Structure of a STREAMS Device Driver

STREAMS device drivers are structurally similar to STREAMS modules and character device drivers. The STREAMS interfaces to driver routines are identical to the interfaces used for modules. For instance they must both declare open, close, put, and service entry points.

There are some significant differences between modules and drivers.

A driver:

• Must be able to handle interrupts from the device.

• Is represented in file system by a character-special file.

• Is initialized and disengaged using open(2) and close(2). open(2) is called when the device is first opened and for each reopen of the device. close(2) is only called when the last reference to the stream is closed.

Both drivers and modules can pass signals, error codes, and return values to processes using message types provided for that purpose.