NDCTL User Guide

Introduction

ndctl is a utility for managing the Linux LIBNVDIMM Kernel subsystem. It is designed to work with various non-volatile memory devices (NVDIMMs) from different vendors. The LIBNVDIMM subsystem defines a kernel device model and control message interface for platform NVDIMM resources like those defined by the ACPI v6.0 NFIT (NVDIMM Firmware Interface Table). The latest ACPI and UEFI specifications can be found at uefi.org. Operations supported by ndctl include:

• Provisioning capacity (namespaces)

• Enumerating Devices

• Enabling and Disabling NVDIMMs, Regions, and Namespaces

• Managing NVDIMM Labels

What's new in v70

This release incorporates functionality up to the 5.9 kernel.

Highlights include support for the new firmware activation facility, a new 'split-acpi' command in 'daxctl' to aid testing and debugging, and other minor fixes.

Commands:

• update-firmware: add support for firmware activation

• list: updates for firmware activation

• activate-firmware: new command to trigger firmware activation

• daxctl-split-acpi: split ACPI tables for debugging

Tests:

• revoke-devmem: new test to validate iomem protections

• update-firmware: update to test firmware activation

APIs:

• ndctl_bus_activate_firmware

• ndctl_bus_clear_fw_activate_noidle

• ndctl_bus_clear_fw_activate_nosuspend

• ndctl_bus_get_fw_activate_method

• ndctl_bus_get_fw_activate_state

• ndctl_bus_set_fw_activate_noidle

• ndctl_bus_set_fw_activate_nosuspend

• ndctl_dimm_fw_activate_arm

• ndctl_dimm_fw_activate_disarm

• ndctl_dimm_get_fw_activate_result

• ndctl_dimm_get_fw_activate_state