hal(5)							Standards, Environments, and Macros						    hal(5)

NAME

       hal - overview of hardware abstraction layer

DESCRIPTION

       The  Hardware  Abstraction  Layer  (HAL)  provides a view of the various hardware attached to a system. This view is updated dynamically as
       hardware configuration changes by means of hotplug or other mechanisms. HAL represents a piece of hardware as a	device	object.  A  device
       object  is  identified  by  a  unique identifer and carries a set of key/value pairs, referred to as device properties. Some properties are
       derived from the actual hardware, some are merged from device information files (.fdi files), and some are related  to  the  actual  device
       configuration.

       HAL  provides  an  easy-to-use  API through D-Bus. D-Bus is an IPC framework that, among other features, provides a system-wide message-bus
       that allows applications to talk to one another. Specifically, D-Bus provides asynchronous notification such  that  HAL	can  notify  other
       peers on the message-bus when devices are added and removed, as well as when properties on a device are changing.

       In  the	Solaris  operating  system,  HAL is supported by a daemon, hald(1M), and a set of utilities that enable the adding and removing of
       devices and the modification of their properties.

SEE ALSO

       hald(1M), fdi(4)

       See the HAL pages, including the HAL specification, under http://freedesktop.org.

SunOS 5.11							    11 Sep 2006 							    hal(5)