path: root/lib/libc/sys/poll.2

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.Dd December 13, 1994
.Dt POLL 2
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm poll
.Nd synchronous I/O multiplexing
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Fd #include <poll.h>
.Ft int
.Fn poll "struct pollfd *fds" "int nfds" "int timeout"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Fn poll
provides a mechanism for multiplexing I/O across a set of file
descriptors.
It is similar in function to
.Xr select 2 .
Unlike
.Xr select 2 ,
however, it is possible to only pass in data corresponding to the
file descriptors for which events are wanted.
This makes
.Fn poll
more efficient than
.Xr select 2
in most cases.
.Pp
The arguments are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width timeout
.It Fa fds
Points to an array of
.Fa pollfd
structures, which are defined as:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
struct pollfd {
	int fd;
	short events;
	short revents;
};
.Ed
.Pp
The
.Fa fd
member is an open file descriptor.
If
.Fa fd
is -1,
the
.Fa pollfd
structure is considered unused, and
.Fa revents
will be cleared.
.Pp
The
.Fa events
and
.Fa revents
members are bitmasks of conditions to monitor and conditions found,
respectively.
.It Fa nfds
The number of
.Fa pollfd
structures in the array.
.It Fa timeout
Maximum interval to wait for the poll to complete, in milliseconds.
If this value is 0,
.Fn poll
will return immediately.
If this value is INFTIM (-1),
.Fn poll
will block indefinitely until a condition is found.
.El
.Pp
The calling process sets the
.Fa events
bitmask and
.Fn poll
sets the
.Fa revents
bitmask.
Each call to
.Fn poll
resets the
.Fa revents
bitmask for accuracy.
The condition flags in the bitmasks are defined as:
.Bl -tag -width POLLRDNORM
.It Dv POLLIN
Data other than high-priority data may be read without blocking.
.It Dv POLLRDNORM
Normal data may be read without blocking.
.It Dv POLLRDBAND
Priority data may be read without blocking.
.It Dv POLLNORM
Same as
.Dv POLLRDNORM .
This flag is provided for source code compatibility with older
programs and should not be used in new code.
.It Dv POLLPRI
High-priority data may be read without blocking.
.It Dv POLLOUT
Normal data may be written without blocking.
.It Dv POLLWRNORM
Same as
.Dv POLLOUT .
.It Dv POLLWRBAND
Priority data may be written.
.It Dv POLLERR
An error has occurred on the device or socket.
This flag is only valid in the
.Fa revents
bitmask; it is ignored in the
.Fa events
member.
.It Dv POLLHUP
The device or socket has been disconnected.
This event and
.Dv POLLOUT
are mutually-exclusive; a descriptor can never be writable if a hangup has
occurred.
However, this event and
.Dv POLLIN ,
.Dv POLLRDNORM ,
.Dv POLLRDBAND ,
or
.Dv POLLPRI
are not mutually-exclusive.
This flag is only valid in the
.Fa revents
bitmask; it is ignored in the
.Fa events
member.
.It Dv POLLNVAL
The corresponding file descriptor is invalid.
This flag is only valid in the
.Fa revents
bitmask; it is ignored in the
.Fa events
member.
.El
.Pp
The significance and semantics of normal, priority, and high-priority
data are device-specific.
.Pp
In addition to I/O multiplexing,
.Fn poll
can be used to generate simple timeouts.
This functionality may be achieved by passing a null pointer for
.Fa fds .
.Sh RETURN VALUES
Upon error,
.Fn poll
returns \-1 and sets the global variable
.Va errno
to indicate the error.
If the timeout interval was reached before any events occurred,
.Fn poll
returns 0.
Otherwise,
.Fn poll
returns the number of file descriptors for which
.Fa revents
is non-zero.
.Sh EXAMPLES
The following example implements a read from the standard input that times
out after 60 seconds:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
#include <err.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>

struct pollfd pfd[1];
char buf[BUFSIZ];
int nfds;

pfd[0].fd = STDIN_FILENO;
pfd[0].events = POLLIN;
nfds = poll(pfd, 1, 60 * 1000);
if (nfds == -1 || (pfd[0].revents & (POLLERR|POLLHUP|POLLNVAL)))
	errx(1, "poll error");
if (nfds == 0)
	errx(1, "time out");
if (read(STDIN_FILENO, buf, sizeof(buf)) == -1)
	errx(1, "read");
.Ed
.Sh ERRORS
.Fn poll
will fail if:
.Bl -tag -width "EINVAL   "
.It Bq Er EFAULT
.Fa fds
points outside the process's allocated address space.
.It Bq Er EINTR
.Fn poll
caught a signal during the polling process.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
.Fa nfds
was either a negative number or greater than the number of available
file descriptors.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
The timeout passed to
.Fn poll
was too large.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr getrlimit 2 ,
.Xr read 2 ,
.Xr select 2 ,
.Xr write 2
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Fn poll
system call appeared in
.At V.3 .
.Sh BUGS
The
.Dv POLLERR
and
.Dv POLLWRBAND
flags are accepted but ignored by the kernel.
.Pp
Because
.Ox
does not implement
.Tn STREAMS ,
there is no distinction between some of the fields in the
.Fa events
and
.Fa revents
bitmasks.
As a result, the
.Dv POLLIN ,
.Dv POLLNORM ,
and
.Dv POLLRDNORM
flags are equivalent.
.Pp
Internally to the kernel,
.Fn poll
works poorly if multiple processes wait on the same file descriptor.