I am relatively new to working with the Linux kernel and had a question about the proc fs and what exactly is going on.

I have been using the proc/bus/pci/xx/xx.x files to read config data (ID's, link status, etc.) for one of my PCI devices but I am curious.. is this proc file actually memory mapped to the device's configuration space? If I write to this proc file am I actually writing to the config registers of the device?

I am curious because I am trying to create a test where I stress the PCI link by writing to the device over the link for an extended period of time and record any correctable errors that occur. It is important that I am actually writing to the device and not just some sort of cached copy of the file somewhere that won't actually stress the link.

No, /proc does not provide direct access. There's a hardware abstraction between the hardware and the /proc file system. That's the whole idea of a modern operating system. But sometimes it might be nice to gain direct access.

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What is the end result of writing to the proc file for a PCI device if not to modify the config registers of the device? Even if it is abstracted, is it still logically the same as if you were actually writing to the hardware? Or is this just not a feature of the proc file

Since the proc pci file list's a summary of devices attached to the PCI bus and modules it could (I'm not sure I've never written to proc) wreck havoc.

AwesomeMachine did say; "proc does not provide direct access".

You can access the Kernel using the proc file system but you better know what you are doing. If not you could wind up potentially with kernel panic.
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-proc/

Are you thinking of writing a script for the test you'd like to perform?

http://tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem...html/proc.html
https://access.redhat.com/documentat...-topfiles.html
http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/proc.5.html

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