Boot Parameters in C
In the context of C programming, “boot parameters” typically refers to the parameters that are passed to the BIOS or firmware of a computer when it is first powered on, before the operating system is loaded. These parameters are used to configure the system and control the behavior of the BIOS or firmware before the operating system is loaded.
In most systems, the boot parameters are passed to the BIOS or firmware using the BIOS setup utility, or through a bootloader such as GRUB. These parameters are usually stored in non-volatile memory such as ROM or flash memory, and can be accessed and modified during the boot process.
The specific parameters and their usage depend on the BIOS or firmware that is installed on the system, but some common examples include:
- Memory size
- CPU speed
- Power management settings
- Boot device priority
- Hardware settings
- The location of the kernel image to boot from
- Additional options and arguments to be passed to the kernel
It’s important to note that, in the context of C programming, we do not have access to modify or handle these parameters directly as a developer, as they are related to firmware and BIOS. But, we may have a requirement to access some of these parameters in our application, where we might have to use firmware or BIOS specific libraries, or system calls to access this information.
In some Operating systems we can pass parameters during boot which are passed on to the kernel and userland, which can be read and used by the application. These parameters can be passed via the command line, a config file or another medium, and can be used to configure the operating system and application at runtime.
Leave a Comment