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Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -07001<?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
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070052 <sect1><title>Delaying, scheduling, and timer routines</title>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -070053!Iinclude/linux/sched.h
54!Ekernel/sched.c
55!Ekernel/timer.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070056 </sect1>
Thomas Gleixnerdf784882006-01-09 20:52:33 -080057 <sect1><title>High-resolution timers</title>
58!Iinclude/linux/ktime.h
59!Iinclude/linux/hrtimer.h
60!Ekernel/hrtimer.c
61 </sect1>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -070062 <sect1><title>Internal Functions</title>
63!Ikernel/exit.c
64!Ikernel/signal.c
65 </sect1>
66
67 <sect1><title>Kernel objects manipulation</title>
68<!--
69X!Iinclude/linux/kobject.h
70-->
71!Elib/kobject.c
72 </sect1>
73
74 <sect1><title>Kernel utility functions</title>
75!Iinclude/linux/kernel.h
Martin Waitzddad86c2005-11-13 16:08:14 -080076!Ekernel/printk.c
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -070077!Ekernel/panic.c
78!Ekernel/sys.c
79!Ekernel/rcupdate.c
80 </sect1>
81
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070082 </chapter>
83
84 <chapter id="adt">
85 <title>Data Types</title>
86 <sect1><title>Doubly Linked Lists</title>
87!Iinclude/linux/list.h
88 </sect1>
89 </chapter>
90
91 <chapter id="libc">
92 <title>Basic C Library Functions</title>
93
94 <para>
95 When writing drivers, you cannot in general use routines which are
96 from the C Library. Some of the functions have been found generally
97 useful and they are listed below. The behaviour of these functions
98 may vary slightly from those defined by ANSI, and these deviations
99 are noted in the text.
100 </para>
101
102 <sect1><title>String Conversions</title>
103!Ilib/vsprintf.c
104!Elib/vsprintf.c
105 </sect1>
106 <sect1><title>String Manipulation</title>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700107<!-- All functions are exported at now
108X!Ilib/string.c
109 -->
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700110!Elib/string.c
111 </sect1>
112 <sect1><title>Bit Operations</title>
113!Iinclude/asm-i386/bitops.h
114 </sect1>
Randy Dunlap28e83ba2006-06-25 05:48:58 -0700115 </chapter>
116
117 <chapter id="kernel-lib">
118 <title>Basic Kernel Library Functions</title>
119
120 <para>
121 The Linux kernel provides more basic utility functions.
122 </para>
123
Randy Dunlap6e1907ff2006-06-25 05:48:57 -0700124 <sect1><title>Bitmap Operations</title>
125!Elib/bitmap.c
126!Ilib/bitmap.c
127 </sect1>
Randy Dunlap28e83ba2006-06-25 05:48:58 -0700128
129 <sect1><title>Command-line Parsing</title>
130!Elib/cmdline.c
131 </sect1>
Randy Dunlap2f721002006-06-25 05:48:59 -0700132
133 <sect1><title>CRC Functions</title>
134!Elib/crc16.c
135!Elib/crc32.c
136!Elib/crc-ccitt.c
137 </sect1>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700138 </chapter>
139
140 <chapter id="mm">
141 <title>Memory Management in Linux</title>
142 <sect1><title>The Slab Cache</title>
Paul Drynoff800590f2006-06-23 02:03:48 -0700143!Iinclude/linux/slab.h
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700144!Emm/slab.c
145 </sect1>
146 <sect1><title>User Space Memory Access</title>
147!Iinclude/asm-i386/uaccess.h
Randy Dunlap8f2709b2005-11-07 01:01:05 -0800148!Earch/i386/lib/usercopy.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700149 </sect1>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700150 <sect1><title>More Memory Management Functions</title>
