Intro(7)

NAME

Intro, intro − introduction to special files

DESCRIPTION

This section describes various device and network interfaces available on the system. The types of interfaces described include character and block devices, STREAMS modules, network protocols, file systems, and ioctl requests for driver subsystems and classes.

This section contains the following major collections:

(7D) The system provides drivers for a variety of hardware devices, such as disk, magnetic tapes, serial communication lines, mice, and frame buffers, as well as virtual devices such as pseudo-terminals and windows.

This section describes special files that refer to specific hardware peripherals and device drivers. STREAMS device drivers are also described. Characteristics of both the hardware device and the corresponding device driver are discussed where applicable.

An application accesses a device through that device’s special file. This section specifies the device special file to be used to access the device as well as application programming interface (API) information relevant to the use of the device driver.

All device special files are located under the /devices directory. The /devices directory hierarchy attempts to mirror the hierarchy of system busses, controllers, and devices configured on the system. Logical device names for special files in /devices are located under the /dev directory. Although not every special file under /devices will have a corresponding logical entry under /dev, whenever possible, an application should reference a device using the logical name for the device. Logical device names are listed in the FILES section of the page for the device in question.

This section also describes driver configuration where applicable. Many device drivers have a driver configuration file of the form driver_name.conf associated with them (see driver.conf(4)). The configuration information stored in the driver configuration file is used to configure the driver and the device. Driver configuration files are located in /kernel/drv and /usr/kernel/drv. Driver configuration files for platform dependent drivers are located in /platform/‘uname -i‘/kernel/drv where ‘uname -i‘ is the output of the uname(1) command with the -i option.

Some driver configuration files may contain user configurable properties. Changes in a driver’s configuration file will not take effect until the system is rebooted or the driver has been removed and re-added (see rem_drv(1M) and add_drv(1M)).

(7FS) This section describes the programmatic interface for several file systems supported by SunOS.

(7I) This section describes ioctl requests which apply to a class of drivers or subsystems. For example, ioctl requests which apply to most tape devices are discussed in mtio(7I). Ioctl requests relevant to only a specific device are described on the man page for that device. The page for the device in question should still be examined for exceptions to the ioctls listed in section 7I.

(7M) This section describes STREAMS modules. Note that STREAMS drivers are discussed in section 7D. streamio(7I) contains a list of ioctl requests used to manipulate STREAMS modules and interface with the STREAMS framework. Ioctl requests specific to a STREAMS module will be discussed on the man page for that module.

(7P) This section describes various network protocols available in SunOS.

SunOS supports both socket-based and STREAMS-based network communications. The Internet protocol family, described in inet(7P), is the primary protocol family supported by SunOS, although the system can support a number of others. The raw interface provides low-level services, such as packet fragmentation and reassembly, routing, addressing, and basic transport for socket-based implementations. Facilities for communicating using an Internet-family protocol are generally accessed by specifying the AF_INET address family when binding a socket; see socket(3N) for details.

Major protocols in the Internet family include:

• The Internet Protocol (IP) itself, which supports the universal datagram format, as described in ip(7P). This is the default protocol for SOCK_RAW type sockets within the AF_INET domain.

• The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP); see tcp(7P). This is the default protocol for SOCK_STREAM type sockets.

• The User Datagram Protocol (UDP); see udp(4P). This is the default protocol for SOCK_DGRAM type sockets.

• The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP); see arp(7P).

• The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP); see icmp(7P).

LIST OF SPECIAL FILES

Name Description

adp(7D) low-level module for Adaptec 7870/7871/7872 based SCSI controllers

aha(7D) low-level module for Adaptec 154x ISA host bus adapters

aic(7D) low-level module for Adaptec AIC-6360 based ISA host bus adapters

arp(7P) Address Resolution Protocol

ARP(7P) See arp(7P)

