summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/doc/VBox-doc.c
blob: c8114b1f1d3c86155a29e17f47c18796757c780f (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
/* $Id: VBox-doc.c $ */
/** @file
 * VirtualBox Top Level Documentation File.
 */

/*
 * Copyright (C) 2006-2023 Oracle and/or its affiliates.
 *
 * This file is part of VirtualBox base platform packages, as
 * available from https://www.virtualbox.org.
 *
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
 * as published by the Free Software Foundation, in version 3 of the
 * License.
 *
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
 * WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
 * General Public License for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program; if not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses>.
 *
 * SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-only
 */


/** @mainpage   VirtualBox
 *
 * (add introduction here)
 *
 * @section pg_main_comp    Components
 *
 *  - VM / @ref pg_vmm "VMM" / GVM / @ref pg_gvmm "GVMM" - Virtual Machine
 *    Monitor.
 *      - @ref pg_cfgm
 *      - @ref pg_cpum
 *      - @ref pg_dbgf
 *          - @ref pg_dbgf_addr_space
 *          - @ref pg_dbgf_vmcore
 *          - @ref pg_dbgf_module
 *          - @ref pg_dbgc
 *          - VBoxDbg - Debugger GUI (Qt).
 *      - @ref grp_dis
 *      - @ref pg_em
 *      - @ref pg_gim
 *      - @ref pg_hm
 *      - @ref pg_iem
 *      - @ref pg_nem
 *      - @ref pg_gmm
 *          - @ref pg_mm
 *          - @ref pg_pgm
 *              - @ref pg_pgm_phys
 *              - @ref pg_pgm_pool
 *          - @ref pg_selm
 *      - @ref pg_iom
 *      - @ref pg_pdm
 *          - Devices / USB Devices, Drivers and their public interfaces.
 *          - Async I/O Completion API.
 *          - Async Task API.
 *          - Critical Section API.
 *          - Queue API.
 *          - Thread API.
 *          - @ref pg_pdm_block_cache
 *      - @ref pg_ssm
 *      - @ref pg_stam
 *      - @ref pg_tm
 *      - @ref pg_trpm
 *      - VMM docs:
 *          - @ref pg_vmm_guideline
 *          - @ref pg_raw
 *  - Pluggable Components (via PDM).
 *      - DevPCArch - PC Architecture Device (chipset, legacy ++).
 *      - DevPCBios - Basic Input Output System.
 *      - DevDMAC - DMA Controller.
 *      - DevPIC - Programmable Interrupt Controller.
 *      - DevPIT - Programmable Interval Timer (i8254).
 *      - DevRTC - Real Time Clock.
 *      - DevVGA - Video Graphic Array.
 *      - DevPCI - Peripheral Component Interface (Bus).
 *      - VBoxDev - Special PCI Device which serves as an interface between
 *                  the VMM and the guest OS for the additions.
 *      - @ref pg_pdm_audio "Audio":
 *          - DevHda - Intel High Definition Audio Device Emulation.
 *          - DevIchAc97 - ICH AC'97 Device Emulation.
 *          - DevSB16 - SoundBlaster 16 Device Emulation.
 *          - DrvAudio - Intermediate driver.
 *          - DrvHostAudioAlsa - ALSA Host Audio Driver (Linux).
 *          - DrvHostAudioCoreAudio - Core Audio Host Audio Driver (macOS).
 *          - DrvHostAudioDebug - Debug Backend Driver.
 *          - DrvHostAudioDSound - DirectSound Host Audio Driver (Windows).
 *          - DrvHostAudioNull - NULL Backend Driver.
 *          - DrvHostAudioOss - Open Sound System Host Audio Driver (Linux,
 *            Solaris, ++).
 *          - DrvHostAudioPulseAudio - PulseAudio Host Audio Driver (Linux).
 *          - DrvHostAudioValidationKit - Validation Kit Test Driver.
 *          - DrvHostAudioWasApi - Windows Audio Session API Host Audio Driver.
 *      - Networking:
 *          - DevPCNet - AMD PCNet Device Emulation.
 *          - DevE1000 - Intel E1000 Device Emulation.
 *          - DevEEPROM - Intel E1000 EPROM Device Emulation.
 *          - SrvINetNetR0 - Internal Networking Ring-0 Service.
 *          - DevINIP - IP Stack Service for the internal networking.
 *          - DrvIntNet - Internal Networking Driver.
 *          - DrvNetSniffer - Wireshark Compatible Sniffer Driver (pass thru).
 *          - DrvNAT - Network Address Translation Driver.
 *          - DrvTAP - Host Interface Networking Driver.
 *      - Storage:
 *          - DevATA - ATA ((E)IDE) Device Emulation.
 *          - @ref pg_dev_ahci
 *          - DevFDC - Floppy Controller Device Emulation.
 *          - DrvBlock - Intermediate block driver.
