FIRMLOAD(9)						   BSD Kernel Developer's Manual					       FIRMLOAD(9)

NAME

     firmload -- Firmware loader API for device drivers

SYNOPSIS

     #include <dev/firmload.h>

     int
     firmware_open(const char *drvname, const char *imgname, firmware_handle_t *fhp);

     int
     firmware_close(firmware_handle_t fh);

     off_t
     firmware_get_size(firmware_handle_t fh);

     int
     firmware_read(firmware_handle_t fh, off_t offset, void *buf, size_t size);

     void *
     firmware_malloc(size_t size);

     void
     firmware_free(void *buf, size_t size);

DESCRIPTION

     firmload provides a simple and convenient API for device drivers to load firmware images from files residing in the file system that are nec-
     essary for the devices that they control.	Firmware images reside in sub-directories, one for each driver, of a series of colon-separated
     path prefixes specified by the sysctl variable hw.firmware.path.

FUNCTIONS

     The following functions are provided by the firmload API:

     firmware_open(drvname, imgname, fhp)

	     Open then firmware image imgname for the driver drvname.  The path to the firmware image file is constructed by appending the string
	     ``/drvname/imgname'' to each configured path prefix until opening the firmware image file succeeds.  Upon success, firmware_open()
	     returns 0 and stores a firmware image handle in the location pointed to by fhp.  Otherwise, an error code is returned to indicate the
	     reason for failure.

     firmware_close(fh)

	     Close the firmware image file associated with the firmware handle fh.  Returns 0 upon success or an error code to indicate the reason
	     for failure.

     firmware_get_size(fh)

	     Returns the size of the image file associated with the firmware handle fh.

     firmware_read(fh, offset, buf, size)

	     Reads from the image file associated with the firmware handle fh beginning at offset offset for length size.  The firmware image data
	     is placed into the buffer specified by buf.  Returns 0 upon success or an error code to indicate the reason for failure.

     firmware_malloc(size)

	     Allocates a region of wired kernel memory of size size.  Note: firmware_malloc() may block.

     firmware_free(buf, size)

	     Frees a region of memory previously allocated by firmware_malloc().

SEE ALSO

     autoconf(9), malloc(9), vnsubr(9)

HISTORY

     The firmload framework first appeared in NetBSD 4.0.

AUTHORS

     Jason Thorpe <thorpej@NetBSD.org>

BSD
								 January 17, 2006							       BSD