Index: lib/libgeom/Makefile
===================================================================
--- lib/libgeom/Makefile
+++ lib/libgeom/Makefile
@@ -33,6 +33,10 @@
 	libgeom.3 gctl_issue.3 \
 	libgeom.3 gctl_free.3 \
 	libgeom.3 gctl_dump.3 \
+	libgeom.3 geom_getxml.3 \
+	libgeom.3 geom_xml2tree.3 \
+	libgeom.3 geom_gettree.3 \
+	libgeom.3 geom_deletetree.3 \
 	libgeom.3 g_close.3 \
 	libgeom.3 g_delete.3 \
 	libgeom.3 g_device_path.3 \
Index: lib/libgeom/libgeom.3
===================================================================
--- lib/libgeom/libgeom.3
+++ lib/libgeom/libgeom.3
@@ -46,6 +46,10 @@
 .Nm gctl_issue ,
 .Nm gctl_free ,
 .Nm gctl_dump ,
+.Nm geom_getxml ,
+.Nm geom_xml2tree ,
+.Nm geom_gettree ,
+.Nm geom_deletetree ,
 .Nm g_open ,
 .Nm g_close ,
 .Nm g_mediasize ,
@@ -99,6 +103,14 @@
 .Ft void
 .Fn gctl_dump "struct gctl_req *req" "FILE *f"
 .Ss "Utility Functions"
+.Ft "char *"
+.Fn geom_getxml void
+.Ft int
+.Fn geom_xml2tree "struct gmesh *gmp" "char *p"
+.Ft int
+.Fn geom_gettree "struct gmesh *gmp"
+.Ft void
+.Fn geom_deletetree "struct gmesh *gmp"
 .Ft int
 .Fn g_open "const char *name" "int dowrite"
 .Ft int
@@ -279,6 +291,43 @@
 first error which happened.
 .Ss "Utility Functions"
 The
+.Fn geom_getxml
+function is a wrapper around
+.Xr sysctl 3
+that fetches the
+.Ar kern.geom.confxml
+OID, and returns it's value.  The allocated memory should be released with
+.Xr free 2
+after use.
+.Pp
+The
+.Fn geom_xml2tree
+function parses the XML representation of a GEOM topology passed as
+.Ar p ,
+allocates a bunch of data structures to access this information and fills-in
+the passed
+.Ar gmp
+data structure.  Memory allocated during this transformation should be released
+using
+.Fn geom_deletetree
+after use.
+.Pp
+The
+.Fn geom_gettree
+function is a wrapper arround the
+.Fn geom_getxml
+and
+.Fn geom_xml2tree
+functions. Memory allocated during this operation should be released using
+.Fn geom_deletetree
+after use.
+.Pp
+The
+.Fn geom_deletetree
+releases memory allocated for storing the data-structures referenced by
+.Ar gmp .
+.Pp
+The
 .Fn g_*
 functions are used to communicate with GEOM providers.
 .Pp