问在scull的proc read实现中，这些参数意味着什么？

EN

struct scull_pipe {
        wait_queue_head_t inq, outq;       /* read and write queues */
        char *buffer, *end;                /* begin of buf, end of buf */
        int buffersize;                    /* used in pointer arithmetic */
        char *rp, *wp;                     /* where to read, where to write */
        int nreaders, nwriters;            /* number of openings for r/w */
        struct fasync_struct *async_queue; /* asynchronous readers */
        struct semaphore sem;              /* mutual exclusion semaphore */
        struct cdev cdev;                  /* Char device structure */
};

int scull_p_nr_devs;            /* the number of scull_pipe devices */
scull_pipe *scull_p_devices;    /* scull_pipe devices to be malloc'ed */

/* ...... */

/* our proc read implementation */
static int scull_read_p_mem(char *buf, char **start, off_t offset, int count,
        int *eof, void *data)
{
    int i, len;
    struct scull_pipe *p;

#define LIMIT (PAGE_SIZE-200)   /* don't print any more after this size */
    *start = buf;
    len = sprintf(buf, "Default buffersize is %i\n", scull_p_buffer);
    for(i = 0; i < scull_p_nr_devs && len <= LIMIT; i++) {
        p = &scull_p_devices[i];
        if (down_interruptible(&p->sem))
            return -ERESTARTSYS;
        len += sprintf(buf+len, "\nDevice %i: %p\n", i, p);
        len += sprintf(buf+len, "   Buffer: %p to %p (%i bytes)\n", 
                                    p->buffer, p->end, p->buffersize);
        len += sprintf(buf+len, "   rp %p   wp %p\n", p->rp, p->wp);
        len += sprintf(buf+len, "   readers %i   writers %i\n", 
                                    p->nreaders, p->nwriters);
        up(&p->sem);
        scullp_proc_offset(buf, start, &offset, &len);
    }
    *eof = (len <= LIMIT);
    return len;
}


static void scullp_proc_offset(char *buf, char **start, off_t *offset, int *len)
{
    /* QUESTION: what does this function do? */
    if (*offset == 0)
        return;
    if (*offset >= *len) {
        *offset -= *len;    /* QUESTION: what is the purpose of this? */
        *len = 0;
    }
    else {
        *start = buf + *offset; /* QUESTION: why do you need to change "start"? */
        *offset = 0;
    }
}