1 Introduction

1.1 Overview

This manual describes the VxWorks real-time operating system, and how to use VxWorks facilities in the development of real-time applications. This manual covers the following topics, focusing first on basic product functionality and facilities, then on optional products and technologies:

basic operating system functionality

POSIX standard interfaces

I/O system

local file systems, including dosFs

target tools, such as the shell, target-based loader, and target symbol table

C++ development using GNU and Diab toolchains

flash memory device interface (TrueFFS)

COM and DCOM (VxDCOM)

distributed message queues (VxFusion)

shared memory objects (VxMP)

virtual memory interface (VxVMI)

This chapter describes where to find related documentation about VxWorks and the Tornado development environment. In addition, it describes Wind River customer services, and the document conventions followed in this manual.

1.2 Related Documentation Resources

Detailed information about VxWorks libraries and routines is provided in the VxWorks API Reference. Information specific to target architectures is provided in VxWorks architecture supplements,¹ and in the online VxWorks BSP Reference.

The VxWorks networking facilities are documented in the VxWorks Network Programmer's Guide.

For information about migrating applications, BSPs, drivers, and Tornado projects from previous versions of VxWorks and Tornado, see the Tornado Migration Guide.

See the following documents for information on installing and using the Tornado development environment:

The Tornado Getting Started Guide provides information about installing the Tornado development environment and associated optional products.

The Tornado User's Guide provides procedural information about setting up the development environment, and about using Tornado tools to develop VxWorks applications. It includes information on configuring VxWorks systems with the various components described in this guide, and on building and running those systems.

For a complete description of Tornado documentation, see the Tornado Getting Started Guide: Documentation Guide.

1.3 VxWorks Configuration and Build

This document describes VxWorks features and configuration options; it does not discuss the mechanisms by which VxWorks-based systems are configured and built. The tools and procedures used for configuring and building those applications are described in the Tornado User's Guide and the Tornado User's Reference.Tornado provides both GUI and command-line tools for configuration and build.

NOTE: In this book, as well as in the VxWorks API Reference, VxWorks components are identified by the name used in system configuration files, in the form of INCLUDE_FOO. Similarly, configuration parameters are identified by their configuration parameter names, such as NUM_FOO_FILES.

Component names can be used directly to identify components and configure VxWorks if you work with the command-line configuration tool and the associated configuration files. The same is true for configuration parameters.

If you use the GUI configuration mechanisms in the Tornado IDE, a simple search facility allows you to locate a component in the GUI based on its component name. Once you have located the component, you can also access the component's parameters through the GUI.

1.4 Wind River Coding Conventions

Wind River has its own coding conventions, which can be seen in the examples in the Tornado and VxWorks documentation. These conventions provide the basis for generating the online Tornado and VxWorks API reference documentation from source code. Following these conventions allows you to use the tools shipped with Tornado to generate your own API documentation in HTML format. For more information, see the Tornado User's Guide: Coding Conventions.

1.5 Documentation Conventions

This section describes the documentation conventions used in this manual.

Typographical Conventions

VxWorks documentation uses the conventions shown in Table 1-1 to differentiate various elements. Parentheses are always included to indicate a subroutine name, as in printf( ).

Table 1-1: Typographical Conventions

Term

Example

files, pathnames

/etc/hosts

libraries, drivers

memLib, nfsDrv

host tools

more, chkdsk

subroutines

semTake( )

boot commands

code display

main ();

keyboard input

make CPU=MC68040 ...

display output

value = 0

user-supplied parameters

name

components and parameters

INCLUDE_NFS

C keywords, cpp directives

#define

named key on keyboard

RETURN

control characters

CTRL+C

lower-case acronyms

Cross-References

The cross-references that appear in this guide for subroutines, libraries, or tools refer to entries in the VxWorks API Reference (for target routines or libraries) or in the in the Tornado User's Guide (for host tools). Cross-references to other books are made at the chapter level, and take the form Book Title: Chapter Name; for example, Tornado User's Guide: Workspace.

For information about how to access online documentation, see the Tornado Getting Started Guide: Documentation Guide.

Directory Pathnames

All VxWorks files reside in the target directory (and its subdirectories), directly below the base Tornado installation directory. Because the installation directory is determined by the user, the following format is used for pathnames: installDir/target.

For example, if you install Tornado in /home/tornado on a UNIX host, or in C:\tornado on a Windows host, the full pathname for the file identified as installDir/target/h/vxWorks.h in this guide would be /home/tornado/target/h/
vxworks.h or C:\tornado\target\h\vxWorks.h, respectively.

For UNIX users, installDir is equivalent to the Tornado environment variable WIND_BASE.

NOTE: In this manual, forward slashes are used as pathname delimiters for both UNIX and Windows filenames since this is the default for VxWorks.

1: For example, VxWorks for PowerPC Architecture Supplement, VxWorks for Pentium Architecture Supplement, VxWorks for MIPS Architecture Supplement, and VxWorks for ARM Architecture Supplement.