.\" $NetBSD: swwdog.4,v 1.9 2015/04/14 10:50:25 pgoyette Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 2004, 2005 Steven M. Bellovin .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by the NetBSD .\" Foundation, Inc. and its contributors. .\" 4. Neither the name of the author nor the names of its .\" contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived .\" from this software without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS .\" ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED .\" TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR .\" PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS .\" BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR .\" CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF .\" SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS .\" INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN .\" CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) .\" ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE .\" POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .Dd June 8, 2011 .\" Written by Steven M. Bellovin .Dt SWWDOG 4 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm swwdog .Nd software watchdog timer .Sh SYNOPSIS .Cd "pseudo-device swwdog" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm driver provides a software watchdog timer that works with .Xr wdogctl 8 . If the timer expires, the system reboots if the boolean variable .Va swwdog_reboot is .Dv true ; otherwise, the system will panic. .Va swwdog_reboot is accessible as the .Xr sysctl 8 variable hw.swwdog.reboot and defaults to .Dv false . .Pp The default period of .Nm is 60 seconds. .Pp As with other watchdog timers, the .Nm driver prevents a system from suspending when the watchdog is armed. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr sysctl 8 , .Xr wdogctl 8 .Sh HISTORY The .Nm driver was written by .An Steven M. Bellovin . .Sh BUGS Only one watchdog timer can be active at any given time. (Arguably, this is a bug in the watchdog timer framework.) Therefore, only a single instance of the .Nm device can be created. .Pp Kernel tickle mode is useless with .Nm and arguably should be rejected, since both it and this driver rely on the same callout mechanism; if one is blocked, almost certainly the other is as well. .Pp The alarm option to .Xr wdogctl 8 isn't implemented.