvm_write
64functions are used to read and write kernel virtual memory (or a crash
65dump file). See
66.Fn kvm_open 3
67or
68.Fn kvm_openfiles 3
69for information regarding opening kernel virtual memory and crash dumps.
70.Pp
71The
72.Fn kvm_read
73function transfers
74.Fa nbytes
75bytes of data from
76the kernel space address
77.Fa addr
78to
79.Fa buf .
80Conversely,
81.Fn kvm_write
82transfers data from
83.Fa buf
84to
85.Fa addr .
86Unlike their SunOS counterparts, these functions cannot be used to
87read or write process address spaces.
88.Pp
89The
90.Fn kvm_readstr
91function exists for convenience to read NUL terminated strings
92from the kernel address space.
93If
94.Fa buf
95is
96.Dv NULL ,
97.Fn kvm_readstr
98will allocate a sufficiently large buffer, which needs to be
99deallocated via
100.Xr free 3
101by the caller.
102If
103.Fa len
104is not
105.Dv NULL ,
106.Fn kvm_readstr
107will interpret the value it is pointing to as the size of
108.Fa buf
109and will store the size of the complete string at
110.Fa addr .
111Note that if only
112.Fa buf
113is too small to hold the complete string,
114.Fn kvm_readstr
115will return
116.Dv NULL
117but set
118.Fa len
119to the size needed.
120.Sh RETURN VALUES
121For
122.Fn kvm_read
123and
124.Fn kvm_write
125the number of bytes actually transferred is returned, if the request
126was successful.
127Otherwise, -1 is returned.
128.Pp
129For
130.Fn kvm_readstr
131.Dv NULL
132is returned on failure.
133Upon success, the address of the string is returned, which will be
134.Fa buf
135if this was supplied.
136.Sh SEE ALSO
137.Xr kvm 3 ,
138.Xr kvm_close 3 ,
139.Xr kvm_getargv 3 ,
140.Xr kvm_getenvv 3 ,
141.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ,
142.Xr kvm_getprocs 3 ,
143.Xr kvm_nlist 3 ,
144.Xr kvm_open 3 ,
145.Xr kvm_openfiles 3
146