NAME
mem,
kmem
- main memory
DESCRIPTION
The file
/dev/mem
is an interface to the physical memory of the computer.
Byte offsets in this file are interpreted as physical memory addresses.
Reading and writing this file is equivalent to reading and writing
memory itself.
An error will be returned if an attempt is made to reference
an offset outside of
/dev/mem.
Kernel virtual memory is accessed via the file
/dev/kmem
in the same manner as
/dev/mem.
Only kernel virtual addresses that are currently mapped to memory are allowed.
On the
Macintosh,
physical memory may be discontiguous;
kernel virtual memory begins at
FILES
/dev/mem
-
/dev/kmem
-
HISTORY
The files
mem
and
kmem
appeared in
Version 6 AT&T UNIX
.