opensolaris man page for mem

mem(7D) 							      Devices								   mem(7D)

NAME
       mem, kmem, allkmem - physical or virtual memory access

SYNOPSIS
       /dev/mem

       /dev/kmem

       /dev/allkmem

DESCRIPTION
       The file /dev/mem is a special file that provides access to the physical memory of the computer.

       The  file  /dev/kmem  is  a special file that provides access to the virtual address space of the operating system kernel, excluding memory
       that is associated with an I/O device.

       The file /dev/allkmem is a special file that provides access to the virtual address space of the operating system kernel, including  memory
       that is associated with an I/O device.  You can use any of these devices to examine and modify the system.

       Byte  addresses	in  /dev/mem are interpreted as physical memory addresses. Byte addresses in /dev/kmem and /dev/allkmem are interpreted as
       kernel virtual memory addresses. A reference to a non-existent location returns an error. See ERRORS for more information.

       The file /dev/mem accesses physical memory; the size of the file is equal to the amount of physical memory in the computer. This  size  may
       be  larger  than 4GB on a system running the 32-bit operating environment. In this case, you can access memory beyond 4GB using a series of
       read(2) and write(2) calls, a pread64() or pwrite64() call, or a combination of llseek(2) and read(2) or write(2).

ERRORS
       EFAULT	 Occurs when trying to	write(2) a read-only location (allkmem), read(2) a write-only location (allkmem), or read(2) or write(2) a
		 non-existent or unimplemented location (mem, kmem, allkmem).

       EIO	 Occurs  when  trying  to  read(2) or write(2) a memory location that is associated with an I/O device using the /dev/kmem special
		 file.

       ENXIO	 Results from attempting to mmap(2) a non-existent physical (mem) or virtual (kmem, allkmem) memory address.

FILES
       /dev/mem        Provides access to the computer's physical memory.

       /dev/kmem       Provides access to the virtual address space of the operating system kernel, excluding memory that is  associated  with	an
		       I/O device.

       /dev/allkmem    Provides  access  to  the virtual address space of the operating system kernel, including memory that is associated with an
		       I/O device.

SEE ALSO
       llseek(2), mmap(2), read(2), write(2)

WARNINGS
       Using these devices to modify (that is, write to) the address space of a live running operating system or to modify  the  state	of	 a
       hardware  device  is  extremely	dangerous  and	may  result  in a system panic if kernel data structures are damaged or if device state is
       changed.

SunOS 5.11							    18 Feb 2002 							   mem(7D)