2 .TH intro 9 "July 1997" "Linux DDI" "Linux DDI"
4 .\" Copyright 1997 Stephen Williams
6 .\" Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
7 .\" manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
8 .\" preserved on all copies.
10 .\" Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
11 .\" manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
12 .\" entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
13 .\" permission notice identical to this one
15 .\" Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this
16 .\" manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date. The author(s) assume no
17 .\" responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from
18 .\" the use of the information contained herein. The author(s) may not
19 .\" have taken the same level of care in the production of this manual,
20 .\" which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working
23 .\" Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by
24 .\" the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work.
27 intro \- Introduction to kernel interface
29 .B #include <linux/version.h>
31 This section documents the functions available to device driver
32 writers and kernel level modules. The functions are of interest mainly
33 to device driver writers, although anyone considering running code in
34 linux kernel mode may need to be familiar with these interfaces.
36 Some of the functions of the DDI exist only in certain versions of the
39 macro to test for specific versions of the kernel. For example, to use
40 a feature that is new to 2.1, say:
43 #if LINUX_VERSION_CODE >= 0x020100
46 ... do it the old way ...
50 The following is a list of the man pages, divided roughly into
52 .SS "Kernel Functions"
53 These are general kernel functions.
89 These functions relate to manipulation of the
100 .SS "BIOS32 functions"
101 These are specific to PCI (BIOS32) support.
108 pcibios_read_config_byte
110 pcibios_read_config_dword
112 pcibios_read_config_word
116 pcibios_write_config_byte
118 pcibios_write_config_dword
120 pcibios_write_config_word
123 These are functions that support manipulating the virtual memory
131 .SS "Network Functions"
153 Each man page attempts to list the kernel versions where the function
154 is available. If the form of the function changes, this section tells
155 when the described form applies.
157 This section lists other man pages that may be of interest. Also,
158 interesting source files in the linux kernel may be listed here.
160 Each man page has a section like this one that lists the author(s) who
161 contributed significantly to that page. Other unnamed individuals may
162 also have contributed corrections, editorial, etc.
164 Major contributors are (in alphabetical order)
165 Cyrus Durgin <cider@speakeasy.org>,
166 Niel Moore <amethyst@maxwell.ml.org>,
167 Keith Owens <kaos@ocs.com.au>,
168 Kirk Petersen <kirk@speakeasy.org>,
169 Jim Van Zandt <jrv@vanzandt.mv.com>,
170 and Stephen Williams <steve@icarus.com>.
172 Editorial, and this intro page, were done by Stephen Williams
175 The living linux kernel is a moving target, and the kernel functions
176 are unique to linux. Therefore, although the editor and contributers
177 make a good effort to be as accurate as possible, errors may
178 exist. The source codes of the linux kernel are the ultimate authority
179 on the behavior of any function and should be considered the final