asy(7D) asynchronous serial port driver

ata(7D) AT attachment disk driver

audio(7I) generic audio device interface

audioamd(7D) telephone quality audio device

audiocs(7D) Crystal Semiconductor 4231 audio Interface

bd(7M) SunButtons and SunDials STREAMS module

be(7D) BigMAC Fast Ethernet device driver

bpp(7D) bi-directional parallel port driver

bufmod(7M) STREAMS Buffer Module

bwtwo(7D) black and white memory frame buffer

cdio(7I) CD-ROM control operations

cgeight(7D) 24-bit color memory frame buffer

cgfour(7D) P4-bus 8-bit color memory frame buffer

cgfourteen(7D) 24-bit color graphics device

cgsix(7D) accelerated 8-bit color frame buffer

cgthree(7D) 8-bit color memory frame buffer

cgtwo(7D) color graphics interface

cmdk(7D) common disk driver

connld(7M) line discipline for unique stream connections

console(7D) STREAMS-based console interface

corvette(7D) low-level module for IBM Micro Channel SCSI-2 Fast/Wide Adapter/A

csa(7D) low-level module for Compaq SMART SCSI Array Controller

dbri(7D) Dual Basic Rate ISDN and audio Interface

display(7D) system console display

dkio(7I) disk control operations

dlpi(7P) Data Link Provider Interface

dnet(7D) Ethernet driver for D-Link DE-530CT, SMC EtherPower 8432BT, Znyx312, Cogent EM960, Cogent EM100

dpt(7D) DPT 2011, 2012, 2021, 2022, 2122, 2024, 2124, 3021, 3222, and 3224 controllers

dsa(7D) low-level module for Dell SCSI Array Controller (DSA)

eepro(7D) Intel EtherExpress-Pro Ethernet device driver

eha(7D) low-level module for Adaptec 174x EISA host bus adapter

el(7D) 3COM 3C503 Ethernet device driver

elink(7D) 3COM 3C507 Ethernet device driver

elx(7D) 3COM EtherLink III Ethernet device driver

esa(7D) low-level module for Adaptec 7770 based SCSI controllers

esp(7D) ESP SCSI Host Bus Adapter Driver

fbio(7I) frame buffer control operations

fd(7D) drivers for floppy disks and floppy disk controllers

fdc(7D) See fd(7D)

fdio(7I) floppy disk control operations

gld(7D) Generic LAN Driver

hdio(7I) SMD and IPI disk control operations

hsfs(7FS) High Sierra & ISO 9660 CD-ROM filesystem

icmp(7P) Internet Control Message Protocol

ICMP(7P) See icmp(7P)

id(7D) See ipi(7D)

ie(7D) Intel 82586 Ethernet device driver

iee(7D) Intel EtherExpress 16 Ethernet device driver

ieef(7D) Intel EtherExpress Flash32/82596 Ethernet device driver

if(7P) See if_tcp(7P)

if_tcp(7P) general properties of Internet Protocol network interfaces

inet(7P) Internet protocol family

ip(7P) Internet Protocol

IP(7P) See ip(7P)

ipd(7M) See ppp(7M)

ipdcm(7M) See ppp(7M)

ipdptp(7M) See ppp(7M)

ipi(7D) IPI driver

ipi3sc(7D) See ipi(7D)

is(7D) See ipi(7D)

isdnio(7I) ISDN interfaces

isp(7D) ISP SCSI Host Bus Adapter Driver

iss(7D) low-level module for Tricord System’s SCSI host bus adapter

kb(7M) keyboard STREAMS module

kdmouse(7D) built-in mouse device interface

keyboard(7D) system console keyboard

kmem(7D) See mem(7D)

kstat(7D) kernel statistics driver

ksyms(7D) kernel symbols

ldterm(7M) standard STREAMS terminal line discipline module

le(7D) Am7990 (LANCE) Ethernet device driver

lebuffer(7D) See le(7D)

ledma(7D) See le(7D)

leo(7D) double-buffered 24-bit SBus color frame buffer and graphics accelerator

llc1(7D) Logical Link Control Protocol Class 1 Driver

lofs(7FS) loopback virtual file system

log(7D) interface to STREAMS error logging and event tracing

logi(7D) LOGITECH Bus Mouse device interface

lp(7D) driver for parallel port

mcis(7D) low-level module for IBM MicroChannel host bus adapter

mcpp(7D) ALM-2 Parallel Printer port driver

mcpzsa(7D) ALM-2 Zilog 8530 SCC serial communications driver

mem(7D) physical or virtual memory

mlx(7D) low-level module for Mylex DAC960 EISA and IBM DMC960 Micro Channel host bus adapter series

msm(7D) Microsoft Bus Mouse device interface

mt(7D) tape interface

mtio(7I) general magnetic tape interface

ncrs(7D) low-level module for NCR 53C710, 53C810, 53C815, 53C820, and 53C825 host bus adapters

nee(7D) Novell NE3200 Ethernet device Driver

nei(7D) Novell NE2000, NE2000plus Ethernet device Driver

nfe(7D) Compaq Netflex-2 Dualport Ethernet and ENET/TR Drivers

null(7D) the null file

openprom(7D) PROM monitor configuration interface

pcelx(7D) 3COM EtherLink III PCMCIA Ethernet Adapter

pcfs(7FS) DOS formatted file system

PCFS(7FS) See pcfs(7FS)

