libc/sys/open.2

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.\"     @(#)open.2	8.2 (Berkeley) 11/16/93
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd February 28, 2009
.Dt OPEN 2
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm open , openat
.Nd open or create a file for reading, writing or executing
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libc
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In fcntl.h
.Ft int
.Fn open "const char *path" "int flags" "..."
.Ft int
.Fn openat "int fd" "const char *path" "int flags" "..."
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The file name specified by
.Fa path
is opened
for either execution or reading and/or writing as specified by the
argument
.Fa flags
and the file descriptor returned to the calling process.
The
.Fa flags
argument may indicate the file is to be
created if it does not exist (by specifying the
.Dv O_CREAT
flag).
In this case
.Fn open
and
.Fn openat
require an additional argument
.Fa "mode_t mode" ,
and the file is created with mode
.Fa mode
as described in
.Xr chmod 2
and modified by the process' umask value (see
.Xr umask 2 ) .
.Pp
The
.Fn openat
function is equivalent to the
.Fn open
function except in the case where the
.Fa path
specifies a relative path.
In this case the file to be opened is determined relative to the directory
associated with the file descriptor
.Fa fd
instead of the current working directory.
The
.Fa flag
parameter and the optional fourth parameter correspond exactly to
the parameters of
.Fn open .
If
.Fn openat
is passed the special value
.Dv AT_FDCWD
in the
.Fa fd
parameter, the current working directory is used
and the behavior is identical to a call to
.Fn open .
.Pp
The flags specified are formed by
.Em or Ns 'ing
the following values
.Pp
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
O_RDONLY	open for reading only
O_WRONLY	open for writing only
O_RDWR		open for reading and writing
O_EXEC		open for execute only
O_NONBLOCK	do not block on open
O_APPEND	append on each write
O_CREAT		create file if it does not exist
O_TRUNC		truncate size to 0
O_EXCL		error if create and file exists
O_SHLOCK	atomically obtain a shared lock
O_EXLOCK	atomically obtain an exclusive lock
O_DIRECT	eliminate or reduce cache effects
O_FSYNC		synchronous writes
O_SYNC		synchronous writes
O_NOFOLLOW	do not follow symlinks
O_NOCTTY	don't assign controlling terminal
O_TTY_INIT	restore default terminal attributes
O_DIRECTORY	error if file is not a directory
.Ed
.Pp
Opening a file with
.Dv O_APPEND
set causes each write on the file
to be appended to the end.
If
.Dv O_TRUNC
is specified and the
file exists, the file is truncated to zero length.
If
.Dv O_EXCL
is set with
.Dv O_CREAT
and the file already
exists,
.Fn open
returns an error.
This may be used to
implement a simple exclusive access locking mechanism.
If
.Dv O_EXCL
is set and the last component of the pathname is
a symbolic link,
.Fn open
will fail even if the symbolic
link points to a non-existent name.
If the
.Dv O_NONBLOCK
flag is specified and the
.Fn open
system call would result
in the process being blocked for some reason (e.g., waiting for
carrier on a dialup line),
.Fn open
returns immediately.
The descriptor remains in non-blocking mode for subsequent operations.
.Pp
If
.Dv O_FSYNC
is used in the mask, all writes will
immediately be written to disk,
the kernel will not cache written data
and all writes on the descriptor will not return until
the data to be written completes.
.Pp
.Dv O_SYNC
is a synonym for
.Dv O_FSYNC
required by
.Tn POSIX .
.Pp
If
.Dv O_NOFOLLOW
is used in the mask and the target file passed to
.Fn open
is a symbolic link then the
.Fn open
will fail.
.Pp
When opening a file, a lock with
.Xr flock 2
semantics can be obtained by setting
.Dv O_SHLOCK
for a shared lock, or
.Dv O_EXLOCK
for an exclusive lock.
If creating a file with
.Dv O_CREAT ,
the request for the lock will never fail
(provided that the underlying file system supports locking).
.Pp
.Dv O_DIRECT
may be used to minimize or eliminate the cache effects of reading and writing.
The system will attempt to avoid caching the data you read or write.
If it cannot avoid caching the data,
it will minimize the impact the data has on the cache.
Use of this flag can drastically reduce performance if not used with care.
.Pp
.Dv O_NOCTTY
may be used to ensure the OS does not assign this file as the
controlling terminal when it opens a tty device.
This is the default on
.Fx ,
but is present for
.Tn POSIX
compatibility.
The
.Fn open
system call will not assign controlling terminals on
.Fx .
.Pp
.Dv O_TTY_INIT
may be used to ensure the OS restores the terminal attributes when
initially opening a TTY.
This is the default on
.Fx ,
but is present for
.Tn POSIX
compatibility.
The initial call to
.Fn open
on a TTY will always restore default terminal attributes on
.Fx .
.Pp
.Dv O_DIRECTORY
may be used to ensure the resulting file descriptor refers to a
directory.
This flag can be used to prevent applications with elevated privileges
from opening files which are even unsafe to open with
.Dv O_RDONLY ,
such as device nodes.
.Pp
If successful,
.Fn open
returns a non-negative integer, termed a file descriptor.
It returns \-1 on failure.
The file pointer used to mark the current position within the
file is set to the beginning of the file.
.Pp
When a new file is created it is given the group of the directory
which contains it.
.Pp
The new descriptor is set to remain open across
.Xr execve 2
system calls; see
.Xr close 2
and
.Xr fcntl 2 .
