SMBIOS(4D) Devices SMBIOS(4D)
NAME
smbios - System Management BIOS image
SYNOPSIS
/dev/smbiosDESCRIPTION
The
smbios device is a character special file that provides access to
a snapshot of the System Management BIOS (
SMBIOS) image exported by
the current system.
SMBIOS is an industry-standard mechanism that
enables low-level system software to export hardware configuration
information to higher-level system management software. The
SMBIOS data format is defined by the Distributed Management Task Force
(
DMTF). For more information on
SMBIOS and to obtain a copy of the
SMBIOS specification and implementation guidelines, refer to
http://
www.dmtf.org.
The
SMBIOS image consists of a table of structures, each describing
some aspect of the system software or hardware configuration. The
content of the image varies widely by platform and BIOS vendor and
may not exist on some systems. You can use the
smbios(8) utility to
inspect the contents of the
SMBIOS image and copy it to a file.
ATTRIBUTES
See
attributes(7) for a description of the following attributes:
+--------------------+-----------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+--------------------+-----------------+
|Interface Stability | Stable |
+--------------------+-----------------+
SEE ALSO
attributes(7),
prtdiag(8),
smbios(8) System Management BIOS Reference Specification, Version 2, Release 4
-- 2005
NOTES
The implementation of a System Management BIOS image is entirely at
the discretion of the system and BIOS vendors. Not all systems export
a
SMBIOS. The
SMBIOS structure content varies widely between systems
and BIOS vendors and frequently does not comply with the guidelines
included in the specification. For example, some structure fields may
not be filled in by the BIOS, while others may be filled in with non-
conforming values.
August 26, 2005 SMBIOS(4D)
