.\" $OpenBSD: mkfifo.2,v 1.9 2011/07/18 23:04:40 matthew Exp $ .\" $NetBSD: mkfifo.2,v 1.8 1995/02/27 12:34:27 cgd Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)mkfifo.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: July 18 2011 $ .Dt MKFIFO 2 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm mkfifo , .Nm mkfifoat .Nd make a FIFO file .Sh SYNOPSIS .Fd #include .Fd #include .Fd #include .Ft int .Fn mkfifo "const char *path" "mode_t mode" .Ft int .Fn mkfifoat "int fd" "const char *path" "mode_t mode" .Sh DESCRIPTION .Fn mkfifo creates a new FIFO file with name .Fa path . The access permissions are specified by .Fa mode and restricted by the .Xr umask 2 of the calling process. .Pp The FIFO's owner ID is set to the process's effective user ID. The FIFO's group ID is set to that of the parent directory in which it is created. .Pp The .Fn mkfifoat function is equivalent to .Fn mkfifo except that where .Fa path specifies a relative path, the newly created FIFO is created relative to the directory associated with file descriptor .Fa fd instead of the current working directory. .Pp If .Fn mkfifoat is passed the special value .Dv AT_FDCWD (defined in .In fcntl.h ) in the .Fa fd parameter, the current working directory is used and the behavior is identical to a call to .Fn mkfifo . .Sh RETURN VALUES A 0 return value indicates success. A \-1 return value indicates an error, and an error code is stored in .Va errno . .Sh ERRORS .Fn mkfifo and .Fn mkfifoat will fail and no FIFO will be created if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EOPNOTSUPP The kernel has not been configured to support FIFOs. .It Bq Er ENOTDIR A component of the path prefix is not a directory. .It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG A component of a pathname exceeded .Dv {NAME_MAX} characters, or an entire path name exceeded .Dv {PATH_MAX} characters. .It Bq Er ENOENT A component of the path prefix does not exist. .It Bq Er EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix. .It Bq Er ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. .It Bq Er EROFS The named file resides on a read-only file system. .It Bq Er EEXIST The named file exists. .It Bq Er ENOSPC The directory in which the entry for the new FIFO is being placed cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file system containing the directory. .It Bq Er ENOSPC There are no free inodes on the file system on which the FIFO is being created. .It Bq Er EDQUOT The directory in which the entry for the new FIFO is being placed cannot be extended because the user's quota of disk blocks on the file system containing the directory has been exhausted. .It Bq Er EDQUOT The user's quota of inodes on the file system on which the FIFO is being created has been exhausted. .It Bq Er EIO An .Tn I/O error occurred while making the directory entry or allocating the inode. .It Bq Er EIO An .Tn I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system. .It Bq Er EFAULT .Fa path points outside the process's allocated address space. .El .Pp Additionally, .Fn mkfifoat will fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EBADF The .Fa path argument does not specify an absolute path and the .Fa fd argument is neither .Dv AT_FDCWD nor a valid file descriptor open for reading. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr chmod 2 , .Xr stat 2 , .Xr umask 2 .Sh STANDARDS The .Nm mkfifo and .Nm mkfifoat functions conform to .St -p1003.1-2008 . .Sh HISTORY The .Nm mkfifoat function appeared in .Ox 5.0 .