driver_entry

This is called directly after the driver has been loaded by erl_ddll:load_driver/2. (Actually when the driver is added to the driver list.) The driver should return 0, or if the driver can't initialize, -1.

This is called when the driver is instantiated, when open_port/2 is called. The driver should return a number >= 0 or a pointer, or if the driver can't be started, one of three error codes should be returned:

ERL_DRV_ERROR_GENERAL - general error, no error code

ERL_DRV_ERROR_ERRNO - error with error code in erl_errno

ERL_DRV_ERROR_BADARG - error, badarg

If an error code is returned, the port isn't started.

This is called when the port is closed, with port_close/1 or Port ! {self(), close}. Note that terminating the port owner process also closes the port. If drv_data is a pointer to memory allocated in start, then stop is the place to deallocate that memory.

This is called when an erlang process has sent data to the port. The data is pointed to by buf, and is len bytes. Data is sent to the port with Port ! {self(), {command, Data}}, or with port_command/2. Depending on how the port was opened, it should be either a list of integers 0...255 or a binary. See open_port/3 and port_command/2.

This is called when a driver event (given in the event parameter) is signaled. This is used to help asynchronous drivers "wake up" when something happens.

On unix the event is a pipe or socket handle (or something that the select system call understands).

On Windows the event is an Event or Semaphore (or something that the WaitForMultipleObjects API function understands). (Some trickery in the emulator allows more than the built-in limit of 64 Events to be used.)

On Enea OSE the event is one or more signals that can be retrieved using erl_drv_ose_get_signal.

To use this with threads and asynchronous routines, create a pipe on unix, an Event on Windows or a unique signal number on Enea OSE. When the routine completes, write to the pipe (use SetEvent on Windows or send a message to the emulator process on Enea OSE), this will make the emulator call ready_input or ready_output.

Spurious events may happen. That is, calls to ready_input or ready_output even though no real events are signaled. In reality it should be rare (and OS dependant), but a robust driver must nevertheless be able to handle such cases.

This is the name of the driver, it must correspond to the atom used in open_port, and the name of the driver library file (without the extension).

This function is called by the erl_ddll driver when the driver is unloaded. (It is only called in dynamic drivers.)

The driver is only unloaded as a result of calling unload_driver/1, or when the emulator halts.

This field is reserved for the emulator's internal use. The emulator will modify this field; therefore, it is important that the driver_entry isn't declared const.

This is a special routine invoked with the erlang function port_control/3. It works a little like an "ioctl" for erlang drivers. The data given to port_control/3 arrives in buf and len. The driver may send data back, using *rbuf and rlen.

This is the fastest way of calling a driver and get a response. It won't make any context switch in the erlang emulator, and requires no message passing. It is suitable for calling C function to get faster execution, when erlang is too slow.

If the driver wants to return data, it should return it in rbuf. When control is called, *rbuf points to a default buffer of rlen bytes, which can be used to return data. Data is returned different depending on the port control flags (those that are set with set_port_control_flags).

If the flag is set to PORT_CONTROL_FLAG_BINARY, a binary will be returned. Small binaries can be returned by writing the raw data into the default buffer. A binary can also be returned by setting *rbuf to point to a binary allocated with driver_alloc_binary. This binary will be freed automatically after control has returned. The driver can retain the binary for read only access with driver_binary_inc_refc to be freed later with driver_free_binary. It is never allowed to alter the binary after control has returned. If *rbuf is set to NULL, an empty list will be returned.

If the flag is set to 0, data is returned as a list of integers. Either use the default buffer or set *rbuf to point to a larger buffer allocated with driver_alloc. The buffer will be freed automatically after control has returned.

Using binaries is faster if more than a few bytes are returned.

The return value is the number of bytes returned in *rbuf.

This function is called any time after the driver's timer reaches 0. The timer is activated with driver_set_timer. There are no priorities or ordering among drivers, so if several drivers time out at the same time, any one of them is called first.

This function is called whenever the port is written to. If it is NULL, the output function is called instead. This function is faster than output, because it takes an ErlIOVec directly, which requires no copying of the data. The port should be in binary mode, see open_port/2.

The ErlIOVec contains both a SysIOVec, suitable for writev, and one or more binaries. If these binaries should be retained, when the driver returns from outputv, they can be queued (using driver_enq_bin for instance), or if they are kept in a static or global variable, the reference counter can be incremented.

This function is called after an asynchronous call has completed. The asynchronous call is started with driver_async. This function is called from the erlang emulator thread, as opposed to the asynchronous function, which is called in some thread (if multithreading is enabled).

This function is called from erlang:port_call/3. It works a lot like the control call-back, but uses the external term format for input and output.

command is an integer, obtained from the call from erlang (the second argument to erlang:port_call/3).

buf and len provide the arguments to the call (the third argument to erlang:port_call/3). They can be decoded using ei functions.

rbuf points to a return buffer, rlen bytes long. The return data should be a valid erlang term in the external (binary) format. This is converted to an erlang term and returned by erlang:port_call/3 to the caller. If more space than rlen bytes is needed to return data, *rbuf can be set to memory allocated with driver_alloc. This memory will be freed automatically after call has returned.

The return value is the number of bytes returned in *rbuf. If ERL_DRV_ERROR_GENERAL is returned (or in fact, anything < 0), erlang:port_call/3 will throw a BAD_ARG.

Intentionally left undocumented.

This field should either be equal to ERL_DRV_EXTENDED_MARKER or 0. An old driver (not aware of the extended driver interface) should set this field to 0. If this field is equal to 0, all the fields following this field also have to be 0, or NULL in case it is a pointer field.

This field should equal ERL_DRV_EXTENDED_MAJOR_VERSION if the extended_marker field equals ERL_DRV_EXTENDED_MARKER.

This field should equal ERL_DRV_EXTENDED_MINOR_VERSION if the extended_marker field equals ERL_DRV_EXTENDED_MARKER.

This field is used to pass driver capability and other information to the runtime system. If the extended_marker field equals ERL_DRV_EXTENDED_MARKER, it should contain 0 or driver flags (ERL_DRV_FLAG_*) ored bitwise. Currently the following driver flags exist:

This field is reserved for the emulator's internal use. The emulator will modify this field; therefore, it is important that the driver_entry isn't declared const.

This callback is called when a monitored process exits. The drv_data is the data associated with the port for which the process is monitored (using driver_monitor_process) and the monitor corresponds to the ErlDrvMonitor structure filled in when creating the monitor. The driver interface function driver_get_monitored_process can be used to retrieve the process id of the exiting process as an ErlDrvTermData.

This function is called on behalf of driver_select when it is safe to close an event object.

A typical implementation on Unix is to do close((int)event).

Argument reserved is intended for future use and should be ignored.

In contrast to most of the other call-back functions, stop_select is called independent of any port. No ErlDrvData argument is passed to the function. No driver lock or port lock is guaranteed to be held. The port that called driver_select might even be closed at the time stop_select is called. But it could also be the case that stop_select is called directly by driver_select.

It is not allowed to call any functions in the driver API from stop_select. This strict limitation is due to the volatile context that stop_select may be called.