blob: 3c47a3f0dc552ed5e0e24e20d3651eab82d2f9e7 [file] [log] [blame]
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>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -070057 <sect1><title>Internal Functions</title>
58!Ikernel/exit.c
59!Ikernel/signal.c
60 </sect1>
61
62 <sect1><title>Kernel objects manipulation</title>
63<!--
64X!Iinclude/linux/kobject.h
65-->
66!Elib/kobject.c
67 </sect1>
68
69 <sect1><title>Kernel utility functions</title>
70!Iinclude/linux/kernel.h
Martin Waitzddad86c2005-11-13 16:08:14 -080071!Ekernel/printk.c
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -070072!Ekernel/panic.c
73!Ekernel/sys.c
74!Ekernel/rcupdate.c
75 </sect1>
76
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070077 </chapter>
78
79 <chapter id="adt">
80 <title>Data Types</title>
81 <sect1><title>Doubly Linked Lists</title>
82!Iinclude/linux/list.h
83 </sect1>
84 </chapter>
85
86 <chapter id="libc">
87 <title>Basic C Library Functions</title>
88
89 <para>
90 When writing drivers, you cannot in general use routines which are
91 from the C Library. Some of the functions have been found generally
92 useful and they are listed below. The behaviour of these functions
93 may vary slightly from those defined by ANSI, and these deviations
94 are noted in the text.
95 </para>
96
97 <sect1><title>String Conversions</title>
98!Ilib/vsprintf.c
99!Elib/vsprintf.c
100 </sect1>
101 <sect1><title>String Manipulation</title>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700102<!-- All functions are exported at now
103X!Ilib/string.c
104 -->
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700105!Elib/string.c
106 </sect1>
107 <sect1><title>Bit Operations</title>
108!Iinclude/asm-i386/bitops.h
109 </sect1>
110 </chapter>
111
112 <chapter id="mm">
113 <title>Memory Management in Linux</title>
114 <sect1><title>The Slab Cache</title>
115!Emm/slab.c
116 </sect1>
117 <sect1><title>User Space Memory Access</title>
118!Iinclude/asm-i386/uaccess.h
Randy Dunlap8f2709b2005-11-07 01:01:05 -0800119!Earch/i386/lib/usercopy.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700120 </sect1>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700121 <sect1><title>More Memory Management Functions</title>
122!Iinclude/linux/rmap.h
123!Emm/readahead.c
124!Emm/filemap.c
125!Emm/memory.c
126!Emm/vmalloc.c
127!Emm/mempool.c
128!Emm/page-writeback.c
129!Emm/truncate.c
130 </sect1>
131 </chapter>
132
133
134 <chapter id="ipc">
135 <title>Kernel IPC facilities</title>
136
137 <sect1><title>IPC utilities</title>
138!Iipc/util.c
139 </sect1>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700140 </chapter>
141
142 <chapter id="kfifo">
143 <title>FIFO Buffer</title>
144 <sect1><title>kfifo interface</title>
145!Iinclude/linux/kfifo.h
146!Ekernel/kfifo.c
147 </sect1>
148 </chapter>
149
150 <chapter id="proc">
151 <title>The proc filesystem</title>
152
153 <sect1><title>sysctl interface</title>
154!Ekernel/sysctl.c
155 </sect1>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700156
157 <sect1><title>proc filesystem interface</title>
158!Ifs/proc/base.c
159 </sect1>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700160 </chapter>
161
162 <chapter id="debugfs">
163 <title>The debugfs filesystem</title>
164
165 <sect1><title>debugfs interface</title>
166!Efs/debugfs/inode.c
167!Efs/debugfs/file.c
168 </sect1>
169 </chapter>
170
171 <chapter id="vfs">
172 <title>The Linux VFS</title>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700173 <sect1><title>The Filesystem types</title>
174!Iinclude/linux/fs.h
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700175 </sect1>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700176 <sect1><title>The Directory Cache</title>
177!Efs/dcache.c
178!Iinclude/linux/dcache.h
179 </sect1>
180 <sect1><title>Inode Handling</title>
181!Efs/inode.c
182!Efs/bad_inode.c
183 </sect1>
