NAME

       intro — introduction to system kernel interfaces

DESCRIPTION

       This section contains information about the interfaces and subroutines in the kernel.

PROTOTYPES ANSI-C AND ALL THAT

       Yes please.

       We would like all code to be fully prototyped.

       If  your code compiles cleanly with cc -Wall we would feel happy about it.  It is important to understand
       that this is not a question of just shutting up cc, it  is  a  question  about  avoiding  the  things  it
       complains  about.  To put it bluntly, do not hide the problem by casting and other obfuscating practices,
       solve the problem.

INDENTATION AND STYLE

       Believe it or not, there actually exists a guide for indentation and style.  It is not generally  applied
       though.

       We would appreciate if people would pay attention to it, and at least not violate it blatantly.

       We do not mind it too badly if you have your own style, but please make sure we can read it too.

       Please take time to read style(9) for more information.

NAMING THINGS

       Some general rules exist:

       1.   If a function is meant as a debugging aid in DDB, it should be enclosed in

                  #ifdef DDB

                  #endif /* DDB */

            And the name of the procedure should start with the prefix DDB_ to clearly identify the procedure as
            a debugger routine.

SCOPE OF SYMBOLS

       It  is  important  to  carefully  consider  the  scope  of symbols in the kernel.  The default is to make
       everything static, unless some reason requires the opposite.

       There are several reasons for this policy, the main one is that the kernel is one monolithic  name-space,
       and pollution is not a good idea here either.

       For  device  drivers  and other modules that do not add new internal interfaces to the kernel, the entire
       source should be in one file if possible.  That way all symbols can be made static.

       If for some reason a module is split over multiple source files, then try to split the module along  some
       major fault-line and consider using the number of global symbols as your guide.  The fewer the better.

SEE ALSO

       style(9)

HISTORY

       The intro section manual page appeared in FreeBSD 2.2.

Debian                                          December 13, 1995                                       INTRO(9)