Using load

The syntax and behavior of load are similar to boot except that the program is only loaded and not executed. load also does not do a machine reset prior to loading as may.boot

The general form of the load command is:

load [device-specifier] [arguments]

The parsing of the load command's parameters is affected by the same configuration variables as boot, and load's device-specifier and arguments are identified by the same process. (See "Booting for the Expert User" for the details.)

Once the device-specifier and arguments are identified, loading proceeds as follows:

1. The device-specifier and arguments are saved in the bootpath and bootargs properties, respectively, of the /chosen node.

2. If the device-specifier was obtained from a configuration variable, its value may be a list of devices. If the list contains only a single entry, that entry is used by load as the device-specifier.

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   Note -

   If the list contains more than one entry, an attempt is made to open each listed device, beginning with the first entry, and continuing until the next to last entry. If the system successfully opens a device, that device is closed and is used by load as the device-specifier. If none of these devices can be opened, the last device in the list is used by load as the device-specifier.

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3. load attempts to open the device specified by device-specifier. If the device cannot be opened, loading is terminated.

4. If the device is successfully opened, the device's load method is invoked to load the specified program from the specified device at the system's default load address.

5. If load is successful, and if the beginning of the loaded image is a valid client program header for the system:

   1. Memory is allocated at the address and of the size specified in that header.

   2. The loaded image is moved from the default load address to the newly allocated memory.

   3. The system is initialized such that a subsequent go command will begin the execution of the loaded program.