IoAttachDeviceToDeviceStack function (wdm.h)

The IoAttachDeviceToDeviceStack routine attaches the caller's device object to the highest device object in the chain and returns a pointer to the previously highest device object.

Syntax

PDEVICE_OBJECT IoAttachDeviceToDeviceStack(
  [in] PDEVICE_OBJECT SourceDevice,
  [in] PDEVICE_OBJECT TargetDevice
);

Parameters

[in] SourceDevice

Pointer to the caller-created device object.

[in] TargetDevice

Pointer to another driver's device object, such as a pointer returned by a preceding call to IoGetDeviceObjectPointer.

Return value

IoAttachDeviceToDeviceStack returns a pointer to the device object to which the SourceDevice was attached. The returned device object pointer can differ from TargetDevice if TargetDevice had additional drivers layered on top of it.

IoAttachDeviceToDeviceStack returns NULL if it could not attach the device object because, for example, the target device was being unloaded.

Remarks

IoAttachDeviceToDeviceStack establishes layering between drivers so that the same IRPs are sent to each driver in the chain.

An intermediate driver can use this routine during initialization to attach its own device object to another driver's device object. Subsequent I/O requests sent to TargetDevice are sent first to the intermediate driver.

This routine sets the AlignmentRequirement in SourceDevice to the value in the next-lower device object and sets the StackSize to the value in the next-lower-object plus one.

A driver writer must take care to call this routine before any drivers that must layer on top of their driver. IoAttachDeviceToDeviceStack attaches SourceDevice to the highest device object currently layered in the chain and has no way to determine whether drivers are being layered in the correct order.

A driver that acquired a pointer to the target device by calling IoGetDeviceObjectPointer should call ObDereferenceObject with the file object pointer that was returned by IoGetDeviceObjectPointer to release its reference to the file object before it detaches its own device object, for example, when such a higher-level driver is unloaded.

Requirements

See also

IoAttachDevice

IoDetachDevice

IoGetDeviceObjectPointer

ObDereferenceObject