Documentation / core-api / kernel-api.rst


Based on kernel version 6.8. Page generated on 2024-03-11 21:26 EST.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434
====================
The Linux Kernel API
====================


List Management Functions
=========================

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/list.h
   :internal:

Basic C Library Functions
=========================

When writing drivers, you cannot in general use routines which are from
the C Library. Some of the functions have been found generally useful
and they are listed below. The behaviour of these functions may vary
slightly from those defined by ANSI, and these deviations are noted in
the text.

String Conversions
------------------

.. kernel-doc:: lib/vsprintf.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/kstrtox.h
   :functions: kstrtol kstrtoul

.. kernel-doc:: lib/kstrtox.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: lib/string_helpers.c
   :export:

String Manipulation
-------------------

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/fortify-string.h
   :internal:

.. kernel-doc:: lib/string.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/string.h
   :internal:

.. kernel-doc:: mm/util.c
   :functions: kstrdup kstrdup_const kstrndup kmemdup kmemdup_nul memdup_user
               vmemdup_user strndup_user memdup_user_nul

Basic Kernel Library Functions
==============================

The Linux kernel provides more basic utility functions.

Bit Operations
--------------

.. kernel-doc:: include/asm-generic/bitops/instrumented-atomic.h
   :internal:

.. kernel-doc:: include/asm-generic/bitops/instrumented-non-atomic.h
   :internal:

.. kernel-doc:: include/asm-generic/bitops/instrumented-lock.h
   :internal:

Bitmap Operations
-----------------

.. kernel-doc:: lib/bitmap.c
   :doc: bitmap introduction

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/bitmap.h
   :doc: declare bitmap

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/bitmap.h
   :doc: bitmap overview

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/bitmap.h
   :doc: bitmap bitops

.. kernel-doc:: lib/bitmap.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: lib/bitmap.c
   :internal:

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/bitmap.h
   :internal:

Command-line Parsing
--------------------

.. kernel-doc:: lib/cmdline.c
   :export:

Error Pointers
--------------

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/err.h
   :internal:

Sorting
-------

.. kernel-doc:: lib/sort.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: lib/list_sort.c
   :export:

Text Searching
--------------

.. kernel-doc:: lib/textsearch.c
   :doc: ts_intro

.. kernel-doc:: lib/textsearch.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/textsearch.h
   :functions: textsearch_find textsearch_next \
               textsearch_get_pattern textsearch_get_pattern_len

CRC and Math Functions in Linux
===============================

Arithmetic Overflow Checking
----------------------------

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/overflow.h
   :internal:

CRC Functions
-------------

.. kernel-doc:: lib/crc4.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: lib/crc7.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: lib/crc8.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: lib/crc16.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: lib/crc32.c

.. kernel-doc:: lib/crc-ccitt.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: lib/crc-itu-t.c
   :export:

Base 2 log and power Functions
------------------------------

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/log2.h
   :internal:

Integer log and power Functions
-------------------------------

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/int_log.h

.. kernel-doc:: lib/math/int_pow.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: lib/math/int_sqrt.c
   :export:

Division Functions
------------------

.. kernel-doc:: include/asm-generic/div64.h
   :functions: do_div

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/math64.h
   :internal:

.. kernel-doc:: lib/math/gcd.c
   :export:

UUID/GUID
---------

.. kernel-doc:: lib/uuid.c
   :export:

Kernel IPC facilities
=====================

IPC utilities
-------------

.. kernel-doc:: ipc/util.c
   :internal:

FIFO Buffer
===========

kfifo interface
---------------

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/kfifo.h
   :internal:

relay interface support
=======================

Relay interface support is designed to provide an efficient mechanism
for tools and facilities to relay large amounts of data from kernel
space to user space.

relay interface
---------------

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/relay.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/relay.c
   :internal:

Module Support
==============

Kernel module auto-loading
--------------------------

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/module/kmod.c
   :export:

Module debugging
----------------

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/module/stats.c
   :doc: module debugging statistics overview

dup_failed_modules - tracks duplicate failed modules
****************************************************

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/module/stats.c
   :doc: dup_failed_modules - tracks duplicate failed modules

module statistics debugfs counters
**********************************

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/module/stats.c
   :doc: module statistics debugfs counters

Inter Module support
--------------------

Refer to the files in kernel/module/ for more information.