151!Iinclude/linux/rmap.h
152!Emm/readahead.c
153!Emm/filemap.c
154!Emm/memory.c
155!Emm/vmalloc.c
156!Emm/mempool.c
157!Emm/page-writeback.c
158!Emm/truncate.c
159 </sect1>
160 </chapter>
161
162
163 <chapter id="ipc">
164 <title>Kernel IPC facilities</title>
165
166 <sect1><title>IPC utilities</title>
167!Iipc/util.c
168 </sect1>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700169 </chapter>
170
171 <chapter id="kfifo">
172 <title>FIFO Buffer</title>
173 <sect1><title>kfifo interface</title>
174!Iinclude/linux/kfifo.h
175!Ekernel/kfifo.c
176 </sect1>
177 </chapter>
178
179 <chapter id="proc">
180 <title>The proc filesystem</title>
181
182 <sect1><title>sysctl interface</title>
183!Ekernel/sysctl.c
184 </sect1>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700185
186 <sect1><title>proc filesystem interface</title>
187!Ifs/proc/base.c
188 </sect1>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700189 </chapter>
190
191 <chapter id="debugfs">
192 <title>The debugfs filesystem</title>
193
194 <sect1><title>debugfs interface</title>
195!Efs/debugfs/inode.c
196!Efs/debugfs/file.c
197 </sect1>
198 </chapter>
199
200 <chapter id="vfs">
201 <title>The Linux VFS</title>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700202 <sect1><title>The Filesystem types</title>
203!Iinclude/linux/fs.h
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700204 </sect1>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700205 <sect1><title>The Directory Cache</title>
206!Efs/dcache.c
207!Iinclude/linux/dcache.h
208 </sect1>
209 <sect1><title>Inode Handling</title>
210!Efs/inode.c
211!Efs/bad_inode.c
212 </sect1>
213 <sect1><title>Registration and Superblocks</title>
214!Efs/super.c
215 </sect1>
216 <sect1><title>File Locks</title>
217!Efs/locks.c
218!Ifs/locks.c
219 </sect1>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700220 <sect1><title>Other Functions</title>
221!Efs/mpage.c
222!Efs/namei.c
223!Efs/buffer.c
224!Efs/bio.c
225!Efs/seq_file.c
226!Efs/filesystems.c
227!Efs/fs-writeback.c
228!Efs/block_dev.c
229 </sect1>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700230 </chapter>
231
232 <chapter id="netcore">
233 <title>Linux Networking</title>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700234 <sect1><title>Networking Base Types</title>
235!Iinclude/linux/net.h
236 </sect1>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700237 <sect1><title>Socket Buffer Functions</title>
238!Iinclude/linux/skbuff.h
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700239!Iinclude/net/sock.h
240!Enet/socket.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700241!Enet/core/skbuff.c
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700242!Enet/core/sock.c
243!Enet/core/datagram.c
244!Enet/core/stream.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700245 </sect1>
246 <sect1><title>Socket Filter</title>
247!Enet/core/filter.c
248 </sect1>
249 <sect1><title>Generic Network Statistics</title>
250!Iinclude/linux/gen_stats.h
251!Enet/core/gen_stats.c
252!Enet/core/gen_estimator.c
253 </sect1>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700254 <sect1><title>SUN RPC subsystem</title>
255<!-- The !D functionality is not perfect, garbage has to be protected by comments
256!Dnet/sunrpc/sunrpc_syms.c
257-->
258!Enet/sunrpc/xdr.c
259!Enet/sunrpc/svcsock.c
260!Enet/sunrpc/sched.c
261 </sect1>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700262 </chapter>
