KVM(3) BSD Programmer's Manual KVM(3)NAMEkvm - kernel memory interface
DESCRIPTION
The kvm library provides a uniform interface for accessing kernel virtual
memory images, including live systems and crash dumps. Access to live
systems is via /dev/mem while crash dumps can be examined via the core
file generated by savecore(8). The interface behaves identically in both
cases. Memory can be read and written, kernel symbol addresses can be
looked up efficiently, and information about user processes can be gath-
ered.
kvm_open() is first called to obtain a descriptor for all subsequent
calls.
FILES
/dev/mem interface to physical memory
SEE ALSOkvm_close(3), kvm_getargv(3), kvm_getenvv(3), kvm_geterr(3),
kvm_getloadavg(3), kvm_getprocs(3), kvm_nlist(3), kvm_open(3),
kvm_openfiles(3), kvm_read(3), kvm_write(3)STANDARDS
The kvm interface was first introduced in SunOS. A considerable number of
programs have been developed that use this interface, making backward
compatibility highly desirable. In most respects, the Sun kvm interface
is consistent and clean. Accordingly, the generic portion of the inter-
face (i.e., kvm_open(), kvm_close(), kvm_read(), kvm_write(), and
kvm_nlist()) has been incorporated into the BSD interface. Indeed, many
kvm applications (i.e., debuggers and statistical monitors) use only this
subset of the interface.
The process interface was not kept. This is not a portability issue since
any code that manipulates processes is inherently machine dependent.
Finally, the Sun kvm error reporting semantics are poorly defined. The
library can be configured either to print errors to stderr automatically,
or to print no error messages at all. In the latter case, the nature of
the error cannot be determined. To overcome this, the BSD interface in-
cludes a routine, kvm_geterr(3), to return (not print out) the error mes-
sage corresponding to the most recent error condition on the given
descriptor.
MirOS BSD #10-current June 4, 1993 1
