NetBSD/share/man/man4/man4.i386/io.4

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.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1996 Joerg Wunsch
.\"
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.\" $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man4/man4.i386/io.4,v 1.6.2.2 2000/12/12 10:00:55 ru Exp $
.\"
.Dd January 1, 1996
.Dt IO 4 i386
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm io
.Nd I/O privilege file
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Pp
.Bd -offset center
.Em This device is deprecated, please use
.Em Xr i386_iopl 2
.Em instead!
.Ed
.Pp
The special file
.Pa /dev/io
is a controlled security hole that allows a process to gain I/O
privileges
.Pq which are normally reserved for kernel-internal code ,
and for supporting inb/outb in userspace.
Any process that holds a file descriptor on
.Pa /dev/io
open will get its
.Em IOPL
bits in the flag register set, thus allowing it to perform direct
I/O operations. This can be useful in order to write userland
programs that handle some hardware directly.
.Pp
The entire access control is handled by the file access permissions
of
.Pa /dev/io ,
so care should be taken in granting rights for this device. Note
that even read/only access will grant the full I/O privileges.
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width Pa -compact
.It Pa /dev/io
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr mem 4
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
file appeared in
.Nx 1.0
after it was in the kernel for some time.