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<refentry id="sd_journal_get_fd">

        <refentryinfo>
                <title>sd_journal_get_fd</title>
                <productname>systemd</productname>

                <authorgroup>
                        <author>
                                <contrib>Developer</contrib>
                                <firstname>Lennart</firstname>
                                <surname>Poettering</surname>
                                <email>lennart@poettering.net</email>
                        </author>
                </authorgroup>
        </refentryinfo>

        <refmeta>
                <refentrytitle>sd_journal_get_fd</refentrytitle>
                <manvolnum>3</manvolnum>
        </refmeta>

        <refnamediv>
                <refname>sd_journal_get_fd</refname>
                <refname>sd_journal_get_events</refname>
                <refname>sd_journal_get_timeout</refname>
                <refname>sd_journal_process</refname>
                <refname>sd_journal_wait</refname>
                <refname>sd_journal_reliable_fd</refname>
                <refname>SD_JOURNAL_NOP</refname>
                <refname>SD_JOURNAL_APPEND</refname>
                <refname>SD_JOURNAL_INVALIDATE</refname>
                <refpurpose>Journal change notification
                interface</refpurpose>
        </refnamediv>

        <refsynopsisdiv>
                <funcsynopsis>
                        <funcsynopsisinfo>#include &lt;systemd/sd-journal.h&gt;</funcsynopsisinfo>

                        <funcprototype>
                                <funcdef>int <function>sd_journal_get_fd</function></funcdef>
                                <paramdef>sd_journal* <parameter>j</parameter></paramdef>
                        </funcprototype>

                        <funcprototype>
                                <funcdef>int <function>sd_journal_get_events</function></funcdef>
                                <paramdef>sd_journal* <parameter>j</parameter></paramdef>
                        </funcprototype>

                        <funcprototype>
                                <funcdef>int <function>sd_journal_get_timeout</function></funcdef>
                                <paramdef>sd_journal* <parameter>j</parameter></paramdef>
                                <paramdef>uint64_t* <parameter>timeout_usec</parameter></paramdef>
                        </funcprototype>

                        <funcprototype>
                                <funcdef>int <function>sd_journal_process</function></funcdef>
                                <paramdef>sd_journal* <parameter>j</parameter></paramdef>
                        </funcprototype>

                        <funcprototype>
                                <funcdef>int <function>sd_journal_wait</function></funcdef>
                                <paramdef>sd_journal* <parameter>j</parameter></paramdef>
                                <paramdef>uint64_t <parameter>timeout_usec</parameter></paramdef>
                        </funcprototype>

                        <funcprototype>
                                <funcdef>int <function>sd_journal_reliable_fd</function></funcdef>
                                <paramdef>sd_journal* <parameter>j</parameter></paramdef>
                        </funcprototype>

                </funcsynopsis>
        </refsynopsisdiv>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Description</title>

                <para><function>sd_journal_get_fd()</function> returns
                a file descriptor that may be asynchronously polled in
                an external event loop and is signaled as soon as the
                journal changes, because new entries or files were
                added, rotation took place, or files have been
                deleted, and similar. The file descriptor is suitable
                for usage in
                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>poll</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>. Use
                <function>sd_journal_get_events()</function> for an
                events mask to watch for. The call takes one argument:
                the journal context object. Note that not all file
                systems are capable of generating the necessary events
                for wakeups from this file descriptor for changes to
                be noticed immediately. In particular network files
                systems do not generate suitable file change events in
                all cases. Cases like this can be detected with
                <function>sd_journal_reliable_fd()</function>,
                below. <function>sd_journal_get_timeout()</function>
                will ensure in these cases that wake-ups happen
                frequently enough for changes to be noticed, although
                with a certain latency.</para>

                <para><function>sd_journal_get_events()</function>
                will return the <function>poll()</function> mask to
                wait for. This function will return a combination of
                <literal>POLLIN</literal> and
                <literal>POLLOUT</literal> and similar to fill into
                the <literal>.events</literal> field of
                <literal>struct pollfd</literal>.</para>

                <para><function>sd_journal_get_timeout()</function>
                will return a timeout value for usage in <function>poll()</function>. This returns a value in microseconds since the epoch of CLOCK_MONOTONIC for timing out <function>poll()</function> in <literal>timeout_usec</literal>. See
                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>clock_gettime</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                for details about
                <literal>CLOCK_MONOTONIC</literal>. If there's no
                timeout to wait for this will fill in
                <literal>(uint64_t) -1</literal> instead. Note that
                <function>poll()</function> takes a relative timeout
                in milliseconds rather than an absolute timeout in
                microseconds. To convert the absolute 'us' timeout into
                relative 'ms', use code like the following:</para>

                <programlisting>uint64_t t;
int msec;
sd_journal_get_timeout(m, &amp;t);
if (t == (uint64_t) -1)
        msec = -1;
else {
        struct timespec ts;
        uint64_t n;
        clock_getttime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, &amp;ts);
        n = (uint64_t) ts.tv_sec * 1000000 + ts.tv_nsec / 1000;
        msec = t > n ? (int) ((t - n + 999) / 1000) : 0;
}</programlisting>

                <para>The code above does not do any error checking
                for brevity's sake. The calculated <literal>msec</literal>
                integer can be passed directly as
                <function>poll()</function>'s timeout
                parameter.</para>

                <para>After each <function>poll()</function> wake-up
                <function>sd_journal_process()</function> needs to be
                called to process events. This call will also indicate
                what kind of change has been detected (see below; note
                that spurious wake-ups are possible).</para>

