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authorJacob McDonnell <jacob@jacobmcdonnell.com>2026-04-25 19:54:44 -0400
committerJacob McDonnell <jacob@jacobmcdonnell.com>2026-04-25 19:54:44 -0400
commita9157ce950dfe2fc30795d43b9d79b9d1bffc48b (patch)
tree9df484304b560466d145e662c1c254ff0e9ae0ba /static/openbsd/man3/kvm.3
parent160aa82b2d39c46ad33723d7d909cb4972efbb03 (diff)
docs: Added All OpenBSD Manuals
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+.\" $OpenBSD: kvm.3,v 1.10 2020/06/25 12:20:17 kn Exp $
+.\" $NetBSD: kvm.3,v 1.2 1996/03/18 22:33:11 thorpej Exp $
+.\"
+.\" Copyright (c) 1992, 1993
+.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
+.\"
+.\" This code is derived from software developed by the Computer Systems
+.\" Engineering group at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory under DARPA contract
+.\" BG 91-66 and contributed to Berkeley.
+.\"
+.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
+.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
+.\" are met:
+.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
+.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
+.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
+.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
+.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
+.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
+.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
+.\" without specific prior written permission.
+.\"
+.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
+.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
+.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
+.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
+.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
+.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
+.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
+.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
+.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
+.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
+.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
+.\"
+.\" @(#)kvm.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
+.\"
+.Dd $Mdocdate: June 25 2020 $
+.Dt KVM 3
+.Os
+.Sh NAME
+.Nm kvm
+.Nd kernel memory interface
+.Sh DESCRIPTION
+The
+.Nm kvm
+library provides a uniform interface for accessing kernel virtual memory
+images, including live systems and crash dumps.
+Access to live systems is via
+.Pa /dev/mem
+while crash dumps can be examined via the core file generated by
+.Xr 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 gathered.
+.Pp
+.Fn kvm_open
+is first called to obtain a descriptor for all subsequent calls.
+.Sh FILES
+.Bl -tag -width /dev/mem -compact
+.It Pa /dev/mem
+interface to physical memory
+.El
+.Sh SEE ALSO
+.Xr kvm_dump 3 ,
+.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ,
+.Xr kvm_getfiles 3 ,
+.Xr kvm_getloadavg 3 ,
+.Xr kvm_getprocs 3 ,
+.Xr kvm_nlist 3 ,
+.Xr kvm_open 3 ,
+.Xr kvm_read 3
+.Sh 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 interface (i.e.,
+.Fn kvm_open ,
+.Fn kvm_close ,
+.Fn kvm_read ,
+.Fn kvm_write ,
+and
+.Fn kvm_nlist )
+has been incorporated into the
+.Bx
+interface.
+Indeed, many kvm
+applications (i.e., debuggers and statistical monitors) use only
+this subset of the interface.
+.Pp
+The process interface was not kept.
+This is not a portability
+issue since any code that manipulates processes is inherently
+machine dependent.
+.Pp
+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
+.Bx
+interface includes a
+routine,
+.Xr kvm_geterr 3 ,
+to return (not print out) the error message
+corresponding to the most recent error condition on the
+given descriptor.