 *          - DrvHostBase - Common code for the host drivers.
 *          - DrvHostDVD - Host DVD drive driver.
 *          - DrvHostFloppy - Host floppy drive driver.
 *          - DrvHostRawDisk - Host raw disk drive driver.
 *          - DrvMediaISO - ISO media driver.
 *          - DrvRawImage - Raw image driver (floppy images etc).
 *          - DrvVD - Intermediate Virtual Drive (Media) driver.
 *          - DrvVDI - VirtualBox Drive Image Container Driver.
 *          - DrvVmdk - VMDK Drive Image Container Driver.
 *      - USB:
 *          - @ref pg_dev_ohci
 *          - @ref pg_dev_ehci
 *          - @ref pg_dev_vusb
 *          - @ref pg_dev_vusb_old
 *  - Host Drivers.
 *      - SUPDRV - The Support driver (aka VBoxDrv).
 *          - @ref pg_sup
 *      - @ref pg_netflt
 *      - @ref pg_netadp
 *      - VBoxUSB - The USB support driver.
 *      - @ref pg_netflt
 *      - @ref pg_rawpci
 *  - Host Services.
 *      - @ref pg_hostclip
 *      - Shared Folders.
 *      - @ref pg_svc_guest_properties
 *      - @ref pg_svc_guest_control
 *  - Guest Additions.
 *      - VBoxGuest.
 *          - @ref pg_guest_lib
 *      - @ref pg_vgsvc
 *          - @ref pg_vgsvc_timesync
 *          - @ref pg_vgsvc_vminfo
 *          - @ref pg_vgsvc_vmstats
 *          - @ref pg_vgsvc_gstctrl
 *          - @ref pg_vgsvc_pagesharing
 *          - @ref pg_vgsvc_memballoon
 *          - @ref pg_vgsvc_cpuhotplug
 *          - @ref pg_vgsvc_automount
 *          - @ref pg_vgsvc_clipboard
 *      - VBoxControl.
 *      - Linux, Solaris and FreeBSD specific guest services and drivers.
 *          - @ref pg_vboxdrmcliet (Linux only).
 *          - VBoxClient.
 *          - VBoxVideo.
 *      - Windows Guests.
 *          - VBoxTray.
 *      - crOpenGL.
 *      - pam.
 *      - ...
 *  - Network Services:
 *      - @ref pg_net_dhcp
 *      - NAT
 *  - @ref pg_main
 *      - @ref pg_main_events
 *      - @ref pg_vrdb_usb
 *  - Frontends:
 *      - VirtualBox - The default Qt-based GUI.
 *      - VBoxHeadless - The headless frontend.
 *      - VBoxManage - The CLI.
 *      - VBoxShell - An interactive shell written in python.
 *      - VBoxSDL - A very simple GUI.
 *      - VBoxBFE - A bare metal edition which does not use COM/XPCOM (barely
 *        maintained atm).
 *  - IPRT - Runtime Library for hiding host OS differences.
 *  - Validation Kit:
 *      - @ref pg_validationkit_guideline
 *      - @ref pg_bs3kit
 *  - @ref pg_vbox_guideline
 *
 * @todo Make links to the components.
 *
 *
 *
 * @section Execution Contexts
 *
 * VirtualBox defines a number of different execution context, this can be
 * confusing at first.  So, to start with take a look at this diagram:
 *
 * @image html VMMContexts.png
 *
 * Context definitions:
 *      - Host context (HC) - This is the context where the host OS runs and
 *        runs VirtualBox within it.  The absense of IN_RC and IN_GUEST
 *        indicates that we're in HC.  IN_RING0 indicates ring-0 (kernel) and
 *        IN_RING3 indicates ring-3.
 *      - Raw-mode Context (RC) - This is the special VMM context where we
 *        execute the guest code directly on the CPU.  Kernel code is patched
 *        and execute in ring-1 instead of ring-0 (ring compression).  Ring-3
 *        code execute unmodified.  Only VMMs use ring-1, so we don't need to
 *        worry about that (it's guarded against in the scheduler (EM)).  We can
 *        in theory run ring-2 there, but since practially only only OS/2 uses
 *        ring-2, it is of little importance.  The macro IN_RC indicates that
 *        we're compiling something for RC.
 *        Note! This used to be called GC (see below) earlier, so a bunch of RC
 *        things are using GC markers.
 *      - Guest Context (GC) - This is where the guest code is executed.  When
 *        compiling, IN_GUEST indicates that it's for GC.  IN_RING0 and
 *        IN_RING3 are also set when applicable, these are accompanied by
 *        IN_GUEST_R0 and IN_GUEST_R3 respecitively.
 *      - Intermediate context - This is a special memory context used within
 *        the world switchers (HC -> RC and back), it features some identity
 *        mapped code pages so we can switch to real mode if necessary.
 *
 */