184 <sect1><title>Registration and Superblocks</title>
185!Efs/super.c
186 </sect1>
187 <sect1><title>File Locks</title>
188!Efs/locks.c
189!Ifs/locks.c
190 </sect1>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700191 <sect1><title>Other Functions</title>
192!Efs/mpage.c
193!Efs/namei.c
194!Efs/buffer.c
195!Efs/bio.c
196!Efs/seq_file.c
197!Efs/filesystems.c
198!Efs/fs-writeback.c
199!Efs/block_dev.c
200 </sect1>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700201 </chapter>
202
203 <chapter id="netcore">
204 <title>Linux Networking</title>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700205 <sect1><title>Networking Base Types</title>
206!Iinclude/linux/net.h
207 </sect1>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700208 <sect1><title>Socket Buffer Functions</title>
209!Iinclude/linux/skbuff.h
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700210!Iinclude/net/sock.h
211!Enet/socket.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700212!Enet/core/skbuff.c
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700213!Enet/core/sock.c
214!Enet/core/datagram.c
215!Enet/core/stream.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700216 </sect1>
217 <sect1><title>Socket Filter</title>
218!Enet/core/filter.c
219 </sect1>
220 <sect1><title>Generic Network Statistics</title>
221!Iinclude/linux/gen_stats.h
222!Enet/core/gen_stats.c
223!Enet/core/gen_estimator.c
224 </sect1>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700225 <sect1><title>SUN RPC subsystem</title>
226<!-- The !D functionality is not perfect, garbage has to be protected by comments
227!Dnet/sunrpc/sunrpc_syms.c
228-->
229!Enet/sunrpc/xdr.c
230!Enet/sunrpc/svcsock.c
231!Enet/sunrpc/sched.c
232 </sect1>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700233 </chapter>
234
235 <chapter id="netdev">
236 <title>Network device support</title>
237 <sect1><title>Driver Support</title>
238!Enet/core/dev.c
Stephen Hemmingerc2da8ac2005-11-01 17:05:09 -0800239!Enet/ethernet/eth.c
Randy Dunlap461ddf32005-11-20 21:25:15 -0800240!Iinclude/linux/etherdevice.h
241<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
242X!Enet/core/wireless.c
243-->
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700244 </sect1>
245 <sect1><title>Synchronous PPP</title>
246!Edrivers/net/wan/syncppp.c
247 </sect1>
248 </chapter>
249
250 <chapter id="modload">
251 <title>Module Support</title>
252 <sect1><title>Module Loading</title>
253!Ekernel/kmod.c
254 </sect1>
255 <sect1><title>Inter Module support</title>
256 <para>
257 Refer to the file kernel/module.c for more information.
258 </para>
259<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
260X!Ekernel/module.c
261-->
262 </sect1>
263 </chapter>
264
265 <chapter id="hardware">
266 <title>Hardware Interfaces</title>
267 <sect1><title>Interrupt Handling</title>
Randy Dunlap8f2709b2005-11-07 01:01:05 -0800268!Ekernel/irq/manage.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700269 </sect1>
270
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700271 <sect1><title>Resources Management</title>
272!Ekernel/resource.c
273 </sect1>
274
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700275 <sect1><title>MTRR Handling</title>
276!Earch/i386/kernel/cpu/mtrr/main.c
277 </sect1>
278 <sect1><title>PCI Support Library</title>
279!Edrivers/pci/pci.c
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700280!Edrivers/pci/pci-driver.c
281!Edrivers/pci/remove.c
282!Edrivers/pci/pci-acpi.c
283<!-- kerneldoc does not understand to __devinit
284X!Edrivers/pci/search.c
285 -->
286!Edrivers/pci/msi.c
287!Edrivers/pci/bus.c
Randy Dunlapf05aab82005-10-23 11:58:19 -0700288<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
289X!Edrivers/pci/hotplug.c
290-->
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700291!Edrivers/pci/probe.c
292!Edrivers/pci/rom.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700293 </sect1>
