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KVM_OPEN(3) FreeBSD Library Functions Manual KVM_OPEN(3)
NAME
kvm_open, kvm_open2, kvm_openfiles, kvm_close - initialize kernel virtual
memory access
LIBRARY
Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm, -lkvm)
SYNOPSIS
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <kvm.h>
kvm_t *
kvm_open(const char *execfile, const char *corefile,
const char *swapfile, int flags, const char *errstr);
kvm_t *
kvm_open2(const char *execfile, const char *corefile, int flags,
char *errbuf, int (*resolver)(const char *name, kvaddr_t *addr));
kvm_t *
kvm_openfiles(const char *execfile, const char *corefile,
const char *swapfile, int flags, char *errbuf);
int
kvm_close(kvm_t *kd);
DESCRIPTION
The functions kvm_open(), kvm_open2(), and kvm_openfiles() return a
descriptor used to access kernel virtual memory via the kvm(3) library
routines. Both active kernels and crash dumps are accessible through
this interface.
The execfile argument is the executable image of the kernel being
examined. This file must contain a symbol table. If this argument is
NULL, the currently running system is assumed, as determined from
getbootfile(3).
The corefile argument is the kernel memory device file. It can be either
/dev/mem or a crash dump core generated by savecore(8). If corefile is
NULL, the default indicated by _PATH_MEM from <paths.h> is used. It can
also be set to a special value /dev/null by utilities like ps(1) that do
not directly access kernel memory.
The swapfile argument is currently unused.
The flags argument indicates read/write access as in open(2) and applies
only to the core file. Only O_RDONLY, O_WRONLY, and O_RDWR are
permitted.
The kvm library provides two different error reporting mechanisms. One
provides backward compatibility with the SunOS kvm library, while the
other provides an improved error reporting framework. The mechanism used
by a descriptor is determined by the function used to open the
descriptor.
The kvm_open() function is the Sun kvm compatible open call. Here, the
errstr argument indicates how errors should be handled. If it is NULL,
reporting. Here, error messages are not printed out by the library.
Instead, the application obtains the error message corresponding to the
most recent kvm library call using kvm_geterr() (see kvm_geterr(3)). The
results are undefined if the most recent kvm call did not produce an
error. Since kvm_geterr() requires a kvm descriptor, but the open
routines return NULL on failure, kvm_geterr() cannot be used to get the
error message if open fails. Thus, kvm_open2() and kvm_openfiles() will
place any error message in the errbuf argument. This buffer should be
_POSIX2_LINE_MAX characters large (from <limits.h>).
The resolver argument points to a function used by the kvm library to map
symbol names to kernel virtual addresses. When the resolver function is
called, name specifies the requested symbol name. If the function is
able to resolve the name to an address, the address should be set in addr
and the function should return zero. If the function is not able to
resolve the name to an address, it should return a non-zero value. When
opening a native kernel image, resolver may be set to NULL to use an
internal function to resolve symbol names. Non-native kernel images
(such as when cross-debugging a crash dump) require a valid resolver.
RETURN VALUES
The kvm_open(), kvm_open2(), and kvm_openfiles() functions return a
descriptor to be used in all subsequent kvm library calls. The library
is fully re-entrant. On failure, NULL is returned, in which case
kvm_open2() and kvm_openfiles() write the error message into errbuf.
The kvm_close() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the
value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the
error.
ERRORS
The kvm_close() function may fail and set the global variable errno for
any of the errors specified for close(2).
The kvm_close() function may also fail and set errno if:
[EINVAL] The value passed via kd was NULL.
SEE ALSO
close(2), open(2), kvm(3), kvm_getargv(3), kvm_getenvv(3), kvm_geterr(3),
kvm_getprocs(3), kvm_native(3), kvm_nlist(3), kvm_read(3), kvm_write(3),
kmem(4), mem(4)
BUGS
There should not be three open calls. The ill-defined error semantics of
the Sun library and the desire to have a backward-compatible library for
BSD left little choice.
HISTORY
The kvm_open2() function first appeared in FreeBSD 11.0.
FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p11 March 20, 2017 FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p11