term% cat index.txt SEGMENT(3) Library Functions Manual SEGMENT(3)
NAME
segment - long lived memory segments
SYNOPSIS
bind '#g' /mnt/segment
#g/seg1
#g/seg1/ctl
#g/seg1/data
#g/seg2
#g/seg2/ctl
#g/seg2/data
...
DESCRIPTION
The segment device provides a 2-level file system representing long-
lived sharable segments that processes may segattach(2). The name of
the directory is the class argument to segattach.
New segments are created under the top level using create (see
open(2)). The DMDIR bit must be set in the permissions. Remove(2)'ing
the directory makes the segment no longer available for segattach.
However, the segment will continue to exist until all processes using
it either exit or segdetach it.
Within each segment directory are two files, data and ctl. Reading and
writing data affects the contents of the segment. Reading and writing
ctl retrieves and sets the segment's properties.
There is only one control message, which sets the segment's virtual ad‐
dress and length in bytes:
va address length type
Address is automatically rounded down to a page boundary and length is
rounded up to end the segment at a page boundary. The segment will re‐
side at the same virtual address in all processes sharing it. Option‐
ally, type can be specified as fixed to create a physically continuous
segment with a fixed physical base address suitable for hardware DMA
access. When the segment is attached using segattach, the address and
length arguments are ignored in the call; they are defined only by the
va control message. Once the address and length are set, they cannot
be reset.
Reading the control file returns a message of the same format with the
segment's actual start address and length. For fixed segments, the type
and physical base address are appended.
Opening data or reading ctl before setting the virtual address yields
the error ``segment not yet allocated''.
The permissions check when segattaching is equivalent to the one per‐
formed when opening data with mode ORDWR.
EXAMPLE
Create a one megabyte segment at address 0x10000000:
% bind '#g' /mnt/segment
% mkdir /mnt/segment/example
% echo 'va 0x10000000 0x100000' > /mnt/segment/example/ctl
Put the string ``hi mom'' at the start of the segment:
% echo -n hi mom > /mnt/segment/example/data
Attach the segment to a process:
{
ulong va;
va = segattach(0, "example", 0, 0);
}
SEE ALSO
segattach(2)
SOURCE
/sys/src/9/port/devsegment.c
SEGMENT(3)