•Socket and XTI programming examples
•TCP specific programming information
•Information for Token Ring driver developers
•Data link interface
See the Tru64 UNIX Network Programmer’s Guide for descriptions of these topics.
Scope of this Manual
This manual builds on the concepts and topics that are presented in Writing Device Drivers, which is the core manual for developing device drivers on Tru64 UNIX. It introduces topics that are specific to writing a device driver for a local area network (LAN) device and that are beyond the scope of the core manual.
In this manual, you can study a network driver called if_el. The if_el driver supports the driver interface requirements for a LAN device, specifically the 3Com 3C589C series PCMCIA adapter. The if_el driver was implemented according to the specifications detailed in Ethernet III Parallel Tasking ISA, EISA, Micro Channel, and PCMCIA Adapter Drivers Technical Reference . This specification is published by 3Com Corporation, and the manual part number is
You can access the if_el source code in the device driver examples directory (if you have installed it on your system). Ethernet is the network interface type that is associated with the if_el driver. However, the explanations point out where differences exist between Ethernet and other network interfaces, including fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) and Token Ring.
The example network driver operates on multiple buses (specifically, the PCMCIA bus and the ISA bus). It uses the common ifnet interface to communicate with the upper layers of the Tru64 UNIX operating system. The example does not emphasize any specific types of network device drivers. However, mastering the concepts presented in this manual is useful preparation for writing network device drivers that operate on a variety
of buses.
The manual does not discuss:
•How to write STREAMS network device drivers
•Topics associated with wide area networks (WANs)
•How to write an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) device driver
•Details related to the network programming environment
xii About This Manual
