CopyFromModeNonTemporal - NtDoc

Native API online documentation, based on the System Informer (formerly Process Hacker) phnt headers
// usermode_accessors.h

VOID CopyFromModeNonTemporal(
  VOID            *Destination,
  const VOID      *Source,
  SIZE_T          Length,
  KPROCESSOR_MODE Mode
);
View the official Windows Driver Kit DDI reference

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Windows Driver Kit DDI reference (nf-usermode_accessors-copyfrommodenontemporal)

Description

The CopyFromModeNonTemporal function safely copies data from either kernel or user-mode memory to kernel memory using non-temporal instructions based on the specified processor mode.

Parameters

Destination

[out] A pointer to the kernel memory location where the data will be copied.

Source

[in] A pointer to the memory location from which to copy the data.

Length

[in] The number of bytes to copy.

Mode

[in] The processor mode that determines how the memory access is performed. Mode can be one of the following values.

Value Meaning
KernelMode Source points to kernel-mode memory. The function performs a direct memory copy using non-temporal instructions with memory_order_relaxed semantics.
UserMode Source points to user-mode memory. The function raises an exception if Source doesn't point to user-mode memory; otherwise it performs a copy from the specified address using non-temporal instructions with memory_order_relaxed semantics.

Remarks

This function provides a safe way to copy data from either kernel or user-mode memory to kernel memory using non-temporal (streaming) instructions, with the copy mechanism determined by the specified processor mode. This allows for flexible memory operations that can adapt to different execution contexts while optimizing cache performance for large data transfers.

When Mode is KernelMode:

This function is particularly useful when copying large amounts of data that are unlikely to be accessed again soon, as it avoids evicting other useful data from the cache.

If you are copying from a fixed-sized structure, you should use ReadStructFromMode instead to avoid the risk of passing the wrong size.

This function will never be optimized away by the compiler, nor will the compiler create additional accesses to this memory location before the function is called or after the function returns (unless the source code explicitly performs these accesses).

This function works on all versions of Windows, not just the latest. You need to consume the latest WDK to get the function declaration from the usermode_accessors.h header. You also need the library (umaccess.lib) from the latest WDK. However, the resulting driver will run fine on older versions of Windows.

See also

CopyFromMode

CopyFromUserNonTemporal

CopyToModeNonTemporal