Add implementation of read_vpd() method for sysfs

[thirdparty/pciutils.git] / README

This package contains the PCI Utilities, version @VERSION@.

Copyright (c) 1997--2008 Martin Mares <mj@ucw.cz>

All files in this package can be freely distributed and used according
to the terms of the GNU General Public License, either version 2 or
(at your opinion) any newer version. See http://www.gnu.org/ for details.


1. What's that?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The PCI Utilities package contains a library for portable access to PCI bus
configuration registers and several utilities based on this library.

In runs on the following systems:

	Linux		(via /sys/bus/pci, /proc/bus/pci or i386 ports)
	FreeBSD		(via /dev/pci)
	NetBSD		(via libpci)
	OpenBSD		(via /dev/pci)
	GNU/kFreeBSD	(via /dev/pci)
	Solaris/i386	(direct port access)
	Aix		(via /dev/pci and odmget)
	GNU Hurd	(direct port access)
	Windows		(direct port access)
	CYGWIN		(direct port access)

It should be very easy to add support for other systems as well (volunteers
wanted; if you want to try that, I'll be very glad to see the patches and
include them in the next version).

The utilities include:  (See manual pages for more details)

  - lspci: displays detailed information about all PCI buses and devices.

  - setpci: allows to read from and write to PCI device configuration
    registers. For example, you can adjust the latency timers with it.
    CAUTION: There is a couple of dangerous points and caveats, please read
    the manual page first!

  - update-pciids: download the current version of the pci.ids file.


2. Compiling and (un)installing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just run "make" to compile the package and then "make install" to install it.
Please note that GNU make is needed on most platforms.

If you want to change the default installation location, please override
the PREFIX variable specified in the Makefile -- e.g., you can use
"make PREFIX=/opt/pciutils install" to create a separate installation
not interfering with the rest of your system.  Setting the DESTDIR variable
will allow you to install to a different directory from the one you intend
to eventually run it from.  This is useful for people who are packaging
pciutils to install on other computers.

There are several options which can be set in the Makefile or overridden
when running make:

  ZLIB=yes/no	Enable support for compressed pci.ids (requires zlib).
		If it is enabled, pciutils will use pci.ids.gz in preference to
		pci.ids, even if the pci.ids file is newer.  If the pci.ids.gz
		file is missing, it will use pci.ids instead.  If you do not
		specify this option, the configure script will try to guess
		automatically based on the presence of zlib.

  DNS=yes/no	Enable support for querying the central database of PCI ID's
		using DNS.  Requires libresolv (which is available on most
		systems as a part of the standard libraries) and tries to
		autodetect its presence if the option is not specified.

  SHARED=yes/	Build libpci as a shared library.  Requires GCC 4.0 or newer.
  no/local	The ABI of the shared library is intended to remain backward
		compatible for a long time (we use symbol versioning to achieve
		that, like GNU libc does).  The value `local' includes the
		right directory name in the binaries, so the utilities can be
		run without installation.  This is not recommended for any
		production builds.

"make install-lib" installs the library together with its header files
for use by other programs.

When you are bored of dumping PCI registers, just use "make uninstall".


3. Getting new ID's
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The database of PCI ID's (the pci.ids file) gets out of date much faster
than I release new versions of this package.

If you are missing names for any of your devices or you just want to stay
on the bleeding edge, download the most recent pci.ids file from
http://pciids.sf.net/ (e.g., by running the update-ids utility).

Alternatively, you can use `lspci -q' to query the central database
for new entries via network.

If your devices still appear as unknown, please send us their ID's and
names, the detailed instructions for submissions are listed on the
sf.net web page.


4. Getting new versions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New versions of pciutils are available at the following places:

	ftp://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/pub/linux/pci/
	ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/software/utils/pciutils/ (expect a couple of hours delay)
	ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/hardware/ (expect a couple of days delay)

There is also a public GIT tree at:

	git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/pciutils/pciutils.git


5. Using the library
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So far, there is only a little documentation for the library except for the
general introduction in the pcilib(7) man page. If you want to use the
library in your programs, please follow the comments in lib/pci.h and in
the example program example.c.


6. Feedback
~~~~~~~~~~~
If you have any bug reports or suggestions, send them to the author.

If you have any new ID's, I'll be very glad to add them to the database, but
please take a look at http://pciids.sf.net/ first and follow the instructions.

If you want, subscribe to linux-pci@vger.kernel.org (take a look at
http://vger.kernel.org/ for instructions).
Release notes about new versions will be send to the list and problems with
the Linux PCI support will be probably discussed there, too.


7. Miscellanea
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You also might want to look at the pciutils web page containing release
notes and other news: http://mj.ucw.cz/pciutils.shtml .

There also exists a utility called PowerTweak which is able to fine tune
parameters of many chipsets much better than the Bridge Optimization code
in Linux kernel (already removed in 2.3.x). See http://powertweak.sf.net/
for more information.

					Have fun
							Martin