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authorKevin Krakauer <krakauer@google.com>2020-01-29 13:21:12 -0800
committerKevin Krakauer <krakauer@google.com>2020-01-29 13:21:12 -0800
commitb615f94aeacb2c21bb59c8b44f303e7b7ca05ad6 (patch)
tree79907e842eeba2a1f01acb5b5661800dc6ef2174 /pkg/usermem/README.md
parentd6a2e01d3e57e0837c7e5cfda3b56c4dcfbb4627 (diff)
parent148fda60e8dee29f2df85e3104e3d5de1a225bcf (diff)
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+This package defines primitives for sentry access to application memory.
+
+Major types:
+
+- The `IO` interface represents a virtual address space and provides I/O
+ methods on that address space. `IO` is the lowest-level primitive. The
+ primary implementation of the `IO` interface is `mm.MemoryManager`.
+
+- `IOSequence` represents a collection of individually-contiguous address
+ ranges in a `IO` that is operated on sequentially, analogous to Linux's
+ `struct iov_iter`.
+
+Major usage patterns:
+
+- Access to a task's virtual memory, subject to the application's memory
+ protections and while running on that task's goroutine, from a context that
+ is at or above the level of the `kernel` package (e.g. most syscall
+ implementations in `syscalls/linux`); use the `kernel.Task.Copy*` wrappers
+ defined in `kernel/task_usermem.go`.
+
+- Access to a task's virtual memory, from a context that is at or above the
+ level of the `kernel` package, but where any of the above constraints does
+ not hold (e.g. `PTRACE_POKEDATA`, which ignores application memory
+ protections); obtain the task's `mm.MemoryManager` by calling
+ `kernel.Task.MemoryManager`, and call its `IO` methods directly.
+
+- Access to a task's virtual memory, from a context that is below the level of
+ the `kernel` package (e.g. filesystem I/O); clients must pass I/O arguments
+ from higher layers, usually in the form of an `IOSequence`. The
+ `kernel.Task.SingleIOSequence` and `kernel.Task.IovecsIOSequence` functions
+ in `kernel/task_usermem.go` are convenience functions for doing so.