162 Embedded Linux System Design and Development
Write function: This function is invoked by the application to reprime the
watchdog.
Ioctl: However, you can also use ioctl to r eprime the watchdog.
WDIOC_KEEPALIVE does this. Also you can set a timeout using WDIOC_
SETTIMEOUT.
Linux provides a software watchdog in case there is no watchdog support
from the hardware. The software watchdog makes use of timers internally,
however, software watchdogs do not always work; their working depends on
the system state and interrupt state.
5.6 Kernel Modules
Finally we discuss kernel modules in brief. Kernel modules are added dynam-
ically in a running kernel. This reduces the size of the kernel by making sure
that the kernel modules get loaded only when they ...