294 <sect1><title>PCI Hotplug Support Library</title>
295!Edrivers/pci/hotplug/pci_hotplug_core.c
296 </sect1>
297 <sect1><title>MCA Architecture</title>
298 <sect2><title>MCA Device Functions</title>
299 <para>
300 Refer to the file arch/i386/kernel/mca.c for more information.
301 </para>
302<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
303X!Earch/i386/kernel/mca.c
304-->
305 </sect2>
306 <sect2><title>MCA Bus DMA</title>
307!Iinclude/asm-i386/mca_dma.h
308 </sect2>
309 </sect1>
310 </chapter>
311
312 <chapter id="devfs">
313 <title>The Device File System</title>
314!Efs/devfs/base.c
315 </chapter>
316
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700317 <chapter id="sysfs">
318 <title>The Filesystem for Exporting Kernel Objects</title>
319!Efs/sysfs/file.c
320!Efs/sysfs/dir.c
321!Efs/sysfs/symlink.c
322!Efs/sysfs/bin.c
323 </chapter>
324
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700325 <chapter id="security">
326 <title>Security Framework</title>
327!Esecurity/security.c
328 </chapter>
329
330 <chapter id="pmfuncs">
331 <title>Power Management</title>
332!Ekernel/power/pm.c
333 </chapter>
334
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700335 <chapter id="devdrivers">
336 <title>Device drivers infrastructure</title>
337 <sect1><title>Device Drivers Base</title>
338<!--
339X!Iinclude/linux/device.h
340-->
341!Edrivers/base/driver.c
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700342!Edrivers/base/core.c
343!Edrivers/base/firmware_class.c
344!Edrivers/base/transport_class.c
345!Edrivers/base/dmapool.c
346<!-- Cannot be included, because
347 attribute_container_add_class_device_adapter
348 and attribute_container_classdev_to_container
349 exceed allowed 44 characters maximum
350X!Edrivers/base/attribute_container.c
351-->
352!Edrivers/base/sys.c
353<!--
354X!Edrivers/base/interface.c
355-->
356!Edrivers/base/platform.c
357!Edrivers/base/bus.c
358 </sect1>
359 <sect1><title>Device Drivers Power Management</title>
360!Edrivers/base/power/main.c
361!Edrivers/base/power/resume.c
362!Edrivers/base/power/suspend.c
363 </sect1>
364 <sect1><title>Device Drivers ACPI Support</title>
365<!-- Internal functions only
366X!Edrivers/acpi/sleep/main.c
367X!Edrivers/acpi/sleep/wakeup.c
368X!Edrivers/acpi/motherboard.c
369X!Edrivers/acpi/bus.c
370-->
371!Edrivers/acpi/scan.c
Randy Dunlapd758a8f2006-01-06 01:31:00 -0500372!Idrivers/acpi/scan.c
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700373<!-- No correct structured comments
374X!Edrivers/acpi/pci_bind.c
375-->
376 </sect1>
377 <sect1><title>Device drivers PnP support</title>
378!Edrivers/pnp/core.c
379<!-- No correct structured comments
380X!Edrivers/pnp/system.c
381 -->
382!Edrivers/pnp/card.c
383!Edrivers/pnp/driver.c
384!Edrivers/pnp/manager.c
385!Edrivers/pnp/support.c
386 </sect1>
387 </chapter>
388
389
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700390 <chapter id="blkdev">
391 <title>Block Devices</title>
Ben Collins1d193f42005-11-15 00:09:21 -0800392!Eblock/ll_rw_blk.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700393 </chapter>
394
395 <chapter id="miscdev">
396 <title>Miscellaneous Devices</title>
397!Edrivers/char/misc.c
398 </chapter>
399
400 <chapter id="viddev">
401 <title>Video4Linux</title>
402!Edrivers/media/video/videodev.c
403 </chapter>
404
405 <chapter id="snddev">
406 <title>Sound Devices</title>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700407!Iinclude/sound/core.h
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700408!Esound/sound_core.c
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700409!Iinclude/sound/pcm.h
410!Esound/core/pcm.c
411!Esound/core/device.c
412!Esound/core/info.c
413!Esound/core/rawmidi.c
414!Esound/core/sound.c
415!Esound/core/memory.c
416!Esound/core/pcm_memory.c
417!Esound/core/init.c
418!Esound/core/isadma.c
419!Esound/core/control.c
420!Esound/core/pcm_lib.c
