The Linux Kernel API

Table of Contents

1. Data Types

Doubly Linked Lists

2. Basic C Library Functions

String Conversions

String Manipulation

Bit Operations

3. Basic Kernel Library Functions

Bitmap Operations

Command-line Parsing

CRC Functions

idr/ida Functions

4. Memory Management in Linux

The Slab Cache

User Space Memory Access

More Memory Management Functions

5. Kernel IPC facilities

IPC utilities

6. FIFO Buffer

kfifo interface

7. relay interface support

relay interface

8. Module Support

Module Loading

Inter Module support

9. Hardware Interfaces

Interrupt Handling

DMA Channels

Resources Management

MTRR Handling

PCI Support Library

PCI Hotplug Support Library

MCA Architecture

MCA Device Functions

MCA Bus DMA

10. Firmware Interfaces

DMI Interfaces

EDD Interfaces

11. Security Framework

security_init — initializes the security framework

security_module_enable — Load given security module on boot ?

register_security — registers a security framework with the kernel

securityfs_create_file — create a file in the securityfs filesystem

securityfs_create_dir — create a directory in the securityfs filesystem

securityfs_remove — removes a file or directory from the securityfs filesystem

12. Audit Interfaces

audit_log_start — obtain an audit buffer

audit_log_format — format a message into the audit buffer.

audit_log_end — end one audit record

audit_log — Log an audit record

audit_alloc — allocate an audit context block for a task

audit_free — free a per-task audit context

audit_syscall_entry — fill in an audit record at syscall entry

audit_syscall_exit — deallocate audit context after a system call

__audit_getname — add a name to the list

__audit_inode — store the inode and device from a lookup

auditsc_get_stamp — get local copies of audit_context values

audit_set_loginuid — set a task's audit_context loginuid

__audit_mq_open — record audit data for a POSIX MQ open

__audit_mq_sendrecv — record audit data for a POSIX MQ timed send/receive

__audit_mq_notify — record audit data for a POSIX MQ notify

__audit_mq_getsetattr — record audit data for a POSIX MQ get/set attribute

__audit_ipc_obj — record audit data for ipc object

__audit_ipc_set_perm — record audit data for new ipc permissions

audit_socketcall — record audit data for sys_socketcall

__audit_fd_pair — record audit data for pipe and socketpair

audit_sockaddr — record audit data for sys_bind, sys_connect, sys_sendto

__audit_signal_info — record signal info for shutting down audit subsystem

__audit_log_bprm_fcaps — store information about a loading bprm and relevant fcaps

__audit_log_capset — store information about the arguments to the capset syscall

audit_core_dumps — record information about processes that end abnormally

audit_receive_filter — apply all rules to the specified message type

13. Accounting Framework

sys_acct — enable/disable process accounting

acct_auto_close_mnt — turn off a filesystem's accounting if it is on

acct_auto_close — turn off a filesystem's accounting if it is on

acct_collect — collect accounting information into pacct_struct

acct_process — now just a wrapper around acct_process_in_ns, which in turn is a wrapper around do_acct_process.

14. Block Devices

blk_get_backing_dev_info — get the address of a queue's backing_dev_info

blk_delay_queue — restart queueing after defined interval

blk_start_queue — restart a previously stopped queue

blk_stop_queue — stop a queue

blk_sync_queue — cancel any pending callbacks on a queue

__blk_run_queue — run a single device queue

blk_run_queue_async — run a single device queue in workqueue context

blk_run_queue — run a single device queue

blk_init_queue — prepare a request queue for use with a block device

blk_make_request — given a bio, allocate a corresponding struct request.

blk_requeue_request — put a request back on queue

blk_insert_request — insert a special request into a request queue

part_round_stats — Round off the performance stats on a struct disk_stats.

blk_add_request_payload — add a payload to a request

submit_bio — submit a bio to the block device layer for I/O

blk_rq_check_limits — Helper function to check a request for the queue limit

blk_insert_cloned_request — Helper for stacking drivers to submit a request

blk_rq_err_bytes — determine number of bytes till the next failure boundary

blk_peek_request — peek at the top of a request queue

blk_start_request — start request processing on the driver

blk_fetch_request — fetch a request from a request queue

blk_update_request — Special helper function for request stacking drivers

blk_unprep_request — unprepare a request

blk_end_request — Helper function for drivers to complete the request.

blk_end_request_all — Helper function for drives to finish the request.

blk_end_request_cur — Helper function to finish the current request chunk.

blk_end_request_err — Finish a request till the next failure boundary.

