STREAMS Device Drivers

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STREAMS drivers can be considered a subset of device drivers in general and character device drivers in particular. While there are some differences between STREAMS drivers and non-STREAMS drivers, much of the information contained in Writing Device Drivers for Oracle Solaris 11.2 also applies to STREAMS drivers.

Note - The word module is used differently when talking about drivers. A device driver is a kernel-loadable module that provides the interface between a device and the Device Driver Interface, and is linked to the kernel when it is first invoked.

STREAMS drivers share a basic programming model with STREAMS modules. Information common to both drivers and modules is discussed in Chapter 10, STREAMS Modules. After summarizing some basic device driver concepts, this chapter discusses several topics specific to STREAMS device drivers (and not covered elsewhere) and then presents code samples illustrating basic STREAMS driver processing.