This file is a registry of magic numbers which are in use. When you add a magic number to a structure, you should also add it to this file, since it is best if the magic numbers used by various structures are unique. It is a *very* good idea to protect kernel data structures with magic numbers. This allows you to check at run time whether (a) a structure has been clobbered, or (b) you've passed the wrong structure to a routine. This last is especially useful --- particularly when you are passing pointers to structures via a void * pointer. The tty code, for example, does this frequently to pass driver-specific and line discipline-specific structures back and forth. The way to use magic numbers is to declare then at the beginning of the structure, like so: struct tty_ldisc { int magic; ... }; Please follow this discipline when you are adding future enhancements to the kernel! It has saved me countless hours of debugging, especially in the screwy cases where an array has been overrun and structures following the array have been overwritten. Using this discipline, these cases get detected quickly and safely. Theodore Ts'o 31-Mar-94 The magic table is current to Linux 1.3.98. Michael Chastain 6 May 1996 Magic Name Number Structure File =========================================================================== RISCOM8_MAGIC 0x0907 struct riscom_port drivers/char/riscom8.h APM_BIOS_MAGIC 0x4101 struct apm_struct include/linux/apm_bios.h CYCLADES_MAGIC 0x4359 struct cyclades_port include/linux/cyclades.h FASYNC_MAGIC 0x4601 struct fasync_struct include/linux/fs.h PTY_MAGIC 0x5001 struct pty_struct drivers/char/pty.c PPP_MAGIC 0x5002 struct ppp_struct include/linux/if_ppp.h SERIAL_MAGIC 0x5301 struct async_struct include/linux/serial.h SLIP_MAGIC 0x5302 struct slip drivers/net/slip.h STRIP_MAGIC 0x5303 struct strip drivers/net/strip.c TTY_MAGIC 0x5401 struct tty_struct include/linux/tty.h TTY_DRIVER_MAGIC 0x5402 struct tty_driver include/linux/tty_driver.h TTY_LDISC_MAGIC 0x5403 struct tty_ldisc include/linux/tty_ldisc.h SCC_MAGIC 0x8530 struct scc_channel include/linux/scc.h ISDN_ASYNC_MAGIC 0x49344C01 modem_info include/linux/isdn.h ISDN_NET_MAGIC 0x49344C02 isdn_net_ndev include/linux/isdn.h STLI_BOARDMAGIC 0x4bc6c825 stlibrd_t include/linux/istallion.h STLI_PORTMAGIC 0xe671c7a1 stliport_t include/linux/istallion.h STL_PANELMAGIC 0x7ef621a1 stlpanel_t include/linux/stallion.h STL_BOARDMAGIC 0xa2267f52 stlbrd_t include/linux/stallion.h STL_PORTMAGIC 0x5a7182c9 stlport_t include/linux/stallion.h PCXX_MAGIC 0x5c6df104 struct channel drivers/char/pcxx.h BAYCOM_MAGIC 0x3105bac0 struct baycom_state drivers/char/baycom.c