.Pp
The system imposes a limit on the number of file descriptors
open simultaneously by one process.
The
.Xr getdtablesize 2
system call returns the current system limit.
.Sh RETURN VALUES
If successful,
.Fn open
and
.Fn openat
return a non-negative integer, termed a file descriptor.
They return \-1 on failure, and set
.Va errno
to indicate the error.
.Sh ERRORS
The named file is opened unless:
.Bl -tag -width Er
.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters,
or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.
.It Bq Er ENOENT
.Dv O_CREAT
is not set and the named file does not exist.
.It Bq Er ENOENT
A component of the path name that must exist does not exist.
.It Bq Er EACCES
Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.
.It Bq Er EACCES
The required permissions (for reading and/or writing)
are denied for the given flags.
.It Bq Er EACCES
.Dv O_TRUNC
is specified and write permission is denied.
.It Bq Er EACCES
.Dv O_CREAT
is specified,
the file does not exist,
and the directory in which it is to be created
does not permit writing.
.It Bq Er EPERM
.Dv O_CREAT
is specified, the file does not exist, and the directory in which it is to be
created has its immutable flag set, see the
.Xr chflags 2
manual page for more information.
.It Bq Er EPERM
The named file has its immutable flag set and the file is to be modified.
.It Bq Er EPERM
The named file has its append-only flag set, the file is to be modified, and
.Dv O_TRUNC
is specified or
.Dv O_APPEND
is not specified.
.It Bq Er ELOOP
Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
.It Bq Er EISDIR
The named file is a directory, and the arguments specify
it is to be modified.
.It Bq Er EROFS
The named file resides on a read-only file system,
and the file is to be modified.
.It Bq Er EROFS
.Dv O_CREAT
is specified and the named file would reside on a read-only file system.
.It Bq Er EMFILE
The process has already reached its limit for open file descriptors.
.It Bq Er ENFILE
The system file table is full.
.It Bq Er EMLINK
.Dv O_NOFOLLOW
was specified and the target is a symbolic link.
.It Bq Er ENXIO
The named file is a character special or block
special file, and the device associated with this special file
does not exist.
.It Bq Er ENXIO
.Dv O_NONBLOCK
is set, the named file is a fifo,
.Dv O_WRONLY
is set, and no process has the file open for reading.
.It Bq Er EINTR
The
.Fn open
operation was interrupted by a signal.
.It Bq Er EOPNOTSUPP
.Dv O_SHLOCK
or
.Dv O_EXLOCK
is specified but the underlying file system does not support locking.
.It Bq Er EOPNOTSUPP
The named file is a special file mounted through a file system that
does not support access to it (e.g.\& NFS).
.It Bq Er EWOULDBLOCK
.Dv O_NONBLOCK
and one of
.Dv O_SHLOCK
or
.Dv O_EXLOCK
is specified and the file is locked.
.It Bq Er ENOSPC
.Dv O_CREAT
is specified,
the file does not exist,
and the directory in which the entry for the new file is being placed
cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file
system containing the directory.
.It Bq Er ENOSPC
.Dv O_CREAT
is specified,
the file does not exist,
and there are no free inodes on the file system on which the
file is being created.
.It Bq Er EDQUOT
.Dv O_CREAT
is specified,
the file does not exist,
and the directory in which the entry for the new file
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
.Dv O_CREAT
is specified,
the file does not exist,
and the user's quota of inodes on the file system on
which the file is being created has been exhausted.
.It Bq Er EIO
An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry or
allocating the inode for
.Dv O_CREAT .
.It Bq Er ETXTBSY
The file is a pure procedure (shared text) file that is being
executed and the
.Fn open
system call requests write access.
.It Bq Er EFAULT
The
.Fa path
argument
points outside the process's allocated address space.
.It Bq Er EEXIST
.Dv O_CREAT
and
.Dv O_EXCL
were specified and the file exists.
.It Bq Er EOPNOTSUPP
An attempt was made to open a socket (not currently implemented).
.It Bq Er EINVAL
An attempt was made to open a descriptor with an illegal combination
of
.Dv O_RDONLY ,
.Dv O_WRONLY ,
.Dv O_RDWR
and
.Dv O_EXEC.
.It Bq Eq 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 searching.
.It Bq Eq ENOTDIR
The
.Fa path
argument is not an absolute path and
.Fa fd
is neither
.Dv AT_FDCWD
nor a file descriptor associated with a directory.
.It Bq Eq ENOTDIR
.Dv O_DIRECTORY
is specified and the file is not a directory.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr chmod 2 ,
.Xr close 2 ,
.Xr dup 2 ,
.Xr fexecve 2 ,
.Xr fhopen 2 ,
.Xr getdtablesize 2 ,
.Xr getfh 2 ,
.Xr lgetfh 2 ,
.Xr lseek 2 ,
.Xr read 2 ,
.Xr umask 2 ,
.Xr write 2 ,
.Xr fopen 3
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Fn open
function appeared in
.At v6 .
The
.Fn openat
function was introduced in
.Fx 8.0 .
.Sh BUGS
The Open Group Extended API Set 2 specification requires that the test
for whether
.Fa fd
is searchable is based on whether
.Fa fd
is open for searching, not whether the underlying directory currently
permits searches.
The present implementation of the
.Fa openat
checks the current permissions of directory instead.