bp_mapin Structure

A buf structure pointer can be passed into the device driver's strategy(9E) routine. However, the data buffer referred to by b_un.b_addr is not necessarily mapped in the kernel's address space. Therefore, the driver cannot directly access the data. Most block-oriented devices have DMA capability and therefore do not need to access the data buffer directly. Instead, these devices use the DMA mapping routines to enable the device's DMA engine to do the data transfer. For details about using DMA, see Chapter 9, Direct Memory Access (DMA).

If a driver needs to access the data buffer directly, that driver must first map the buffer into the kernel's address space by using bp_mapin(9F). bp_mapout(9F) should be used when the driver no longer needs to access the data directly.

bp_mapout(9F) should only be called on buffers that have been allocated and are owned by the device driver. bp_mapout() must not be called on buffers that are passed to the driver through the strategy(9E) entry point, such as a file system. bp_mapin(9F) does not keep a reference count. bp_mapout(9F) removes any kernel mapping on which a layer over the device driver might rely.