NAME
mem, kmem, port – system memory, kernel memory and system portsDESCRIPTION
mem is a character device file that is an image of the main memory of the computer. It may be used, for example, to examine (and even patch) the system.Byte addresses in mem are interpreted as physical memory addresses. References to nonexistent locations cause errors to be returned.
Examining and patching is likely to lead to unexpected results when read-only or write-only bits are present.
It is typically created by:
-
mknod -m 660 /dev/mem c 1 1
chown root:kmem /dev/mem
The file kmem is the same as mem, except that the kernel virtual memory rather than physical memory is accessed.
It is typically created by:
-
mknod -m 640 /dev/kmem c 1 2
chown root:kmem /dev/kmem
port is similar to mem, but the I/O ports are accessed.
It is typically created by:
-
mknod -m 660 /dev/port c 1 4
chown root:mem /dev/port
FILES
/dev/mem/dev/kmem
/dev/port
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.74 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Willie has over 15 years of experience in Linux system administration and DevOps. After managing infrastructure for startups and enterprises alike, he founded Command Linux to share the practical knowledge he wished he had when starting out. He oversees content strategy and contributes guides on server management, automation, and security.