.\" $OpenBSD: intro.4,v 1.10 2007/06/21 08:49:20 jmc Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1994 Christopher G. Demetriou .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by Christopher G. Demetriou. .\" 3. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products .\" derived from this software without specific prior written permission .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES .\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. .\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, .\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT .\" NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, .\" DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY .\" THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT .\" (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF .\" THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: June 21 2007 $ .Dt INTRO 4 cats .Os .Sh NAME .Nm intro .Nd introduction to special files and hardware support .Sh DESCRIPTION The manual pages in section 4 describe the special files, related driver functions, and networking support available in the system. In this part of the manual, the .Sx SYNOPSIS section of each configurable device gives a sample specification for use in constructing a system description for the .Xr config 8 program. The .Sx DIAGNOSTICS section lists messages which may appear on the console and/or in the system error log .Pa /var/log/messages due to errors in device operation; see .Xr syslogd 8 for more information. .Pp This section contains both devices which may be configured into the system and network related information. The networking support is introduced in .Xr netintro 4 . .Sh DEVICE SUPPORT This section describes the hardware supported on the cats platform. Software support for these devices comes in two forms. A hardware device may be supported with a character or block .Em device driver , or it may be used within the networking subsystem and have a .Em network interface driver . Block and character devices are accessed through files in the file system of a special type; see .Xr mknod 8 . Network interfaces are indirectly accessed through the interprocess communication facilities provided by the system; see .Xr socket 2 . .Pp A hardware device is identified to the system at configuration time and the appropriate device or network interface driver is then compiled into the system. When the resultant system is booted, the autoconfiguration facilities in the system probe for the device and, if found, enable the software support for it. If a device does not respond at autoconfiguration time it is not accessible at any time afterwards. To enable a device which did not autoconfigure, the system will have to be rebooted. .Pp The autoconfiguration system is described in .Xr autoconf 4 . .Sh LIST OF DEVICES A complete list of available devices is contained within the pages describing the system buses and controllers. For example, a PCI device would be listed in the .Xr pci 4 man page. The following buses and controllers list these devices: .Pp .Bl -tag -width "cardbus(4)XX" -offset 3n -compact .It Xr isa 4 introduction to ISA bus support .It Xr pci 4 introduction to PCI bus support .It Xr usb 4 introduction to Universal Serial Bus support .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr autoconf 4 , .Xr config 8 .Sh HISTORY The cats .Nm intro first appeared in .Ox 3.5 .