| KVM(3) | Library Functions Manual | KVM(3) | 
kvm —
kvm library provides a uniform interface for
  accessing kernel virtual memory images, including live systems and crash
  dumps. Access to live systems is via /dev/mem while
  crash dumps can be examined via the core file generated by
  savecore(8). The interface
  behaves identically in both cases. Memory can be read and written, kernel
  symbol addresses can be looked up efficiently, and information about user
  processes can be gathered.
kvm_open() is first called to obtain a
    descriptor for all subsequent calls.
kvm_open(), kvm_close(),
  kvm_read(), kvm_write(), and
  kvm_nlist()) has been incorporated into the
  BSD interface. Indeed, many kvm applications (i.e.,
  debuggers and statistical monitors) use only this subset of the interface.
The process interface was not kept. This is not a portability issue since any code that manipulates processes is inherently machine dependent.
Finally, the Sun kvm error reporting semantics are poorly defined. The library can be configured either to print errors to stderr automatically, or to print no error messages at all. In the latter case, the nature of the error cannot be determined. To overcome this, the BSD interface includes a routine, kvm_geterr(3), to return (not print out) the error message corresponding to the most recent error condition on the given descriptor.
| September 14, 2011 | NetBSD 10.0 |