---
name: "devstat_remove_entry"
section: "9freebsd"
platform: "linux"
package: "freebsd-manpages"
version: "12.2-2"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/devicestat/9freebsd"
---

# devstat\_remove\_entry(9freebsd)

kernel interface for keeping device statistics

Part of [devicestat(9freebsd)](/devicestat/9freebsd.md).

## NAME

**devstat**, **devstat\_end\_transaction**, **devstat\_end\_transaction\_bio**, **devstat\_end\_transaction\_bio\_bt**, **devstat\_new\_entry**, **devstat\_remove\_entry**, **devstat\_start\_transaction**, **devstat\_start\_transaction\_bio** – kernel interface for keeping device statistics

## SYNOPSIS

**#include \<sys/devicestat.h\>**

*struct* *devstat* *\**\

**devstat\_new\_entry**(*const void \*dev\_name*, *int unit\_number*, *uint32\_t block\_size*, *devstat\_support\_flags flags*, *devstat\_type\_flags device\_type*, *devstat\_priority priority*);

*void*\

**devstat\_remove\_entry**(*struct devstat \*ds*);

*void*\

**devstat\_start\_transaction**(*struct devstat \*ds*, *const struct bintime \*now*);

*void*\

**devstat\_start\_transaction\_bio**(*struct devstat \*ds*, *struct bio \*bp*);

*void*\

**devstat\_end\_transaction**(*struct devstat \*ds*, *uint32\_t bytes*, *devstat\_tag\_type tag\_type*, *devstat\_trans\_flags flags*, *const struct bintime \*now*, *const struct bintime \*then*);

*void*\

**devstat\_end\_transaction\_bio**(*struct devstat \*ds*, *const struct bio \*bp*);

*void*\

**devstat\_end\_transaction\_bio\_bt**(*struct devstat \*ds*, *const struct bio \*bp*, *const struct bintime \*now*);

## DESCRIPTION

The devstat subsystem is an interface for recording device statistics, as its name implies. The idea is to keep reasonably detailed statistics while utilizing a minimum amount of CPU time to record them. Thus, no statistical calculations are actually performed in the kernel portion of the **devstat** code. Instead, that is left for user programs to handle.

The historical and antiquated **devstat** model assumed a single active IO operation per device, which is not accurate for most disk-like drivers in the 2000s and beyond. New consumers of the interface should almost certainly use only the "bio" variants of the start and end transacation routines.

**devstat\_new\_entry**() allocates and initializes *devstat* structure and returns a pointer to it. **devstat\_new\_entry**() takes several arguments:

- dev\_name

  The device name, e.g., da, cd, sa.

- unit\_number

  Device unit number.

- block\_size

  Block size of the device, if supported. If the device does not support a block size, or if the blocksize is unknown at the time the device is added to the **devstat** list, it should be set to 0.

- flags

  Flags indicating operations supported or not supported by the device. See below for details.

- device\_type

  The device type. This is broken into three sections: base device type (e.g., direct access, CDROM, sequential access), interface type (IDE, SCSI or other) and a pass-through flag to indicate pas-through devices. See below for a complete list of types.

- priority

  The device priority. The priority is used to determine how devices are sorted within **devstat**'s list of devices. Devices are sorted first by priority (highest to lowest), and then by attach order. See below for a complete list of available priorities.

**devstat\_remove\_entry**() removes a device from the **devstat** subsystem. It takes the devstat structure for the device in question as an argument. The **devstat** generation number is incremented and the number of devices is decremented.

**devstat\_start\_transaction**() registers the start of a transaction with the **devstat** subsystem. Optionally, if the caller already has a **binuptime**() value available, it may be passed in *\*now*. Usually the caller can just pass NULL for *now*, and the routine will gather the current **binuptime**() itself. The busy count is incremented with each transaction start. When a device goes from idle to busy, the system uptime is recorded in the *busy\_from* field of the *devstat* structure.

**devstat\_start\_transaction\_bio**() records the **binuptime**() in the provided bio's *bio\_t0* and then invokes **devstat\_start\_transaction**().

**devstat\_end\_transaction**() registers the end of a transaction with the **devstat** subsystem. It takes six arguments:

- ds

  The *devstat* structure for the device in question.

- bytes

  The number of bytes transferred in this transaction.

- tag\_type

  Transaction tag type. See below for tag types.

- flags

  Transaction flags indicating whether the transaction was a read, write, or whether no data was transferred.

