When a user thread issues a write(2) system call, the thread passes the address of a buffer in user space:
char buffer[] = "python"; count = write(fd, buffer, strlen(buffer) + 1);
The system builds a uio(9S) structure to describe this transfer by allocating an iovec(9S) structure and setting the iov_base field to the address passed to write(2), in this case, buffer. The uio(9S) structure is passed to the driver write(9E) routine. See Vectored I/O for more information about the uio(9S) structure.
The address in the iovec(9S) is in user space, not kernel space. Thus, the address is neither guaranteed to be currently in memory nor to be a valid address. In either case, accessing a user address directly from the device driver or from the kernel could crash the system. Thus, device drivers should never access user addresses directly. Instead, a data transfer routine in the Oracle Solaris DDI/DKI should be used to transfer data into or out of the kernel. These routines can handle page faults. The DDI/DKI routines can bring in the proper user page to continue the copy transparently. Alternatively, the routines can return an error on an invalid access.
copyout(9F) can be used to copy data from kernel space to user space. copyin(9F) can copy data from user space to kernel space. ddi_copyout(9F) and ddi_copyin(9F) operate similarly but are to be used in the ioctl(9E) routine. copyin(9F) and copyout(9F) can be used on the buffer described by each iovec(9S) structure, or uiomove(9F) can perform the entire transfer to or from a contiguous area of driver or device memory.