xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/sys/recv.2 (revision ae9172d6cd9432a6a1a56760d86b32c57a66c39c)
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32.\"     from: @(#)recv.2	6.11 (Berkeley) 5/1/91
33.\"	$Id: recv.2,v 1.5 1994/01/10 23:54:25 jtc Exp $
34.\"
35.Dd May 1, 1991
36.Dt RECV 2
37.Os BSD 4.3r
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm recv ,
40.Nm recvfrom ,
41.Nm recvmsg
42.Nd receive a message from a socket
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.Fd #include <sys/types.h>
45.Fd #include <sys/socket.h>
46.Ft int
47.Fn recv "int s" "void *buf" "int len" "int flags"
48.Ft int
49.Fn recvfrom "int s" "void *buf" "int len" "int flags" "struct sockaddr *from" "int *fromlen"
50.Ft int
51.Fn recvmsg "int s" "struct msghdr *msg" "int flags"
52.Sh DESCRIPTION
53.Fn Recvfrom
54and
55.Fn recvmsg
56are used to receive messages from a socket,
57and may be used to receive data on a socket whether or not
58it is connection-oriented.
59.Pp
60If
61.Fa from
62is non-nil, and the socket is not connection-oriented,
63the source address of the message is filled in.
64.Fa Fromlen
65is a value-result parameter, initialized to the size of
66the buffer associated with
67.Fa from ,
68and modified on return to indicate the actual size of the
69address stored there.
70.Pp
71The
72.Fn recv
73call is normally used only on a
74.Em connected
75socket (see
76.Xr connect 2 )
77and is identical to
78.Fn recvfrom
79with a nil
80.Fa from
81parameter.
82As it is redundant, it may not be supported in future releases.
83.Pp
84All three routines return the length of the message on successful
85completion.
86If a message is too long to fit in the supplied buffer,
87excess bytes may be discarded depending on the type of socket
88the message is received from (see
89.Xr socket 2 ) .
90.Pp
91If no messages are available at the socket, the
92receive call waits for a message to arrive, unless
93the socket is nonblocking (see
94.Xr fcntl 2 )
95in which case the value
96-1 is returned and the external variable
97.Va errno
98set to
99.Er EWOULDBLOCK.
100The receive calls normally return any data available,
101up to the requested amount,
102rather than waiting for receipt of the full amount requested;
103this behavior is affected by the socket-level options
104.Dv SO_RCVLOWAT
105and
106.Dv SO_RCVTIMEO
107described in
108.Xr getsockopt 2 .
109.Pp
110The
111.Xr select 2
112call may be used to determine when more data arrive.
113.Pp
114The
115.Fa flags
116argument to a recv call is formed by
117.Em or Ap ing
118one or more of the values:
119.Bl -column MSG_WAITALL -offset indent
120.It Dv MSG_OOB Ta process out-of-band data
121.It Dv MSG_PEEK Ta peek at incoming message
122.It Dv MSG_WAITALL Ta wait for full request or error
123.El
124The
125.Dv MSG_OOB
126flag requests receipt of out-of-band data
127that would not be received in the normal data stream.
128Some protocols place expedited data at the head of the normal
129data queue, and thus this flag cannot be used with such protocols.
130The MSG_PEEK flag causes the receive operation to return data
131from the beginning of the receive queue without removing that
132data from the queue.
133Thus, a subsequent receive call will return the same data.
134The MSG_WAITALL flag requests that the operation block until
135the full request is satisfied.
136However, the call may still return less data than requested
137if a signal is caught, an error or disconnect occurs,
138or the next data to be received is of a different type than that returned.
139.Pp
140The
141.Fn recvmsg
142call uses a
143.Fa msghdr
144structure to minimize the number of directly supplied parameters.
145This structure has the following form, as defined in
146.Ao Pa sys/socket.h Ac :
147.Pp
148.Bd -literal
149struct msghdr {
150	caddr_t	msg_name;	/* optional address */
151	u_int	msg_namelen;	/* size of address */
152	struct	iovec *msg_iov;	/* scatter/gather array */
153	u_int	msg_iovlen;	/* # elements in msg_iov */
154	caddr_t	msg_control;	/* ancillary data, see below */
155	u_int	msg_controllen; /* ancillary data buffer len */
156	int	msg_flags;	/* flags on received message */
157};
158.Ed
159.Pp
160Here
161.Fa msg_name
162and
163.Fa msg_namelen
164specify the destination address if the socket is unconnected;
165.Fa msg_name
166may be given as a null pointer if no names are desired or required.
167.Fa Msg_iov
168and
169.Fa msg_iovlen
170describe scatter gather locations, as discussed in
171.Xr read 2 .
172.Fa Msg_control ,
173which has length
174.Fa msg_controllen ,
175points to a buffer for other protocol control related messages
176or other miscellaneous ancillary data.
177The messages are of the form:
178.Bd -literal
179struct cmsghdr {
180	u_int	cmsg_len;	/* data byte count, including hdr */
181	int	cmsg_level;	/* originating protocol */
182	int	cmsg_type;	/* protocol-specific type */
183/* followed by
184	u_char	cmsg_data[]; */
185};
186.Ed
187As an example, one could use this to learn of changes in the data-stream
188in XNS/SPP, or in ISO, to obtain user-connection-request data by requesting
189a recvmsg with no data buffer provided immediately after an
190.Fn accept
191call.
192.Pp
193Open file descriptors are now passed as ancillary data for
194.Dv AF_UNIX
195domain sockets, with
196.Fa cmsg_level
197set to
198.Dv SOL_SOCKET
199and
200.Fa cmsg_type
201set to
202.Dv SCM_RIGHTS .
203.Pp
204The
205.Fa msg_flags
206field is set on return according to the message received.
207.Dv MSG_EOR
208indicates end-of-record;
209the data returned completed a record (generally used with sockets of type
210.Dv SOCK_SEQPACKET ) .
211.Dv MSG_TRUNC
212indicates that
213the trailing portion of a datagram was discarded because the datagram
214was larger than the buffer supplied.
215.Dv MSG_CTRUNC
216indicates that some
217control data were discarded due to lack of space in the buffer
218for ancillary data.
219.Dv MSG_OOB
220is returned to indicate that expedited or out-of-band data were received.
221.Pp
222.Sh RETURN VALUES
223These calls return the number of bytes received, or -1
224if an error occurred.
225.Sh ERRORS
226The calls fail if:
227.Bl -tag -width Er
228.It Bq Er EBADF
229The argument
230.Fa s
231is an invalid descriptor.
232.It Bq Er ENOTCONN
233The socket is associated with a connection-oriented protocol
234and has not been connected (see
235.Xr connect 2
236and
237.Xr accept 2 ).
238.It Bq Er ENOTSOCK
239The argument
240.Fa s
241does not refer to a socket.
242.It Bq Er EWOULDBLOCK
243The socket is marked non-blocking, and the receive operation
244would block, or
245a receive timeout had been set,
246and the timeout expired before data were received.
247.It Bq Er EINTR
248The receive was interrupted by delivery of a signal before
249any data were available.
250.It Bq Er EFAULT
251The receive buffer pointer(s) point outside the process's
252address space.
253.El
254.Sh SEE ALSO
255.Xr fcntl 2 ,
256.Xr read 2 ,
257.Xr select 2 ,
258.Xr getsockopt 2 ,
259.Xr socket 2
260.Sh HISTORY
261The
262.Fn recv
263function call appeared in
264.Bx 4.2 .
265