421!Esound/core/hwdep.c
422!Esound/core/pcm_native.c
423!Esound/core/memalloc.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700424<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
425X!Isound/sound_firmware.c
426-->
427 </chapter>
428
429 <chapter id="uart16x50">
430 <title>16x50 UART Driver</title>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700431!Iinclude/linux/serial_core.h
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700432!Edrivers/serial/serial_core.c
433!Edrivers/serial/8250.c
434 </chapter>
435
436 <chapter id="z85230">
437 <title>Z85230 Support Library</title>
438!Edrivers/net/wan/z85230.c
439 </chapter>
440
441 <chapter id="fbdev">
442 <title>Frame Buffer Library</title>
443
444 <para>
445 The frame buffer drivers depend heavily on four data structures.
446 These structures are declared in include/linux/fb.h. They are
447 fb_info, fb_var_screeninfo, fb_fix_screeninfo and fb_monospecs.
448 The last three can be made available to and from userland.
449 </para>
450
451 <para>
452 fb_info defines the current state of a particular video card.
453 Inside fb_info, there exists a fb_ops structure which is a
454 collection of needed functions to make fbdev and fbcon work.
455 fb_info is only visible to the kernel.
456 </para>
457
458 <para>
459 fb_var_screeninfo is used to describe the features of a video card
460 that are user defined. With fb_var_screeninfo, things such as
461 depth and the resolution may be defined.
462 </para>
463
464 <para>
465 The next structure is fb_fix_screeninfo. This defines the
466 properties of a card that are created when a mode is set and can't
467 be changed otherwise. A good example of this is the start of the
468 frame buffer memory. This "locks" the address of the frame buffer
469 memory, so that it cannot be changed or moved.
470 </para>
471
472 <para>
473 The last structure is fb_monospecs. In the old API, there was
474 little importance for fb_monospecs. This allowed for forbidden things
475 such as setting a mode of 800x600 on a fix frequency monitor. With
476 the new API, fb_monospecs prevents such things, and if used
477 correctly, can prevent a monitor from being cooked. fb_monospecs
478 will not be useful until kernels 2.5.x.
479 </para>
480
481 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Memory</title>
482!Edrivers/video/fbmem.c
483 </sect1>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700484<!--
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700485 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Console</title>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700486X!Edrivers/video/console/fbcon.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700487 </sect1>
Pavel Pisa4dc3b162005-05-01 08:59:25 -0700488-->
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700489 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Colormap</title>
490!Edrivers/video/fbcmap.c
491 </sect1>
492<!-- FIXME:
493 drivers/video/fbgen.c has no docs, which stuffs up the sgml. Comment
494 out until somebody adds docs. KAO
495 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Generic Functions</title>
496X!Idrivers/video/fbgen.c
497 </sect1>
498KAO -->
499 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Video Mode Database</title>
500!Idrivers/video/modedb.c
501!Edrivers/video/modedb.c
502 </sect1>
503 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Macintosh Video Mode Database</title>
Randy Dunlap8f2709b2005-11-07 01:01:05 -0800504!Edrivers/video/macmodes.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700505 </sect1>
506 <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Fonts</title>
507 <para>
508 Refer to the file drivers/video/console/fonts.c for more information.
509 </para>
510<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
511X!Idrivers/video/console/fonts.c
512-->
513 </sect1>
514 </chapter>
515</book>