STREAMS Programming Guide

Preface

The STREAMS Programming Guide describes how to use STREAMS in designing and implementing applications and STREAMS modules and drivers, for architectures that conform to the Solaris™ 7 DDI/DDK.

Who Should Use This Book

This manual is a guide for application, driver, and module developers. The reader must know C programming in a UNIX™ environment, and be familiar with the system interfaces. Driver and module developers should also be familiar with the book Writing Device Drivers.

How This Book Is Organized

This guide is divided into three parts. Part 1, Application Programming Interface, describes how to use STREAMS facilities in applications. Part 2, Kernel Interface, describes how to design STREAMS modules and STREAMS drivers. Part 3, Advanced Topics, contains advanced topics. Every developer should read Chapter 1.

Part 1, Application Programming Interface

• Chapter 1, Overview of STREAMS is a general overview of STREAMS concepts and mechanisms.

• Chapter 2, STREAMS Application-Level Components describes the basic operations to assemble, use, and dismantle streams.

• Chapter 3, STREAMS Application-Level Mechanisms details the operations of messages, the flow of streams, and how to manipulate Steams from applications.

• Chapter 4, Application Access to the STREAMS Driver and Module Interfaces describes putting messages into and receiving them from a stream.

• Chapter 5, STREAMS Administration identifies and describes tools to monitor names and modules, and gather statistics.

• Chapter 6, Pipes and Queues describes pipes and named pipes (FIFOs).

Part 2, Kernel Interface

• Chapter 7, STREAMS Framework - Kernel Level describes STREAMS modules, drivers, and how they relate.

• Chapter 8, STREAMS Kernel-Level Mechanisms describes message types, structure, and linkage in detail. Flow control is also covered.

• Chapter 9, STREAMS Drivers describes specific STREAMS drivers, using code samples.

• Chapter 10, STREAMS Modules describes how specific examples of modules work based on code samples.

• Chapter 11, Configuring STREAMS Drivers and Modules describes configuring modules and drivers into the OS.

• Chapter 12, Multithreaded STREAMS describes the multithreaded environment and how to make modules and drivers MT- safe.

• Chapter 13, STREAMS Multiplex Drivers describes how to implement multiplexing in a driver.

Part 3, Advanced Topics

• Chapter 14, Debugging STREAMS-based Applications addresses commonly encountered problems and their resolution.

Part 4, Appendixes

• Appendix A, Message Types describes STREAMS messages and their use.

• Appendix B, Kernel Utility Interface Summary describes STREAMS utility routines and their use.

• Appendix C, STREAMS-Based Terminal Subsystem explains how to set up a terminal subsystem, and how to keep track of processes and handle interrupts.

• Appendix D, STREAMS FAQ contains answers to a variety of commonly asked questions about STREAMS.

• Glossary defines terms unique to STREAMS.