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The console device serves a one–level directory giving access to
the console and miscellaneous information.
Reading the cons file returns characters typed on the keyboard.
Normally, characters are buffered to enable erase and kill processing.
A control–U, ^U, typed at the keyboard kills the current input
line (removes all characters from the buffer of characters not
yet read via cons), and a backspace erases the previous
non–kill, non–erase character from the input buffer. Killing and
erasing only delete characters back to, but not including, the
last newline. Characters typed at the keyboard actually produce
runes (see utf(6)), but the runes are translated into the variable–length
UTF encoding (see utf(6)) before putting them into the
buffer. A read(2) of length greater than zero causes the process
to wait until a newline or a ^D ends the buffer, and then returns
as much of the buffer as the argument to read allows, but only
up to one complete line. A terminating ^D is not put into the
buffer. If part of the line remains, the next read will return
bytes from that remainder and not part of any new line that has
been typed since.
If the string rawon has been written to the consctl file and the
file is still open, cons is in raw mode: characters are not echoed
as they are typed, backspace, ^U and ^D are not treated specially,
and characters are available to read as soon as they are typed.
Ordinary mode is reentered when rawoff is written to
consctl or this file is closed.
A write (see read(2)) to cons causes the characters to be printed
on the console screen.
The osversion file contains a textual representation of the operating
system's version and parameters. At the moment, it contains one
field: the 9P protocol version, currently 2000.
The config file contains a copy of the kernel configuration file
used to build the kernel.
The kmesg file holds the last 16 kilobytes of output written to
the console by the kernel's print statements or by processes writing
to /dev/cons. It is useful for retrieving boot messages once the
boot process is over.
The kprint file may be read to receive a copy of the data written
to the console by the kernel's print statements or by processes
writing to /dev/cons. Only data written after the file is opened
is available. If the machine's console is a serial line, the data
is sent both to the console and to kprint; if its console is a
graphics screen, the data is sent either to the display or to
kprint, but not both. (It is advisable not to open kprint on terminals
until you have started rio(1).)
The mach file returns the current core number, which is only accurate
if the process is wired. See proc(3) for details.
The null file throws away anything written to it and always returns
zero when read.
The zero file is a read–only file that produces an infinite stream
of zero–valued bytes when read.
The drivers file contains, one per line, a listing of the drivers
configured in the kernel, in the format
The hostdomain file contains the name of the authentication domain
that this host belongs to; see authsrv(6). Only the user named
in /dev/hostowner may write this.
The hostowner file contains the name of the user that owns the
console device files. The hostowner also has group permissions
for any local devices.
Reads from random return a stream of random numbers. The numbers
are generated by a low priority kernel process that loops incrementing
a variable. Each clock tick the variable is sampled and, if it
has changed sufficiently, the last few bits are appended to a
buffer. This process is inefficient at best producing at
most a few hundred bits a second. Therefore, random should be
treated as a seed to pseudo–random number generators which can
produce a faster rate stream.
Writing the string reboot to reboot causes the system to shutdown
and, if possible, restart. Writing the string reboot kernelpath
loads the named kernel image and restarts, preserving the kernel
configuration in #ec, except that the bootfile variable is set
to kernelpath. Only the host owner has the ability to
open this file.
Bintime is a binary interface that provides the same information
as time (q.v.), in binary form, and also controls clock frequency
and clock trim. All integers read or written from bintime are
in big endian order. Unlike the other files, reads and writes
do not affect the offset. Therefore, there is no need for a seek
back to zero between subsequent accesses. A read of bintime returns
24 bytes, three 8 byte numbers, representing nanoseconds since
start of epoch, clock ticks, and clock frequency.
A write to bintime is a message with one of 3 formats:
n<8–byte time> set the nanoseconds since epoch to the given time.
d<8–byte delta><4–byte period>
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trim the nanoseconds since epoch by delta over the next period
seconds.
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f<8–byte freq> Set the frequency for interpreting clock ticks to be
freq ticks per second.
Statistics and Dynamic Status
The rest of the files contain (mostly) read–only strings. Each
string has a fixed length: a read(2) of more than that gives a
result of that fixed length (the result does not include a terminating
zero byte); a read of less than that length leaves the file offset
so the rest of the string (but no more) will be read the next
time.
To reread the file without closing it, seek must be used to reset
the offset. When the file contains numeric data each number is
formatted in decimal. If the binary number fits in 32 bits, it
is formatted as an 11 digit decimal number with leading blanks
and one trailing blank; totaling 12 bytes. Otherwise, it is formatted
as 21 digit decimal numbers with leading blanks and one trailing
blank; totaling 22 bytes.
The cputime file holds six 32–bit numbers, containing the time
in milliseconds that the current process has spent in user mode,
system calls, real elapsed time, and then the time spent, by exited
children and their descendants, in user mode, system calls, and
real elapsed time.
The time file holds one 32–bit number representing the seconds
since start of epoch and three 64–bit numbers, representing nanoseconds
since start of epoch, clock ticks, and clock frequency.
A write of a decimal number to time will set the seconds since
epoch.
The sysname file holds the textual name of the machine, e.g. kremvax,
if known.
The sysstat file holds 10 numbers: processor number, context switches,
interrupts, system calls, page faults, TLB faults, TLB purges,
load average, idle time and time spent servicing interrupts. The
load average is in units of milli–CPUs and is decayed over time;
idle time and interrupt time are percentage units; the
others are total counts from boot time. If the machine is a multiprocessor,
sysstat holds one line per processor. Writing anything to sysstat
resets all of the counts on all processors.
The swap device holds a text block giving memory usage statistics:
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n memory
n pagesize
n kernel
n/m user
n/m swap
n/m kernel malloc
n/m kernel draw
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These are total memory (bytes), system page size (bytes), kernel
memory (pages), user memory (pages), swap space (pages), kernel
malloced data (bytes), and kernel graphics data (bytes). The expression
n/m indicates n used out of m available. These numbers are not
blank padded.
To turn on swapping, write to swap the textual file descriptor
number of a file or device on which to swap. See swap(8).
The other files served by the cons device are all single numbers:
pgrpidprocess group number
pid process number
ppid parent's process number
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