1. NAME▲

pcilib - a library for accessing PCI devices

2. DESCRIPTION ▲

The PCI library (also known as pcilib and libpci) is a portable library for accessing PCI devices and their configuration space.

3. ACCESS METHODS ▲

The library supports a variety of methods to access the configuration space on different operating systems. By default, the first matching method in this list is used, but you can specify override the decision (see the -A switch of lspci).

linux-sysfs

    The

/sys filesystem on Linux 2.6 and newer. The standard header of the config space is available to all users, the rest only to root. Supports extended configuration space, PCI domains, VPD (from Linux 2.6.26), physical slots (also since Linux 2.6.26) and information on attached kernel drivers.

linux-proc

    The

/proc/bus/pci interface supported by Linux 2.1 and newer. The standard header of the config space is available to all users, the rest only to root.

intel-conf1

    Direct hardware access via Intel configuration mechanism 1. Available on i386 and compatibles on Linux, Solaris/x86, GNU Hurd and Windows. Requires root privileges.

intel-conf2

    Direct hardware access via Intel configuration mechanism 2. Available on i386 and compatibles on Linux, Solaris/x86, GNU Hurd and Windows. Requires root privileges. Warning: This method is able to address only the first 16 devices on any bus and it seems to be very unreliable in many cases.

fbsd-device

    The

/dev/pci device on FreeBSD. Requires root privileges.

aix-device

    Access method used on AIX. Requires root privileges.

nbsd-libpci

    The

/dev/pci0 device on NetBSD accessed using the local libpci library.

obsd-device

    The

/dev/pci device on OpenBSD. Requires root privileges.

dump

    Read the contents of configuration registers from a file specified in the

dump.name parameter. The format corresponds to the output of lspci -x.

4. PARAMETERS ▲

The library is controlled by several parameters. They should have sensible default values, but in case you want to do something unusual (or even something weird), you can override them (see the -O switch of lspci).

4.1. Parameters of specific access methods ▲

dump.name

    Name of the bus dump file to read from.

fbsd.path

    Path to the FreeBSD PCI device.

nbsd.path

    Path to the NetBSD PCI device.

obsd.path

    Path to the OpenBSD PCI device.

proc.path

    Path to the procfs bus tree.

sysfs.path

    Path to the sysfs device tree.

4.2. Parameters for resolving of ID's via DNS ▲

net.domain

    DNS domain containing the ID database.

net.cache_name

    Name of the file used for caching of resolved ID's.

5. SEE ALSO ▲

R lspci (8),

R setpci (8),

R update-pciids (8)

6. AUTHOR ▲

The PCI Utilities are maintained by Martin Mares <>.