Clean up #include's in the SYNOPSIS.
[dragonfly.git] / lib / libkvm / kvm_open.3
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36.\" @(#)kvm_open.3 8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
37.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libkvm/kvm_open.3,v 1.5.2.6 2001/12/17 10:08:30 ru Exp $
38.\" $DragonFly: src/lib/libkvm/kvm_open.3,v 1.4 2006/05/26 19:39:38 swildner Exp $
39.\"
40.Dd April 19, 1994
41.Dt KVM_OPEN 3
42.Os
43.Sh NAME
44.Nm kvm_open ,
45.Nm kvm_openfiles ,
46.Nm kvm_close
47.Nd initialize kernel virtual memory access
48.Sh LIBRARY
49.Lb libkvm
50.Sh SYNOPSIS
51.In sys/types.h
52.In kvm.h
53.Ft kvm_t *
54.Fn kvm_open "const char *execfile" "const char *corefile" "const char *swapfile" "int flags" "const char *errstr"
55.Ft kvm_t *
56.Fn kvm_openfiles "const char *execfile" "const char *corefile" "const char *swapfile" "int flags" "char *errbuf"
57.Ft int
58.Fn kvm_close "kvm_t *kd"
59.Sh DESCRIPTION
60The functions
61.Fn kvm_open
62and
63.Fn kvm_openfiles
64return a descriptor used to access kernel virtual memory
65via the
66.Xr kvm 3
67library routines. Both active kernels and crash dumps are accessible
68through this interface.
69.Pp
70.Fa execfile
71is the executable image of the kernel being examined.
72This file must contain a symbol table.
73If this argument is
74.Dv NULL ,
75the currently running system is assumed,
76as determined from
77.Xr getbootfile 3 .
78.Pp
79.Fa corefile
80is the kernel memory device file. It can be either /dev/mem
81or a crash dump core generated by
82.Xr savecore 8 .
83If
84.Fa corefile
85is
86.Dv NULL ,
87the default indicated by
88.Dv _PATH_MEM
89from
90.In paths.h
91is used.
92.Pp
93.Fa swapfile
94should indicate the swap device. If
95.Dv NULL ,
96.Dv _PATH_DRUM
97from
98.In paths.h
99is used.
100.Pp
101The
102.Fa flags
103argument indicates read/write access as in
104.Xr open 2
105and applies only to the core file.
106Only
107.Dv O_RDONLY ,
108.Dv O_WRONLY ,
109and
110.Dv O_RDWR
111are permitted.
112.Pp
113There are two open routines which differ only with respect to
114the error mechanism.
115One provides backward compatibility with the SunOS kvm library, while the
116other provides an improved error reporting framework.
117.Pp
118The
119.Fn kvm_open
120function is the Sun kvm compatible open call. Here, the
121.Fa errstr
122argument indicates how errors should be handled. If it is
123.Dv NULL ,
124no errors are reported and the application cannot know the
125specific nature of the failed kvm call.
126If it is not
127.Dv NULL ,
128errors are printed to stderr with
129.Fa errstr
130prepended to the message, as in
131.Xr perror 3 .
132Normally, the name of the program is used here.
133The string is assumed to persist at least until the corresponding
134.Fn kvm_close
135call.
136.Pp
137The
138.Fn kvm_openfiles
139function provides
140.Bx
141style error reporting.
142Here, error messages are not printed out by the library.
143Instead, the application obtains the error message
144corresponding to the most recent kvm library call using
145.Fn kvm_geterr
146(see
147.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ) .
148The results are undefined if the most recent kvm call did not produce
149an error.
150Since
151.Fn kvm_geterr
152requires a kvm descriptor, but the open routines return
153.Dv NULL
154on failure,
155.Fn kvm_geterr
156cannot be used to get the error message if open fails.
157Thus,
158.Fn kvm_openfiles
159will place any error message in the
160.Fa errbuf
161argument. This buffer should be _POSIX2_LINE_MAX characters large (from
162.In limits.h ) .
163.Sh RETURN VALUES
164The
165.Fn kvm_open
166and
167.Fn kvm_openfiles
168functions both return a descriptor to be used
169in all subsequent kvm library calls.
170The library is fully re-entrant.
171On failure,
172.Dv NULL
173is returned, in which case
174.Fn kvm_openfiles
175writes the error message into
176.Fa errbuf .
177.Pp
178The
179.Fn kvm_close
180function returns 0 on success and -1 on failure.
181.Sh SEE ALSO
182.Xr open 2 ,
183.Xr kvm 3 ,
184.Xr kvm_getargv 3 ,
185.Xr kvm_getenvv 3 ,
186.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ,
187.Xr kvm_getprocs 3 ,
188.Xr kvm_nlist 3 ,
189.Xr kvm_read 3 ,
190.Xr kvm_write 3
191.Sh BUGS
192There should not be two open calls. The ill-defined error semantics
193of the Sun library and the desire to have a backward-compatible library
194for
195.Bx
196left little choice.