- now

  The **binuptime**() at the end of the transaction, or NULL.

- then

  The **binuptime**() at the beginning of the transaction, or NULL.

If *now* is NULL, it collects the current time from **binuptime**(). If *then* is NULL, the operation is not tracked in the *devstat* *duration* table.

**devstat\_end\_transaction\_bio**() is a thin wrapper for **devstat\_end\_transaction\_bio\_bt**() with a NULL *now* parameter.

**devstat\_end\_transaction\_bio\_bt**() is a wrapper for **devstat\_end\_transaction**() which pulls all needed information from a *struct bio* prepared by **devstat\_start\_transaction\_bio**(). The bio must be ready for **biodone**() (i.e., *bio\_bcount* and *bio\_resid* must be correctly initialized).

The *devstat* structure is composed of the following fields:

- sequence0,

  - sequence1

  An implementation detail used to gather consistent snapshots of device statistics.

- start\_count

  Number of operations started.

- end\_count

  Number of operations completed. The “busy\_count” can be calculated by subtracting *end\_count* from *start\_count*. *(*, *sequence0* and *sequence1* are used to get a consistent snapshot.) This is the current number of outstanding transactions for the device. This should never go below zero, and on an idle device it should be zero. If either one of these conditions is not true, it indicates a problem.

  There should be one and only one transaction start event and one transaction end event for each transaction.

- dev\_links

  Each *devstat* structure is placed in a linked list when it is registered. The *dev\_links* field contains a pointer to the next entry in the list of *devstat* structures.

- device\_number

  The device number is a unique identifier for each device. The device number is incremented for each new device that is registered. The device number is currently only a 32-bit integer, but it could be enlarged if someone has a system with more than four billion device arrival events.

- device\_name

  The device name is a text string given by the registering driver to identify itself. (e.g., “da”, “cd”, “sa”, etc.)

- unit\_number

  The unit number identifies the particular instance of the peripheral driver in question.

- bytes\[4\]

  This array contains the number of bytes that have been read (index DEVSTAT\_READ), written (index DEVSTAT\_WRITE), freed or erased (index DEVSTAT\_FREE), or other (index DEVSTAT\_NO\_DATA). All values are unsigned 64-bit integers.

- operations\[4\]

  This array contains the number of operations of a given type that have been performed. The indices are identical to those for *bytes* above. DEVSTAT\_NO\_DATA or "other" represents the number of transactions to the device which are neither reads, writes, nor frees. For instance, SCSI drivers often send a test unit ready command to SCSI devices. The test unit ready command does not read or write any data. It merely causes the device to return its status.

- duration\[4\]

  This array contains the total bintime corresponding to completed operations of a given type. The indices are identical to those for *bytes* above. (Operations that complete using the historical **devstat\_end\_transaction**() API and do not provide a non-NULL *then* are not accounted for.)

- busy\_time

  This is the amount of time that the device busy count has been greater than zero. This is only updated when the busy count returns to zero.

- creation\_time

  This is the time, as reported by **getmicrotime**() that the device was registered.

- block\_size

  This is the block size of the device, if the device has a block size.

- tag\_types

  This is an array of counters to record the number of various tag types that are sent to a device. See below for a list of tag types.

- busy\_from

  If the device is not busy, this was the time that a transaction last completed. If the device is busy, this the most recent of either the time that the device became busy, or the time that the last transaction completed.

- flags

  These flags indicate which statistics measurements are supported by a particular device. These flags are primarily intended to serve as an aid to userland programs that decipher the statistics.

- device\_type

  This is the device type. It consists of three parts: the device type (e.g., direct access, CDROM, sequential access, etc.), the interface (IDE, SCSI or other) and whether or not the device in question is a pass-through driver. See below for a complete list of device types.

- priority

  This is the priority. This is the first parameter used to determine where to insert a device in the **devstat** list. The second parameter is attach order. See below for a list of available priorities.

- id

  Identification for GEOM nodes.

