Services API

Nintendo provides application developers with an API, which communicate with certain services. Services, in this sense, 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 interprocess communication. Each service has a name up to 8 characters, for example nim:u.

Handles for services are retrieved from the service manager port, srv:. Services are an abstraction of ports, they operate the same way except regular ports can have their handles retrieved directly from a SVC.

For a description of how commands and arguments are passed to services, see IPC Command Structure.

List of services (grouped by the process which provides them):

Old3ds	Services	Service names	Notes
Yes	Filesystem services‎	fs:USER, fs:LDR, fs:REG	USER: normal applications and system modules, LDR: loader, REG: register
Yes	Process Services‎	ps:ps
Yes	PXI Services‎	PxiFS0, PxiFS1, PxiFSB, PxiFSR, PxiPM, pxi:am9, pxi:dev, pxi:mc, pxi:ps9
Yes	Application Manager Services	am:app, am:net, am:u, am:sys, am:pipe	app: am for applications, net: network installation (nim), u: local installation, sys: am for system titles, pipe: not an actual port (internally used to represent the FSFile-like interface)
Yes	Process Manager Services	pm:app, pm:dbg	app: launching titles, dbg: launching titles with debugging enabled
Yes	NIM Services	nim:aoc, nim:ndm, nim:s, nim:u	aoc: DLC, ndm: for ndm, s: for eShop, u: for updater
Yes	Config Services	cfg:u, cfg:s, cfg:i, cfg:nor	u: for user, s: for system, i: for initialization/formatting, nor: accesses wifi SPI flash
Yes	NS and APT Services	ns:s, ns:p, ns:c, APT:A, APT:S, APT:U	ns:s: for system, ns:p: power (shutdown/reboot), ns:c: ?, APT:A: application, APT:S: system, APT:U: user
Yes	RO Services	ldr:ro
Yes	NDM Services	ndm:u
Yes	CSND Services	csnd:SND
Yes	Camera Services	cam:u, y2r:u, cam:s, cam:c, cam:q (New3DS only)
Yes	Codec Services	cdc:HID, cdc:MIC, cdc:CSN, cdc:DSP, cdc:LGY, cdc:CHK	HID: human interface device, MIC: microphone, CSN: for csnd?, DSP: for dsp?, LGY: legacy (some kind of backwards compat?), CHK: ?
Yes	DLP Services	dlp:CLNT, dlp:FKCL, dlp:SRVR	CLNT: client, FKCL: fake client, SRVR: server
Yes	DSP Services	dsp::DSP
Yes	GSP Services	gsp::Lcd, gsp::Gpu	Lcd: LCD control, Gpu: GPU control
Yes	BOSS Services	boss:U, boss:P, boss:M	U: user, P: privileged, M: for ndm
Yes	CECD Services	cecd:u, cecd:s, cecd:ndm	u: user, s: system, ndm: for ndm
Yes	IR Services	ir:u, ir:USER, ir:rst
Yes	I2C Services	i2c::MCU, i2c::CAM, i2c::LCD, i2c::DEB, i2c::HID, i2c::IR, i2c::EEP, i2c::NFC, i2c::QTM
Yes	GPIO Services	gpio:CDC, gpio:MCU, gpio:HID, gpio:NWM, gpio:IR, gpio:NFC, gpio:QTM
Yes	HID Services	hid:NFC, hid:QTM, hid:SPVR, hid:USER	NFC: near-field communication (amiibo), QTM: head tracking device (related to QTM Services)?, SPVR: system privileged?
Yes	PTM Services	ptm:gets, ptm:play, ptm:s, ptm:sets, ptm:sysm, ptm:u	gets: get system time, play: play history, s: system, sets: set system time, sysm: system menu (homemenu/testmenu), u: user
Yes	NWM Services	nwm::CEC, nwm::EXT, nwm::INF, nwm::SAP, nwm::SOC, nwm::TST, nwm::UDS	CEC: streetpass, EXT: ?, INF: infrastructure, SAP: ?, SOC: socket, UDS: local WLAN, TST: ?
Yes	HTTP Services	http:C	C: connection
Yes	SSL Services	ssl:C	C: connection
Yes	Socket Services	soc:P, soc:U	P: privileged, U: user
Yes	AC Services	ac:i, ac:u	i: internal, u: user
Yes	Friend Services	frd:a, frd:n, frd:u	a: admin, n: for ndm, u: user
Yes	News Services	news:s, news:u	s: system, u:user
Yes	PDN Services	pdn:s, pdn:d, pdn:i, pdn:g, pdn:c
Yes	SPI Services	SPI::NOR, SPI::CD2, SPI::CS2, SPI::CS3, SPI::DEF
Yes	Loader Services	Loader
Yes	MCU Services	mcu::CAM, mcu::GPU, mcu::HID, mcu::RTC, mcu::SND, mcu::NWM, mcu::HWC, mcu::PLS, mcu::CDC
Yes	MIC Services	mic:u
Yes	ACT Services	act:a, act:u	a: admin, u: user
Yes	MP Services	mp:u
Yes	NFC Services	nfc:dev, nfc:m, nfc:p, nfc:r, nfc:s, nfc:u	dev: developer, m: ? p: passthrough?, r: raw?, s: system, u: user
No	MVD Services
No	QTM Services

List of PXI services:

List of ports:

See Error codes.