263
264 <chapter id="netdev">
265 <title>Network device support</title>
266 <sect1><title>Driver Support</title>
267!Enet/core/dev.c
Stephen Hemmingerc2da8ac2005-11-01 17:05:09 -0800268!Enet/ethernet/eth.c
Randy Dunlap461ddf32005-11-20 21:25:15 -0800269!Iinclude/linux/etherdevice.h
270<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
271X!Enet/core/wireless.c
272-->
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700273 </sect1>
274 <sect1><title>Synchronous PPP</title>
275!Edrivers/net/wan/syncppp.c
276 </sect1>
277 </chapter>
278
279 <chapter id="modload">
280 <title>Module Support</title>
281 <sect1><title>Module Loading</title>
282!Ekernel/kmod.c
283 </sect1>
284 <sect1><title>Inter Module support</title>
285 <para>
286 Refer to the file kernel/module.c for more information.
287 </para>
288<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
289X!Ekernel/module.c
290-->
291 </sect1>
292 </chapter>
293
294 <chapter id="hardware">
295 <title>Hardware Interfaces</title>
296 <sect1><title>Interrupt Handling</title>
Randy Dunlap8f2709b2005-11-07 01:01:05 -0800297!Ekernel/irq/manage.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700298 </sect1>
299
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700300 <sect1><title>Resources Management</title>
301!Ekernel/resource.c
302 </sect1>
303
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700304 <sect1><title>MTRR Handling</title>
305!Earch/i386/kernel/cpu/mtrr/main.c
306 </sect1>
Randy Dunlapb0ef3712006-06-25 05:49:18 -0700307
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700308 <sect1><title>PCI Support Library</title>
309!Edrivers/pci/pci.c
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700310!Edrivers/pci/pci-driver.c
311!Edrivers/pci/remove.c
312!Edrivers/pci/pci-acpi.c
Randy Dunlapb0ef3712006-06-25 05:49:18 -0700313<!-- kerneldoc does not understand __devinit
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700314X!Edrivers/pci/search.c
315 -->
316!Edrivers/pci/msi.c
317!Edrivers/pci/bus.c
Randy Dunlapf05aab82005-10-23 11:58:19 -0700318<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
319X!Edrivers/pci/hotplug.c
320-->
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700321!Edrivers/pci/probe.c
322!Edrivers/pci/rom.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700323 </sect1>
324 <sect1><title>PCI Hotplug Support Library</title>
325!Edrivers/pci/hotplug/pci_hotplug_core.c
326 </sect1>
327 <sect1><title>MCA Architecture</title>
328 <sect2><title>MCA Device Functions</title>
329 <para>
330 Refer to the file arch/i386/kernel/mca.c for more information.
331 </para>
332<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
333X!Earch/i386/kernel/mca.c
334-->
335 </sect2>
336 <sect2><title>MCA Bus DMA</title>
337!Iinclude/asm-i386/mca_dma.h
338 </sect2>
339 </sect1>
340 </chapter>
341
Randy Dunlapb0ef3712006-06-25 05:49:18 -0700342 <chapter id="firmware">
343 <title>Firmware Interfaces</title>
344 <sect1><title>DMI Interfaces</title>
345!Edrivers/firmware/dmi_scan.c
346 </sect1>
347 </chapter>
348
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700349 <chapter id="devfs">
350 <title>The Device File System</title>
351!Efs/devfs/base.c
352 </chapter>
353
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700354 <chapter id="sysfs">
355 <title>The Filesystem for Exporting Kernel Objects</title>
356!Efs/sysfs/file.c
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700357!Efs/sysfs/symlink.c
358!Efs/sysfs/bin.c
359 </chapter>
360
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700361 <chapter id="security">
362 <title>Security Framework</title>
363!Esecurity/security.c
364 </chapter>
365
Randy Dunlap862f5f02006-06-23 02:05:52 -0700366 <chapter id="audit">
367 <title>Audit Interfaces</title>
368!Ekernel/audit.c
369!Ikernel/auditsc.c
370!Ikernel/auditfilter.c
371 </chapter>
372
373 <chapter id="accounting">
374 <title>Accounting Framework</title>
375!Ikernel/acct.c
376 </chapter>
377
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700378 <chapter id="pmfuncs">
379 <title>Power Management</title>
380!Ekernel/power/pm.c
381 </chapter>
382
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700383 <chapter id="devdrivers">
384 <title>Device drivers infrastructure</title>
385 <sect1><title>Device Drivers Base</title>
386<!--
387X!Iinclude/linux/device.h
388-->
389!Edrivers/base/driver.c
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700390!Edrivers/base/core.c
391!Edrivers/base/firmware_class.c
392!Edrivers/base/transport_class.c
393!Edrivers/base/dmapool.c
394<!-- Cannot be included, because
395 attribute_container_add_class_device_adapter
396 and attribute_container_classdev_to_container
397 exceed allowed 44 characters maximum
398X!Edrivers/base/attribute_container.c
399-->
400!Edrivers/base/sys.c
401<!--
402X!Edrivers/base/interface.c
403-->
404!Edrivers/base/platform.c
405!Edrivers/base/bus.c
406 </sect1>
407 <sect1><title>Device Drivers Power Management</title>
408!Edrivers/base/power/main.c
409!Edrivers/base/power/resume.c
410!Edrivers/base/power/suspend.c
411 </sect1>
412 <sect1><title>Device Drivers ACPI Support</title>
413<!-- Internal functions only
414X!Edrivers/acpi/sleep/main.c
415X!Edrivers/acpi/sleep/wakeup.c
416X!Edrivers/acpi/motherboard.c
417X!Edrivers/acpi/bus.c
418-->
419!Edrivers/acpi/scan.c
Randy Dunlapd758a8f2006-01-06 01:31:00 -0500420!Idrivers/acpi/scan.c
