Services are system processes running in the background which wait for incoming requests. When a process wants to communicate with a service, it first needs to get a handle to the named service, and then it can communicate with the service via inter-process communication (each service has a name up to 8 characters).
Handles for services are retrieved from the service manager port, "sm:", and are released via svcCloseHandle or when a process is terminated or crashes. Manager service "sm:m" also exists. Services are an abstraction of ports, they operate the same way except regular ports can have their handles retrieved directly from a SVC. Services are also able to limit the number of handles given to other processes.
sm:
| Cmd | Name |
|---|---|
| 0 | #Initialize |
| 1 | #GetService |
| 2 | #RegisterService |
| 3 | #UnregisterService |
Initialize
Takes a pid descriptor and a reserved input u64.
GetService
Takes a zero-padded service name encoded as an u64 integer. Returns a handle.
RegisterService
Takes a zero-padded service name encoded as an u64 integer, an u8 bool, and an u32 (session count) at the next word. Returns a handle.
UnregisterService
Takes a zero-padded service name encoded as an u64 integer.
sm:m
| Cmd | Name |
|---|---|
| 0 | #RegisterProcess |
| 1 | #UnregisterProcess |
RegisterProcess
Takes a pid and two A descriptors with the ACID and ACI0 service lists. That data originates from NPDM.
UnregisterProcess
Takes a pid.
Service List
| Service names | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| acc:u0, acc:u1, acc:aa, acc:su | Account services | u0: System, u1: User, su: Admin, aa: Baas |
| ahid:cd, ahid:hdr, hid, hid:dbg, hid:sys, irs, irs:sys, xcd:sys | HID services | |
| appletAE, appletOE, idle:sys, omm, spsm | AM services | |
| [1.0.0+] aoc:u, mii:u, mii:e, ns:am, ns:su, ns:dev, pl:u, ovln:rcv, ovln:snd, pdm:ntfy, pdm:qry
[3.0.0+] aoc:u, ns:am2, ns:dev, ns:ec, ns:rid, ns:rt, ns:su, ns:vm, ns:web, ovln:rcv, ovln:snd |
NS Services | am: Application Manager, su: System Update |
| apm, apm:p, apm:sys, fgm, fgm:0, fgm:9, (fgm:dbg?), (aoc:apm??) | APM services | |
| arp:r, arp:w, bgtc:t, bgtc:sc | Glue services | r: Reader, w: Writer |
| audin:a, audin:d, audin:u, audout:a, audout:d, audout:u, audren:a, audren:d, audren:u, audrec:a, audrec:d, audrec:u, audctl, codecctl, hwopus | Audio services | |
| banana | ? | Some games on [3.0.0+] have access to this service, but it doesn't appear to be present on retail devices. |
| bcat:a, bcat:u, bcat:m, bcat:s, news:a, news:c, news:m, news:p, news:v, prepo:u, prepo:s, prepo:m, prepo:a | BCAT services | |
| bpc, bpc:r, pcv, pcv:arb, pcv:imm, time:u, time:a, time:s | PCV services | |
| bsd:u, bsd:s, bsdcfg, ethc:c, ethc:i, nsd:u, nsd:a, sfdnsres | Sockets services, NSD services | |
| btdrv | Bluetooth Driver services | |
| btm, btm:dbg, btm:sys | Battery services | |
| caps:a, caps:c | Capture services | a: AlbumAccessor, c: AlbumControl |
| caps:sc, caps:ss, mm:u, vi:m, vi:s, vi:u, cec-mgr | Display services | |
| dispdrv | Nvnflinger services | |
| erpt:c, erpt:r | Error Report services | |
| es | ETicket services | |
| fan, psm, tc, ts | PTM services | |
| fatal:u, fatal:p | Fatal services | u: User, p: Privileged |
| friend:u, friend:v, friend:m, friend:s, friend:a | Friend services | |
| fsp-srv, fsp-ldr, fsp-pr | Filesystem services | srv: Main, ldr: Loader, pr: Program Registry |
| gpio, i2c, i2c:pcv, pinmux, pwm, uart | Bus services | |
| htc, htcs, htc:tenv | TMA services | |
| lbl | Backlight services | |
| ldn:m, ldn:s, ldn:u | LDN services | |
| [1.0.0+] ldr:pm, ldr:ro, ldr:shel, ldr:dmnt
[3.0.0+] ldr:pm, ldr:shel, ldr:dmnt |
Loader services | |
| lm | Log services | |
| manu | Manu Services | "Manufacturing", present in factory firmware but not installed on retail systems. |
| lr, ncm, ncm:v | NCM services | |
| nfc:am, nfc:mf:u, nfc:user, nfc:sys, nfp:user, nfp:dbg, nfp:sys | NFC services | |
| nifm:u, nifm:a, nifm:s | Network Interface services | |
| nim, nim:shp, ntc | NIM services | shp: eShop |
| npns:u, npns:s | NPNS services | |
| nvdrv:a, nvdrv:s, nvdrv:t, nvdrv, nvdrvdbg, nvgem:c, nvgem:cd, nvmemp | NV services | |
| pcie | PCIe services | |
| pctl, pctl:a, pctl:s, pctl:r | Parental Control services | |
| pm:bm, pm:info, pm:shell | Process Manager services | |
| psc:c, psc:m | PSC services | |
| [3.0.0+] ldr:ro, ro:dmnt | RO services | |
| set, set:fd, set:cal, set:sys | Settings services | cal: calibration, sys: System Settings |
| [3.0.0+] mii:u, mii:e, pdm:ntfy, pdm:qry, pl:u | Shared Database services | |
| ssl | SSL services | |
| csrng, spl: | SPL services | |
| usb:ds, usb:hs, usb:pd, usb:pd:c, usb:pm | USB services | |
| wlan:inf, wlan:lcl, wlan:lg, wlan:lga, wlan:sg, wlan:soc | WLAN services |