Introduction to the AIX Event Infrastructure

In the AIX Event Infrastructure, an event is defined as any change of a state or a value that can be detected by the kernel or a kernel extension at the time the change occurs. The events that can be monitored are represented as files in a pseudo file system. Some advantages of the AIX Event infrastructure are:

• There is no need for constant polling. Users monitoring the events are notified when those events occur.
• Detailed information about an event (such as stack trace and user and process information) is provided to the user monitoring the event.
• Existing file system interfaces are used so that there is no need for a new application programming interface (API).
• Control is handed to the AIX Event Infrastructure at the exact time the event occurs.