NAME
backfire - send a signal from driver to user
DESCRIPTION
The backfire driver reads a numerical string that is sent to the
/dev/backfire device and sends the corresponding signal to the calling
user program. Reading from /dev/backfire returns the time of the day
when the most recent sent request was serviced or 0, if a sent request
was not yet received. The time of the day is displayed in seconds since
1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC followed by the fraction of the second in
microseconds separated by a comma.
PURPOSE
The backfire driver is normally used in combination with the program
sendme to benchmark the performance of the kernel’s signal sending
capabilities.
EXAMPLES
head -1 /dev/backfire
0,0
trap "echo Got signal 7" 7
echo 7 >/dev/backfire
Got signal 7
head -1 /dev/backfire
1234567890,123456
AUTHORS
Carsten Emde <C.Emde@osadl.org>
SEE ALSO
sendme(8)
0.1 backfire(4)