opensolaris man page for copyin

copyin(9F)						   Kernel Functions for Drivers 						copyin(9F)

NAME
       copyin - copy data from a user program to a driver buffer

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <sys/ddi.h>

       int copyin(const void *userbuf, void *driverbuf, size_t cn);

INTERFACE LEVEL
       This interface is obsolete. ddi_copyin(9F) should be used instead.

PARAMETERS
       userbuf	     User program source address from which data is transferred.

       driverbuf     Driver destination address to which data is transferred.

       cn	     Number of bytes transferred.

DESCRIPTION
       copyin()  copies data from a user program source address to a driver buffer.  The driver developer must ensure that adequate space is allo-
       cated for the destination address.

       Addresses that are word-aligned are moved most efficiently.  However, the driver developer is not  obligated  to  ensure  alignment.   This
       function automatically finds the most efficient move according to address alignment.

RETURN VALUES
       Under normal conditions, a 0 is returned indicating a successful copy.  Otherwise, a -1 is returned if one of the following occurs:

	   o	  Paging fault; the driver tried to access a page of memory for which it did not have read or write access.

	   o	  Invalid user address, such as a user area or stack area.

	   o	  Invalid address that would have resulted in data being copied into the user block.

	   o	  Hardware  fault;  a  hardware  error	prevented access to the specified user memory. For example, an uncorrectable parity or ECC
		  error occurred.

       If a -1 is returned to the caller, driver entry point routines should return EFAULT.

CONTEXT
       copyin() can be called from user context only.

EXAMPLES
       Example 1 An ioctl() Routine

       A driver ioctl(9E) routine (line 10) can be used to get or set device attributes or registers. In the XX_GETREGS condition (line  17),  the
       driver  copies the current device register values to a user data area (line 18).  If the specified argument contains an invalid address, an
       error code is returned.

	  1  struct device  {	      /* layout of physical device registers  */
	  2	  int	   control;   /* physical device control word  */
	  3	  int	   status;    /* physical device status word   */
	  4	  short    recv_char; /* receive character from device */
	  5	  short    xmit_char; /* transmit character to device  */
	  6  };
	  7
	  8  extern struct device xx_addr[];   /* phys. device regs. location */
	  9    . . .
	 10  xx_ioctl(dev_t dev, int cmd, int arg, int mode,
	 11	 cred_t *cred_p, int *rval_p)
	 12		  ...
	 13  {
	 14	 register struct device *rp = &xx_addr[getminor(dev) >> 4];
	 15	 switch (cmd) {
	 16
	 17	 case XX_GETREGS: /* copy device regs. to user program */
	 18	       if (copyin(arg, rp, sizeof(struct device)))
	 19		   return(EFAULT);
	 20	       break;
	 21		  ...
	 22	 }
	 23		  ...
	 24  }

ATTRIBUTES
       See attributes(5) for a description of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Stability Level 	     |Obsolete			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO
       attributes(5), ioctl(9E), bcopy(9F), copyout(9F), ddi_copyin(9F), ddi_copyout(9F), uiomove(9F).

       Writing Device Drivers

NOTES
       Driver writers who intend to support layered ioctls in their ioctl(9E) routines should use ddi_copyin(9F) instead.

       Driver defined locks should not be held across calls to this function.

       copyin() should not be used from a streams driver. See M_COPYIN and M_COPYOUT in STREAMS Programming Guide.

SunOS 5.11							    27 Sep 2002 							copyin(9F)