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Writing DPC Routines

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The primary responsibilities of DpcForIsr and CustomDpc routines are ensuring that the next device I/O operation is started promptly and completing the current IRP.

Additional work done by any DpcForIsr or CustomDpc routine depends on the driver's design and the nature of the device. For example, a DpcForIsr or CustomDpc routine also can do any of the following:

  • Retry an operation that has timed out or failed.

  • Call IoAllocateErrorLogEntry, set up an error log packet to report a device I/O error, and call IoWriteErrorLogEntry.

    For more information about handling I/O errors, see Logging Errors.

  • If the driver uses buffered I/O, or if the IRP specifies a device control operation, transfer data read in from the device to the system buffer at Irp->AssociatedIrp.SystemBuffer before completing the IRP.

  • If the driver uses direct I/O and must break large transfers into smaller pieces, save state about each just-completed partial-transfer operation, calculate the next partial-transfer range, and use a driver-supplied SynchCritSection routine to program the device for the next partial-transfer operation.

    Even a driver that uses buffered I/O might have to split up a transfer request if its device has limited transfer capabilities.

  • If the driver uses packet-based DMA, call FlushAdapterBuffers after each device transfer operation, and call FreeAdapterChannel or FreeMapRegisters when a sequence of partial transfers is done and the full transfer request is satisfied.

    If a requested transfer is only partly satisfied by a single DMA operation, the DpcForIsr or CustomDpc routine is usually responsible for setting up one or more DMA operations until the IRP's specified number of bytes have been fully transferred.

    For more information about using DMA, see Adapter Objects and DMA.

  • If the driver uses programmed I/O (PIO), call KeFlushIoBuffers at the end of each transfer operation if the current IRP requests a read.

    If a requested transfer is only partly satisfied by a single PIO operation, the DpcForIsr or CustomDpc routine is usually responsible for setting up one or more transfer operations until the IRP's specified number of bytes have been fully transferred.

    For more information about using PIO, see Using Direct I/O.

  • If a non-WDM driver has a ControllerControl routine, call IoFreeController when a requested operation is complete.

Note that a DpcForIsr or CustomDpc routine usually does most of the driver's device I/O processing to satisfy IRPs. These routines also share some of the responsibility for queuing IRPs to the device with the driver's dispatch routines.

Consider the following a general design guidelines.

  • Any DpcForIsr or CustomDpc routine should call IoStartNextPacket as soon as it can safely make this call: that is, without possibly causing a resource conflict or race condition with the driver's StartIo routine or with any other routine the StartIo routine causes to run.

  • If a driver manages its own queuing of IRPs, its DpcForIsr or CustomDpc routine should notify the driver as soon as it is safe to dequeue the next IRP and to set up the device for the next request.

A DpcForIsr or CustomDpc routine must call IoStartNextPacket, or otherwise notify the appropriate driver routine when device I/O processing for the next request can be started. Depending on the driver and its device, this can occur well before the DpcForIsr or CustomDpc routine completes the current IRP with IoCompleteRequest, or it can occur immediately before this routine completes the current IRP and returns control.