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700421<!-- No correct structured comments
422X!Edrivers/acpi/pci_bind.c
423-->
424 </sect1>
425 <sect1><title>Device drivers PnP support</title>
426!Edrivers/pnp/core.c
427<!-- No correct structured comments
428X!Edrivers/pnp/system.c
429 -->
430!Edrivers/pnp/card.c
431!Edrivers/pnp/driver.c
432!Edrivers/pnp/manager.c
433!Edrivers/pnp/support.c
434 </sect1>
435 </chapter>
436
437
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700438 <chapter id="blkdev">
439 <title>Block Devices</title>
Ben Collins1d193f42005-11-15 00:09:21 -0800440!Eblock/ll_rw_blk.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700441 </chapter>
442
443 <chapter id="miscdev">
444 <title>Miscellaneous Devices</title>
445!Edrivers/char/misc.c
446 </chapter>
447
448 <chapter id="viddev">
449 <title>Video4Linux</title>
450!Edrivers/media/video/videodev.c
451 </chapter>
452
453 <chapter id="snddev">
454 <title>Sound Devices</title>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700455!Iinclude/sound/core.h
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700456!Esound/sound_core.c
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700457!Iinclude/sound/pcm.h
458!Esound/core/pcm.c
459!Esound/core/device.c
460!Esound/core/info.c
461!Esound/core/rawmidi.c
462!Esound/core/sound.c
463!Esound/core/memory.c
464!Esound/core/pcm_memory.c
465!Esound/core/init.c
466!Esound/core/isadma.c
467!Esound/core/control.c
468!Esound/core/pcm_lib.c
469!Esound/core/hwdep.c
470!Esound/core/pcm_native.c
471!Esound/core/memalloc.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700472<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
473X!Isound/sound_firmware.c
474-->
475 </chapter>
476
477 <chapter id="uart16x50">
478 <title>16x50 UART Driver</title>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700479!Iinclude/linux/serial_core.h
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700480!Edrivers/serial/serial_core.c
481!Edrivers/serial/8250.c
482 </chapter>
483
484 <chapter id="z85230">
485 <title>Z85230 Support Library</title>
486!Edrivers/net/wan/z85230.c
487 </chapter>
488
489 <chapter id="fbdev">
490 <title>Frame Buffer Library</title>
491
492 <para>
493 The frame buffer drivers depend heavily on four data structures.
494 These structures are declared in include/linux/fb.h. They are
495 fb_info, fb_var_screeninfo, fb_fix_screeninfo and fb_monospecs.
496 The last three can be made available to and from userland.
497 </para>
498
499 <para>
500 fb_info defines the current state of a particular video card.
501 Inside fb_info, there exists a fb_ops structure which is a
502 collection of needed functions to make fbdev and fbcon work.
503 fb_info is only visible to the kernel.
504 </para>
505
506 <para>
507 fb_var_screeninfo is used to describe the features of a video card
508 that are user defined. With fb_var_screeninfo, things such as
509 depth and the resolution may be defined.
510 </para>
511
512 <para>
513 The next structure is fb_fix_screeninfo. This defines the
514 properties of a card that are created when a mode is set and can't
515 be changed otherwise. A good example of this is the start of the
516 frame buffer memory. This "locks" the address of the frame buffer
517 memory, so that it cannot be changed or moved.
518 </para>
519
520 <para>
521 The last structure is fb_monospecs. In the old API, there was
522 little importance for fb_monospecs. This allowed for forbidden things
523 such as setting a mode of 800x600 on a fix frequency monitor. With
524 the new API, fb_monospecs prevents such things, and if used
525 correctly, can prevent a monitor from being cooked. fb_monospecs
526 will not be useful until kernels 2.5.x.
527 </para>
528
529 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Memory</title>
530!Edrivers/video/fbmem.c
531 </sect1>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700532<!--
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700533 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Console</title>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700534X!Edrivers/video/console/fbcon.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700535 </sect1>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700536-->
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700537 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Colormap</title>
538!Edrivers/video/fbcmap.c
539 </sect1>
540<!-- FIXME:
541 drivers/video/fbgen.c has no docs, which stuffs up the sgml. Comment
542 out until somebody adds docs. KAO
543 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Generic Functions</title>
544X!Idrivers/video/fbgen.c
545 </sect1>
546KAO -->
547 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Video Mode Database</title>
548!Idrivers/video/modedb.c
549!Edrivers/video/modedb.c
550 </sect1>
551 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Macintosh Video Mode Database</title>
Randy Dunlap8f2709b2005-11-07 01:01:05 -0800552!Edrivers/video/macmodes.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700553 </sect1>
554 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Fonts</title>
555 <para>
556 Refer to the file drivers/video/console/fonts.c for more information.
557 </para>
558<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
559X!Idrivers/video/console/fonts.c
560-->
561 </sect1>
562 </chapter>
563</book>