1hal(5)                Standards, Environments, and Macros               hal(5)
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NAME

6       hal - overview of hardware abstraction layer
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DESCRIPTION

9       The  Hardware  Abstraction  Layer  (HAL) provides a view of the various
10       hardware attached to a system. This  view  is  updated  dynamically  as
11       hardware configuration changes by means of hotplug or other mechanisms.
12       HAL represents a piece of hardware as a device object. A device  object
13       is  identified  by  a  unique  identifer and carries a set of key/value
14       pairs, referred to as device properties. Some  properties  are  derived
15       from the actual hardware, some are merged from device information files
16       (.fdi files), and some are related to the actual device configuration.
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19       HAL provides an easy-to-use API through D-Bus. D-Bus is an  IPC  frame‐
20       work  that,  among  other  features, provides a system-wide message-bus
21       that allows applications to talk to one  another.  Specifically,  D-Bus
22       provides asynchronous notification such that HAL can notify other peers
23       on the message-bus when devices are added and removed, as well as  when
24       properties on a device are changing.
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27       In  the  Solaris  operating  system,  HAL  is  supported  by  a daemon,
28       hald(1M), and a set of utilities that enable the adding and removing of
29       devices and the modification of their properties.
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SEE ALSO

32       hald(1M), fdi(4)
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35       See   the   HAL   pages,   including   the   HAL  specification,  under
36       http://freedesktop.org.
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40SunOS 5.11                        11 Sep 2006                           hal(5)