Writing portable code that reads /dev/kmem

[Dan Bernstein]

In article <BLARSEN.91May23060050 at spider.uio.no> Bjorn.Larsen at usit.uio.no writes:
  [ wants to put together a kernel-reading program ]
> We want to make this program as portable as possible, possibly by
> dividing it into one generic part and one system-specific part.

That's always a good idea.

> The UNIX variants that we want to run this daemon on includes SunOS,
> Ultrix, OSF/1, SVR4, SVR3.2, Convex UNIX, SCO UNIX, and possibly
> others.

My kstuff package runs under SunOS, Ultrix, Convex UNIX, and some
others; it should be easy to port to OSF/1, slightly less easy to port
to SVR4, and difficult to port to various older System V machines.

> I've heard rumors that there exists a kmem-access library for BSD4.3.
> Would it be feasible to start with this library and port it or
> reimplement it on the abovementioned platforms in such a way that the
> call interface remains identical on all platforms?

If those rumors are about kstuff, then yes, it should be possible to
port while preserving the same interface. kstuff 0.18 was just posted to
alt.sources and is available via anonymous ftp to 128.122.128.22 in
pub/hier/kstuff:/18.

---Dan