xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/sys/recv.2 (revision 2a399c6883d870daece976daec6ffa7bb7f934ce)
1.\"	$NetBSD: recv.2,v 1.6 1995/02/27 12:36:08 cgd Exp $
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34.\"     @(#)recv.2	8.3 (Berkeley) 2/21/94
35.\"
36.Dd February 21, 1994
37.Dt RECV 2
38.Os BSD 4.3r
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm recv ,
41.Nm recvfrom ,
42.Nm recvmsg
43.Nd receive a message from a socket
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Fd #include <sys/types.h>
46.Fd #include <sys/socket.h>
47.Ft ssize_t
48.Fn recv "int s" "void *buf" "size_t len" "int flags"
49.Ft ssize_t
50.Fn recvfrom "int s" "void *buf" "size_t len" "int flags" "struct sockaddr *from" "int *fromlen"
51.Ft ssize_t
52.Fn recvmsg "int s" "struct msghdr *msg" "int flags"
53.Sh DESCRIPTION
54.Fn Recvfrom
55and
56.Fn recvmsg
57are used to receive messages from a socket,
58and may be used to receive data on a socket whether or not
59it is connection-oriented.
60.Pp
61If
62.Fa from
63is non-nil, and the socket is not connection-oriented,
64the source address of the message is filled in.
65.Fa Fromlen
66is a value-result parameter, initialized to the size of
67the buffer associated with
68.Fa from ,
69and modified on return to indicate the actual size of the
70address stored there.
71.Pp
72The
73.Fn recv
74call is normally used only on a
75.Em connected
76socket (see
77.Xr connect 2 )
78and is identical to
79.Fn recvfrom
80with a nil
81.Fa from
82parameter.
83As it is redundant, it may not be supported in future releases.
84.Pp
85All three routines return the length of the message on successful
86completion.
87If a message is too long to fit in the supplied buffer,
88excess bytes may be discarded depending on the type of socket
89the message is received from (see
90.Xr socket 2 ) .
91.Pp
92If no messages are available at the socket, the
93receive call waits for a message to arrive, unless
94the socket is nonblocking (see
95.Xr fcntl 2 )
96in which case the value
97-1 is returned and the external variable
98.Va errno
99set to
100.Er EAGAIN .
101The receive calls normally return any data available,
102up to the requested amount,
103rather than waiting for receipt of the full amount requested;
104this behavior is affected by the socket-level options
105.Dv SO_RCVLOWAT
106and
107.Dv SO_RCVTIMEO
108described in
109.Xr getsockopt 2 .
110.Pp
111The
112.Xr select 2
113call may be used to determine when more data arrive.
114.Pp
115The
116.Fa flags
117argument to a recv call is formed by
118.Em or Ap ing
119one or more of the values:
120.Bl -column MSG_WAITALL -offset indent
121.It Dv MSG_OOB Ta process out-of-band data
122.It Dv MSG_PEEK Ta peek at incoming message
123.It Dv MSG_WAITALL Ta wait for full request or error
124.El
125The
126.Dv MSG_OOB
127flag requests receipt of out-of-band data
128that would not be received in the normal data stream.
129Some protocols place expedited data at the head of the normal
130data queue, and thus this flag cannot be used with such protocols.
131The MSG_PEEK flag causes the receive operation to return data
132from the beginning of the receive queue without removing that
133data from the queue.
134Thus, a subsequent receive call will return the same data.
135The MSG_WAITALL flag requests that the operation block until
136the full request is satisfied.
137However, the call may still return less data than requested
138if a signal is caught, an error or disconnect occurs,
139or the next data to be received is of a different type than that returned.
140.Pp
141The
142.Fn recvmsg
143call uses a
144.Fa msghdr
145structure to minimize the number of directly supplied parameters.
146This structure has the following form, as defined in
147.Ao Pa sys/socket.h Ac :
148.Pp
149.Bd -literal
150struct msghdr {
151	caddr_t	msg_name;	/* optional address */
152	u_int	msg_namelen;	/* size of address */
153	struct	iovec *msg_iov;	/* scatter/gather array */
154	u_int	msg_iovlen;	/* # elements in msg_iov */
155	caddr_t	msg_control;	/* ancillary data, see below */
156	u_int	msg_controllen; /* ancillary data buffer len */
157	int	msg_flags;	/* flags on received message */
158};
159.Ed
160.Pp
161Here
162.Fa msg_name
163and
164.Fa msg_namelen
165specify the destination address if the socket is unconnected;
166.Fa msg_name
167may be given as a null pointer if no names are desired or required.
168.Fa Msg_iov
169and
170.Fa msg_iovlen
171describe scatter gather locations, as discussed in
172.Xr read 2 .
173.Fa Msg_control ,
174which has length
175.Fa msg_controllen ,
176points to a buffer for other protocol control related messages
177or other miscellaneous ancillary data.
178The messages are of the form:
179.Bd -literal
180struct cmsghdr {
181	u_int	cmsg_len;	/* data byte count, including hdr */
182	int	cmsg_level;	/* originating protocol */
183	int	cmsg_type;	/* protocol-specific type */
184/* followed by
185	u_char	cmsg_data[]; */
186};
187.Ed
188As an example, one could use this to learn of changes in the data-stream
189in XNS/SPP, or in ISO, to obtain user-connection-request data by requesting
190a recvmsg with no data buffer provided immediately after an
191.Fn accept
192call.
193.Pp
194Open file descriptors are now passed as ancillary data for
195.Dv AF_UNIX
196domain sockets, with
197.Fa cmsg_level
198set to
199.Dv SOL_SOCKET
200and
201.Fa cmsg_type
202set to
203.Dv SCM_RIGHTS .
204.Pp
205The
206.Fa msg_flags
207field is set on return according to the message received.
208.Dv MSG_EOR
209indicates end-of-record;
210the data returned completed a record (generally used with sockets of type
211.Dv SOCK_SEQPACKET ) .
212.Dv MSG_TRUNC
213indicates that
214the trailing portion of a datagram was discarded because the datagram
215was larger than the buffer supplied.
216.Dv MSG_CTRUNC
217indicates that some
218control data were discarded due to lack of space in the buffer
219for ancillary data.
220.Dv MSG_OOB
221is returned to indicate that expedited or out-of-band data were received.
222.Pp
223.Sh RETURN VALUES
224These calls return the number of bytes received, or -1
225if an error occurred.
226.Sh ERRORS
227The calls fail if:
228.Bl -tag -width Er
229.It Bq Er EBADF
230The argument
231.Fa s
232is an invalid descriptor.
233.It Bq Er ENOTCONN
234The socket is associated with a connection-oriented protocol
235and has not been connected (see
236.Xr connect 2
237and
238.Xr accept 2 ).
239.It Bq Er ENOTSOCK
240The argument
241.Fa s
242does not refer to a socket.
243.It Bq Er EAGAIN
244The socket is marked non-blocking, and the receive operation
245would block, or
246a receive timeout had been set,
247and the timeout expired before data were received.
248.It Bq Er EINTR
249The receive was interrupted by delivery of a signal before
250any data were available.
251.It Bq Er EFAULT
252The receive buffer pointer(s) point outside the process's
253address space.
254.El
255.Sh SEE ALSO
256.Xr fcntl 2 ,
257.Xr read 2 ,
258.Xr select 2 ,
259.Xr getsockopt 2 ,
260.Xr socket 2
261.Sh HISTORY
262The
263.Fn recv
264function call appeared in
265.Bx 4.2 .
266