xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man9/filedesc.9 (revision 23c8222edbfb0f0932d88a8351d3a0cf817dfb9e)
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37.Dd October 12, 2002
38.Dt FILEDESC 9
39.Os
40.Sh NAME
41.Nm filedesc ,
42.Nm dupfdopen ,
43.Nm falloc ,
44.Nm fd_getfile ,
45.Nm fdalloc ,
46.Nm fdavail ,
47.Nm fdcheckstd ,
48.Nm fdclear ,
49.Nm fdcloseexec ,
50.Nm fdcopy ,
51.Nm fdexpand ,
52.Nm fdfree ,
53.Nm fdinit ,
54.Nm fdrelease ,
55.Nm fdremove ,
56.Nm fdshare ,
57.Nm fdunshare
58.Nd file descriptor tables and operations
59.Sh SYNOPSIS
60.In sys/file.h
61.In sys/filedesc.h
62.Ft int
63.Fn falloc "struct proc *p" "struct file **resultfp" "int *resultfd"
64.Ft struct file *
65.Fn fd_getfile "struct filedesc *fdp" "int fd"
66.Ft int
67.Fn dupfdopen "struct proc *p" "int indx" "int dfd" "int mode" "int error"
68.Ft int
69.Fn fdalloc "struct proc *p" "int want" "int *result"
70.Ft int
71.Fn fdavail "struct proc *p" "int n"
72.Ft int
73.Fn fdcheckstd "struct proc *p"
74.Ft void
75.Fn fdclear "struct proc *p"
76.Ft void
77.Fn fdcloseexec "struct proc *p"
78.Ft struct filedesc *
79.Fn fdcopy "struct proc *p"
80.Ft void
81.Fn fdexpand "struct proc *p"
82.Ft void
83.Fn fdfree "struct proc *p"
84.Ft struct filedesc *
85.Fn fdinit "struct proc *p"
86.Ft int
87.Fn fdrelease "struct proc *p" "int fd"
88.Ft void
89.Fn fdremove "struct filedesc *fdp" "int fd"
90.Ft void
91.Fn fdshare "struct proc *p1" "struct proc *p2"
92.Ft void
93.Fn fdunshare "struct proc *p"
94.Sh DESCRIPTION
95For user processes, all I/O is done through file descriptors.
96These file descriptors represent underlying objects supported by the kernel
97and are created by system calls specific to the type of object.
98In
99.Nx ,
100three type of objects can be represented by file descriptors: data
101files, pipes, and sockets.
102.Pp
103The kernel maintains a descriptor table for each process which is used
104to translate the external representation of a file descriptor into an
105internal representation.
106The file descriptor is merely an index into this table.
107The file descriptor table maintains the following information:
108.Pp
109.Bl -bullet -compact
110.It
111the number of descriptors allocated in the file descriptor table;
112.It
113approximate next free descriptor;
114.It
115a reference count on the file descriptor table; and
116.It
117an array of open file entries.
118.El
119.Pp
120On creation of the file descriptor table, a fixed number of file
121entries are created.
122It is the responsibility of the file descriptor operations to expand the
123available number of entries if more are required.
124Each file entry in the descriptor table contains the information necessary
125to access the underlying object and to maintain common information.
126See
127.Xr file 9
128for details of operations on the file entries.
129.Pp
130New file descriptors are generally allocated by
131.Fn falloc
132and freed by
133.Fn fdrelease .
134File entries are extracted from the file descriptor table by
135.Fn fd_getfile .
136Most of the remaining functions in the interface are purpose specific
137and perform lower-level file descriptor operations.
138.Sh FUNCTIONS
139The following functions are high-level interface routines to access
140the file descriptor table for a process and its file entries.
141.Pp
142.Bl -tag -width compact
143.It Fn falloc "p" "*resultfp" "*resultfd"
144Create a new open file entry and allocate a file descriptor for
145process
146.Fa p .
147This operation is performed by invoking
148.Fn fdalloc
149to allocate the new file descriptor.
150The credential on the file entry are inherited from process
151.Fa p .
152The
153.Fn falloc
154function is responsible for expanding the file descriptor table when
155necessary.
156.Pp
157A pointer to the file entry is returned in
158.Fa *resultfp
159and the file descriptor is returned in
160.Fa *resultfd .
161The
162.Fn falloc
163function returns zero on success, otherwise an appropriate error is
164returned.