pcic(7D) Intel i82365SL PC Card Interface Controller

pckt(7M) STREAMS Packet Mode module

pcmem(7D) PCMCIA memory card nexus driver

pcn(7D) AMD PCnet Ethernet controller device driver

pcram(7D) PCMCIA RAM memory card device driver

pcscsi(7D) low-level module for the AMD PCscsi, PCscsi II, and PCnet-SCSI PCI-to-SCSI bus adapters

pcser(7D) PCMCIA serial card device driver

pe(7D) Xircom Pocket Ethernet device driver

pfmod(7M) STREAMS Packet Filter Module

pipemod(7M) STREAMS pipe flushing module

pln(7D) SPARCstorage Array SCSI Host Bus Adapter Driver

pn(7D) See ipi(7D)

ppp(7M) STREAMS modules and drivers for the Point-to-Point Protocol

ppp_diag(7M) See ppp(7M)

ptem(7M) STREAMS Pseudo Terminal Emulation module

ptm(7D) STREAMS pseudo-tty master driver

pts(7D) STREAMS pseudo-tty slave driver

pty(7D) pseudo-terminal driver

qe(7D) QEC/MACE Ethernet device driver

qec(7D) QEC bus nexus device driver

quotactl(7I) manipulate disk quotas

riles(7D) device driver for the Racal Interlan ES-3210 Ethernet Adapter

sad(7D) STREAMS Administrative Driver

sbpro(7D) Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster 16, and Sound Blaster AWE32 audio device driver

sd(7D) driver for SCSI disk and CD-ROM devices

smc(7D) SMC 8003/8013/8216/8416 Ethernet device driver

smce(7D) SMC 3032/EISA dual-channel Ethernet device driver

smceu(7D) SMC Elite32 Ultra (8232) Ethernet device driver

smcf(7D) SMC Ether100 (9232) Ethernet device driver

soc(7D) Serial Optical Controller (SOC) device driver

sockio(7I) ioctls that operate directly on sockets

ssd(7D) driver for SPARCstorage Array disk devices

st(7D) driver for SCSI tape devices

stc(7D) Serial Parallel Communications driver for SBus

stp4020(7D) STP 4020 PCMCIA Adapter

streamio(7I) STREAMS ioctl commands

tcp(7P) Internet Transmission Control Protocol

TCP(7P) See tcp(7P)

tcx(7D) 24-bit SBus color memory frame buffer

termio(7I) general terminal interface

termiox(7I) extended general terminal interface

ticlts(7D) loopback transport providers

ticots(7D) See ticlts(7D)

ticotsord(7D) See ticlts(7D)

timod(7M) Transport Interface cooperating STREAMS module

tiqmouse(7D) integrated mouse device interface

tirdwr(7M) Transport Interface read/write interface STREAMS module

tmpfs(7FS) memory based filesystem

tpf(7D) Platform Specific Module (PSM) for Tricord Systems Enterprise Server Models ES3000, ES4000 and ES5000.

tr(7D) IBM 16/4 Token Ring Network Adapter device driver

trantor(7D) low-level module for Trantor T348 Parallel SCSI host bus adapter

ttcompat(7M) V7, 4BSD and XENIX STREAMS compatibility module

tty(7D) controlling terminal interface

udp(7P) Internet User Datagram Protocol

UDP(7P) See udp(7P)

visual_io(7I) Solaris VISUAL I/O control operations

volfs(7FS) Volume Management file system

vuid2ps2(7M) See vuidmice(7M)

vuid3ps2(7M) See vuidmice(7M)

vuidm3p(7M) See vuidmice(7M)

vuidm4p(7M) See vuidmice(7M)

vuidm5p(7M) See vuidmice(7M)

vuidmice(7M) converts mouse protocol to Firm Events

wscons(7D) workstation console

xd(7D) disk driver for Xylogics 7053 SMD Disk Controller

xdc(7D) See xd(7D)

xt(7D) driver for Xylogics 472 1/2 inch tape controller

xy(7D) disk driver for Xylogics 450 and 451 SMD Disk Controllers

xyc(7D) See xy(7D)

zero(7D) source of zeroes

zs(7D) Zilog 8530 SCC serial communications driver

zsh(7D) On-board serial HDLC/SDLC interface

SunOS 5.5/SPARC — Last change: 29 Sep 1994

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Intro(7)

NAME

DESCRIPTION

SEE ALSO

LIST OF SPECIAL FILES