Hardware Interfaces
===================

DMA Channels
------------

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/dma.c
   :export:

Resources Management
--------------------

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/resource.c
   :internal:

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/resource.c
   :export:

MTRR Handling
-------------

.. kernel-doc:: arch/x86/kernel/cpu/mtrr/mtrr.c
   :export:

Security Framework
==================

.. kernel-doc:: security/security.c
   :internal:

.. kernel-doc:: security/inode.c
   :export:

Audit Interfaces
================

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/audit.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/auditsc.c
   :internal:

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/auditfilter.c
   :internal:

Accounting Framework
====================

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/acct.c
   :internal:

Block Devices
=============

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/bio.h
.. kernel-doc:: block/blk-core.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: block/blk-core.c
   :internal:

.. kernel-doc:: block/blk-map.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: block/blk-sysfs.c
   :internal:

.. kernel-doc:: block/blk-settings.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: block/blk-flush.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: block/blk-lib.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: block/blk-integrity.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/trace/blktrace.c
   :internal:

.. kernel-doc:: block/genhd.c
   :internal:

.. kernel-doc:: block/genhd.c
   :export:

.. kernel-doc:: block/bdev.c
   :export:

Char devices
============

.. kernel-doc:: fs/char_dev.c
   :export:

Clock Framework
===============

The clock framework defines programming interfaces to support software
management of the system clock tree. This framework is widely used with
System-On-Chip (SOC) platforms to support power management and various
devices which may need custom clock rates. Note that these "clocks"
don't relate to timekeeping or real time clocks (RTCs), each of which
have separate frameworks. These :c:type:`struct clk <clk>`
instances may be used to manage for example a 96 MHz signal that is used
to shift bits into and out of peripherals or busses, or otherwise
trigger synchronous state machine transitions in system hardware.

Power management is supported by explicit software clock gating: unused
clocks are disabled, so the system doesn't waste power changing the
state of transistors that aren't in active use. On some systems this may
be backed by hardware clock gating, where clocks are gated without being
disabled in software. Sections of chips that are powered but not clocked
may be able to retain their last state. This low power state is often
called a *retention mode*. This mode still incurs leakage currents,
especially with finer circuit geometries, but for CMOS circuits power is
mostly used by clocked state changes.

Power-aware drivers only enable their clocks when the device they manage
is in active use. Also, system sleep states often differ according to
which clock domains are active: while a "standby" state may allow wakeup
from several active domains, a "mem" (suspend-to-RAM) state may require
a more wholesale shutdown of clocks derived from higher speed PLLs and
oscillators, limiting the number of possible wakeup event sources. A
driver's suspend method may need to be aware of system-specific clock
constraints on the target sleep state.

Some platforms support programmable clock generators. These can be used
by external chips of various kinds, such as other CPUs, multimedia
codecs, and devices with strict requirements for interface clocking.

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/clk.h
   :internal:

Synchronization Primitives
==========================

Read-Copy Update (RCU)
----------------------

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/rcupdate.h

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/rcu/tree.c

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/rcu/tree_exp.h

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/rcu/update.c

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/srcu.h

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/rcu/srcutree.c

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/rculist_bl.h

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/rculist.h

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/rculist_nulls.h

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/rcu_sync.h

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/rcu/sync.c

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/rcu/tasks.h

.. kernel-doc:: kernel/rcu/tree_stall.h

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/rcupdate_trace.h

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/rcupdate_wait.h

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/rcuref.h

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/rcutree.h