165.It Fn fd_getfile "fdp" "fd"
166Get the file entry for file descriptor
167.Fa fd
168in the file descriptor table
169.Fa fdp .
170The file entry is returned if it is valid and useable, otherwise
171.Dv NULL
172is returned.
173.It Fn dupfdopen "p" "indx" "dfd" "mode" "error"
174Duplicate file descriptor
175.Fa dfd
176for process
177.Fa p .
178.El
179.Pp
180The following functions operate on the file descriptor table for a
181process.
182.Pp
183.Bl -tag -width compact
184.It Fn fdalloc "p" "want" "*result"
185Allocate a file descriptor
186.Fa want
187 for process
188.Fa p .
189The resultant file descriptor is returned in
190.Fa *result .
191The
192.Fn fdalloc
193function returns zero on success, otherwise an appropriate error is
194returned.
195.It Fn fdavail "p" "n"
196Check to see whether
197.Fa n
198file descriptors are available to process
199.Fa p .
200Returns zero on success, or 1 on failure.
201.It Fn fdcheckstd "p"
202Check the standard file descriptors 0, 1, 2 and ensure they are
203referencing valid file descriptors.
204If they are not, create references to
205.Pa /dev/null .
206This operation is necessary as these file descriptors are given implicit
207significance in the Standard C Library and it is unsafe for
208.Xr setuid 2
209and
210.Xr setgid 2
211processes to be started with these file descriptors closed.
212.It Fn fdclear "p"
213Clear the descriptor table for process
214.Fa p .
215This operation is performed by invoking
216.Fn fdinit
217to initialise a new file descriptor table to replace the old file
218descriptor table and invoking
219.Fn fdfree
220to release the old one.
221.It Fn fdcloseexec "p"
222Close any files for process
223.Fa p
224that are marked
225.Dq close on exec .
226This operation is performed by invoking
227.Fn fdunshare
228for the process and invoking
229.Fn fdrelease
230on the appropriate file descriptor.
231.It Fn fdcopy "p"
232Copy the file descriptor table from process
233.Fa p
234and return a pointer to the copy.
235The returned file descriptor is guaranteed to have a reference count of one.
236All file descriptor state is maintained.
237The reference counts on each file entry referenced by the file
238descriptor table is incremented accordingly.
239.It Fn fdexpand "p"
240Expand the file descriptor table for process
241.Fa p
242by allocating memory for additional file descriptors.
243.It Fn fdfree "p"
244Decrement the reference count on the file descriptor table for process
245.Fa p
246and release the file descriptor table if the reference count drops to
247zero.
248.It Fn fdinit "p"
249Create a file descriptor table using the same current and root
250directories of process
251.Fa p .
252The returned file descriptor table is guaranteed to have a reference
253count of one.
254.It Fn fdrelease "p" "fd"
255Remove file descriptor
256.Fa fd
257from the file descriptor table of process
258.Fa p .
259The operation is performed by invoking
260.Fn closef .
261.It Fn fdremove "fdp" "fd"
262Unconditionally remove the file descriptor
263.Fa fd
264from file descriptor table
265.Fa fdp .
266.It Fn fdshare "p1" "p2"
267Share the file descriptor table belonging to process
268.Fa p1
269with process
270.Fa p2 .
271Process
272.Fa p2
273is assumed not to have a file descriptor table already allocated.
274The reference count on the file descriptor table is incremented.
275This function is used by
276.Xr fork1 9 .
277.It Fn fdunshare "p"
278Ensure that process
279.Fa p
280does not share its file descriptor table.
281If its file descriptor table has more than one reference, the file
282descriptor table is copied by invoking
283.Fn fdcopy .
284The reference count on the original file descriptor table is
285decremented.
286.El
287.Sh RETURN VALUES
288Successful operations return zero.
289A failed operation will return a non-zero return value.
290Possible values include:
291.Pp
292.Bl -tag -width Er
293.It Bq Er EBADF
294Bad file descriptor specified.
295.It Bq Er EMFILE
296Cannot exceed file descriptor limit.
297.It Bq Er ENOSPC
298No space left in file descriptor table.
299.El
300.Sh CODE REFERENCES
301This section describes places within the
302.Nx
303source tree where actual code implementing or using file
304descriptors can be found.
305All pathnames are relative to
306.Pa /usr/src .
307.Pp
308The framework for file descriptor handling is implemented within the
309file
310.Pa sys/kern/kern_descrip.c .
311.Sh SEE ALSO
312.Xr file 9
313