Each device is given a device type. Pass-through devices have the same underlying device type and interface as the device they provide an interface for, but they also have the pass-through flag set. The base device types are identical to the SCSI device type numbers, so with SCSI peripherals, the device type returned from an inquiry is usually ORed with the SCSI interface type and the pass-through flag if appropriate. The device type flags are as follows:

```
typedef enum {
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_DIRECT	= 0x000,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_SEQUENTIAL	= 0x001,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_PRINTER	= 0x002,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_PROCESSOR	= 0x003,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_WORM	= 0x004,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_CDROM	= 0x005,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_SCANNER	= 0x006,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_OPTICAL	= 0x007,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_CHANGER	= 0x008,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_COMM	= 0x009,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_ASC0	= 0x00a,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_ASC1	= 0x00b,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_STORARRAY	= 0x00c,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_ENCLOSURE	= 0x00d,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_FLOPPY	= 0x00e,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_MASK	= 0x00f,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_IF_SCSI	= 0x010,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_IF_IDE	= 0x020,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_IF_OTHER	= 0x030,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_IF_MASK	= 0x0f0,
	DEVSTAT_TYPE_PASS	= 0x100
} devstat_type_flags;
```

Devices have a priority associated with them, which controls roughly where they are placed in the **devstat** list. The priorities are as follows:

```
typedef enum {
	DEVSTAT_PRIORITY_MIN	= 0x000,
	DEVSTAT_PRIORITY_OTHER	= 0x020,
	DEVSTAT_PRIORITY_PASS	= 0x030,
	DEVSTAT_PRIORITY_FD	= 0x040,
	DEVSTAT_PRIORITY_WFD	= 0x050,
	DEVSTAT_PRIORITY_TAPE	= 0x060,
	DEVSTAT_PRIORITY_CD	= 0x090,
	DEVSTAT_PRIORITY_DISK	= 0x110,
	DEVSTAT_PRIORITY_ARRAY	= 0x120,
	DEVSTAT_PRIORITY_MAX	= 0xfff
} devstat_priority;
```

Each device has associated with it flags to indicate what operations are supported or not supported. The *devstat\_support\_flags* values are as follows:

- DEVSTAT\_ALL\_SUPPORTED

  Every statistic type is supported by the device.

- DEVSTAT\_NO\_BLOCKSIZE

  This device does not have a blocksize.

- DEVSTAT\_NO\_ORDERED\_TAGS

  This device does not support ordered tags.

- DEVSTAT\_BS\_UNAVAILABLE

  This device supports a blocksize, but it is currently unavailable. This flag is most often used with removable media drives.

Transactions to a device fall into one of three categories, which are represented in the *flags* passed into **devstat\_end\_transaction**(). The transaction types are as follows:

```
typedef enum {
	DEVSTAT_NO_DATA	= 0x00,
	DEVSTAT_READ	= 0x01,
	DEVSTAT_WRITE	= 0x02,
	DEVSTAT_FREE	= 0x03
} devstat_trans_flags;
#define DEVSTAT_N_TRANS_FLAGS   4
```

DEVSTAT\_NO\_DATA is a type of transactions to the device which are neither reads or writes. For instance, SCSI drivers often send a test unit ready command to SCSI devices. The test unit ready command does not read or write any data. It merely causes the device to return its status.

There are four possible values for the *tag\_type* argument to **devstat\_end\_transaction**():

- DEVSTAT\_TAG\_SIMPLE

  The transaction had a simple tag.

- DEVSTAT\_TAG\_HEAD

  The transaction had a head of queue tag.

- DEVSTAT\_TAG\_ORDERED

  The transaction had an ordered tag.

- DEVSTAT\_TAG\_NONE

  The device does not support tags.

The tag type values correspond to the lower four bits of the SCSI tag definitions. In CAM, for instance, the *tag\_action* from the CCB is ORed with 0xf to determine the tag type to pass in to **devstat\_end\_transaction**().

There is a macro, DEVSTAT\_VERSION that is defined in ⟨sys/devicestat.h⟩. This is the current version of the **devstat** subsystem, and it should be incremented each time a change is made that would require recompilation of userland programs that access **devstat** statistics. Userland programs use this version, via the *kern.devstat.version* **sysctl** variable to determine whether they are in sync with the kernel **devstat** structures.

## SEE ALSO

[systat(1)](/systat/1.md), [devstat(3)](/devstat/3.md), [iostat(8)](/iostat/8.md), [rpc.rstatd(8)](/rpc.rstatd/8.md), [vmstat(8)](/vmstat/8.md)

## HISTORY

The **devstat** statistics system appeared in FreeBSD 3.0.

## AUTHORS

Kenneth Merry ⟨*ken@FreeBSD.org*⟩

## BUGS

There may be a need for **spl**() protection around some of the **devstat** list manipulation code to ensure, for example, that the list of devices is not changed while someone is fetching the *kern.devstat.all* **sysctl** variable.