__blk_end_request — Helper function for drivers to complete the request.

__blk_end_request_all — Helper function for drives to finish the request.

__blk_end_request_cur — Helper function to finish the current request chunk.

__blk_end_request_err — Finish a request till the next failure boundary.

rq_flush_dcache_pages — Helper function to flush all pages in a request

blk_lld_busy — Check if underlying low-level drivers of a device are busy

blk_rq_unprep_clone — Helper function to free all bios in a cloned request

blk_rq_prep_clone — Helper function to setup clone request

__generic_make_request — hand a buffer to its device driver for I/O

blk_end_bidi_request — Complete a bidi request

__blk_end_bidi_request — Complete a bidi request with queue lock held

blk_rq_map_user — map user data to a request, for REQ_TYPE_BLOCK_PC usage

blk_rq_map_user_iov — map user data to a request, for REQ_TYPE_BLOCK_PC usage

blk_rq_unmap_user — unmap a request with user data

blk_rq_map_kern — map kernel data to a request, for REQ_TYPE_BLOCK_PC usage

blk_release_queue — release a struct request_queue when it is no longer needed

blk_queue_prep_rq — set a prepare_request function for queue

blk_queue_unprep_rq — set an unprepare_request function for queue

blk_queue_merge_bvec — set a merge_bvec function for queue

blk_set_default_limits — reset limits to default values

blk_queue_make_request — define an alternate make_request function for a device

blk_queue_bounce_limit — set bounce buffer limit for queue

blk_limits_max_hw_sectors — set hard and soft limit of max sectors for request

blk_queue_max_hw_sectors — set max sectors for a request for this queue

blk_queue_max_discard_sectors — set max sectors for a single discard

blk_queue_max_segments — set max hw segments for a request for this queue

blk_queue_max_segment_size — set max segment size for blk_rq_map_sg

blk_queue_logical_block_size — set logical block size for the queue

blk_queue_physical_block_size — set physical block size for the queue

blk_queue_alignment_offset — set physical block alignment offset

blk_limits_io_min — set minimum request size for a device

blk_queue_io_min — set minimum request size for the queue

blk_limits_io_opt — set optimal request size for a device

blk_queue_io_opt — set optimal request size for the queue

blk_queue_stack_limits — inherit underlying queue limits for stacked drivers

blk_stack_limits — adjust queue_limits for stacked devices

bdev_stack_limits — adjust queue limits for stacked drivers

disk_stack_limits — adjust queue limits for stacked drivers

blk_queue_dma_pad — set pad mask

blk_queue_update_dma_pad — update pad mask

blk_queue_dma_drain — Set up a drain buffer for excess dma.

blk_queue_segment_boundary — set boundary rules for segment merging

blk_queue_dma_alignment — set dma length and memory alignment

blk_queue_update_dma_alignment — update dma length and memory alignment

blk_queue_flush — configure queue's cache flush capability

blk_execute_rq_nowait — insert a request into queue for execution

blk_execute_rq — insert a request into queue for execution

blkdev_issue_flush — queue a flush

blkdev_issue_discard — queue a discard

blkdev_issue_zeroout — generate number of zero filed write bios

blk_queue_find_tag — find a request by its tag and queue

blk_free_tags — release a given set of tag maintenance info

blk_queue_free_tags — release tag maintenance info

blk_init_tags — initialize the tag info for an external tag map

blk_queue_init_tags — initialize the queue tag info

blk_queue_resize_tags — change the queueing depth

blk_queue_end_tag — end tag operations for a request

blk_queue_start_tag — find a free tag and assign it

blk_queue_invalidate_tags — invalidate all pending tags

__blk_free_tags — release a given set of tag maintenance info

__blk_queue_free_tags — release tag maintenance info

blk_rq_count_integrity_sg — Count number of integrity scatterlist elements

blk_rq_map_integrity_sg — Map integrity metadata into a scatterlist

blk_integrity_compare — Compare integrity profile of two disks

blk_integrity_register — Register a gendisk as being integrity-capable

blk_integrity_unregister — Remove block integrity profile

blk_trace_ioctl — handle the ioctls associated with tracing

blk_trace_shutdown — stop and cleanup trace structures

blk_add_trace_rq — Add a trace for a request oriented action

blk_add_trace_bio — Add a trace for a bio oriented action

blk_add_trace_bio_remap — Add a trace for a bio-remap operation

blk_add_trace_rq_remap — Add a trace for a request-remap operation

blk_mangle_minor — scatter minor numbers apart

blk_alloc_devt — allocate a dev_t for a partition

blk_free_devt — free a dev_t

disk_replace_part_tbl — replace disk->part_tbl in RCU-safe way

disk_expand_part_tbl — expand disk->part_tbl

disk_block_events — block and flush disk event checking

disk_unblock_events — unblock disk event checking

disk_clear_events — synchronously check, clear and return pending events

disk_get_part — get partition

disk_part_iter_init — initialize partition iterator

disk_part_iter_next — proceed iterator to the next partition and return it

disk_part_iter_exit — finish up partition iteration

disk_map_sector_rcu — map sector to partition

register_blkdev — register a new block device

add_disk — add partitioning information to kernel list

get_gendisk — get partitioning information for a given device

bdget_disk — do bdget by gendisk and partition number

disk_check_events — schedule immediate event checking

15. Char devices

register_chrdev_region — register a range of device numbers

alloc_chrdev_region — register a range of char device numbers

__register_chrdev — create and register a cdev occupying a range of minors

unregister_chrdev_region — return a range of device numbers

__unregister_chrdev — unregister and destroy a cdev

cdev_add — add a char device to the system

cdev_del — remove a cdev from the system

cdev_alloc — allocate a cdev structure

cdev_init — initialize a cdev structure

16. Miscellaneous Devices

misc_register — register a miscellaneous device

misc_deregister — unregister a miscellaneous device

17. Clock Framework

clk_get — lookup and obtain a reference to a clock producer.

clk_enable — inform the system when the clock source should be running.

clk_disable — inform the system when the clock source is no longer required.

clk_get_rate — obtain the current clock rate (in Hz) for a clock source. This is only valid once the clock source has been enabled.

clk_put — "free" the clock source

clk_round_rate — adjust a rate to the exact rate a clock can provide

clk_set_rate — set the clock rate for a clock source

clk_set_parent — set the parent clock source for this clock

clk_get_parent — get the parent clock source for this clock

clk_get_sys — get a clock based upon the device name

clk_add_alias — add a new clock alias