                <para>A synchronous alternative for using
                <function>sd_journal_get_fd()</function>,
                <function>sd_journal_get_events()</function>,
                <function>sd_journal_get_timeout()</function> and
                <function>sd_journal_process()</function> is
                <function>sd_journal_wait()</function>. It will
                synchronously wait until the journal gets changed. The
                maximum time this call sleeps may be controlled with
                the <parameter>timeout_usec</parameter>
                parameter. Pass <literal>(uint64_t) -1</literal> to
                wait indefinitely. Internally this call simply
                combines <function>sd_journal_get_fd()</function>,
                <function>sd_journal_get_events()</function>,
                <function>sd_journal_get_timeout()</function>,
                <function>poll()</function> and
                <function>sd_journal_process()</function> into
                one.</para>

                <para><function>sd_journal_reliable_fd()</function>
                may be used to check whether the wakeup events from
                the file descriptor returned by
                <function>sd_journal_get_fd()</function> are known to
                be immediately triggered. On certain file systems
                where file change events from the OS are not available
                (such as NFS) changes need to be polled for
                repeatedly, and hence are detected only with a certain
                latency. This call will return a positive value if the
                journal changes are detected immediately and zero when
                they need to be polled for and hence might be noticed
                only with a certain latency. Note that there's usually
                no need to invoke this function directly as
                <function>sd_journal_get_timeout()</function> on these
                file systems will ask for timeouts explicitly
                anyway.</para>
        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Return Value</title>

                <para><function>sd_journal_get_fd()</function> returns
                a valid file descriptor on success or a negative
                errno-style error code.</para>

                <para><function>sd_journal_get_events()</function>
                returns a combination of <literal>POLLIN</literal>,
                <literal>POLLOUT</literal> and suchlike on success or
                a negative errno-style error code.</para>

                <para><function>sd_journal_reliable_fd()</function>
                returns a positive integer if the file descriptor
                returned by <function>sd_journal_get_fd()</function>
                will generate wake-ups immediately for all journal
                changes. Returns 0 if there might be a latency
                involved.</para>

                <para><function>sd_journal_process()</function> and
                <function>sd_journal_wait()</function> return one of
                <literal>SD_JOURNAL_NOP</literal>,
                <literal>SD_JOURNAL_APPEND</literal> or
                <literal>SD_JOURNAL_INVALIDATE</literal> on success or
                a negative errno-style error code. If
                <literal>SD_JOURNAL_NOP</literal> is returned the
                journal didn't change since the last invocation. If
                <literal>SD_JOURNAL_APPEND</literal> is returned new
                entries have been appended to the end of the
                journal. If <literal>SD_JOURNAL_INVALIDATE</literal>
                journal files were added or removed (possibly due to
                rotation). In the latter event live-view UIs should
                probably refresh their entire display while in the
                case of <literal>SD_JOURNAL_APPEND</literal> it is
                sufficient to simply continue reading at the previous
                end of the journal.</para>
        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Notes</title>

                <para>The <function>sd_journal_get_fd()</function>,
                <function>sd_journal_get_events()</function>,
                <function>sd_journal_reliable_fd()</function>,
                <function>sd_journal_process()</function> and
                <function>sd_journal_wait()</function> interfaces are
                available as shared library, which can be compiled and
                linked to with the
                <literal>libsystemd-journal</literal>
                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>pkg-config</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                file.</para>
        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Examples</title>

                <para>Iterating through the journal, in a live view tracking all changes:</para>

                <programlisting>#include &lt;stdio.h&gt;
#include &lt;string.h&gt;
#include &lt;systemd/sd-journal.h&gt;

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
        int r;
        sd_journal *j;
        r = sd_journal_open(&amp;j, SD_JOURNAL_LOCAL_ONLY);
        if (r &lt; 0) {
                fprintf(stderr, "Failed to open journal: %s\n", strerror(-r));
                return 1;
        }
        for (;;)  {
                const void *d;
                size_t l;
                r = sd_journal_next(j);
                if (r &lt; 0) {
                        fprintf(stderr, "Failed to iterate to next entry: %s\n", strerror(-r));
                        break;
                }
                if (r == 0) {
                        /* Reached the end, let's wait for changes, and try again */
                        r = sd_journal_wait(j, (uint64_t) -1);
                        if (r &lt; 0) {
                                fprintf(stderr, "Failed to wait for changes: %s\n", strerror(-r));
                                break;
                        }
                        continue;
                }
                r = sd_journal_get_data(j, "MESSAGE", &amp;d, &amp;l);
                if (r &lt; 0) {
                        fprintf(stderr, "Failed to read message field: %s\n", strerror(-r));
                        continue;
                }
                printf("%.*s\n", (int) l, (const char*) d);
        }
        sd_journal_close(j);
        return 0;
}</programlisting>

                <para>Waiting with <function>poll()</function> (this
                example lacks all error checking for the sake of
                simplicity):</para>

                <programlisting>#include &lt;sys/poll.h&gt;
#include &lt;systemd/sd-journal.h&gt;

int wait_for_changes(sd_journal *j) {
        struct pollfd pollfd;
        int msec;

        sd_journal_get_timeout(m, &amp;t);
        if (t == (uint64_t) -1)
                msec = -1;
        else {
                struct timespec ts;
                uint64_t n;
                clock_getttime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, &amp;ts);
                n = (uint64_t) ts.tv_sec * 1000000 + ts.tv_nsec / 1000;
                msec = t > n ? (int) ((t - n + 999) / 1000) : 0;
        }

        pollfd.fd = sd_journal_get_fd(j);
        pollfd.events = sd_journal_get_events(j);
        poll(&amp;pollfd, 1, msec);
        return sd_journal_process(j);
}
                </programlisting>
        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>See Also</title>

                <para>
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd-journal</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_journal_open</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_journal_next</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>poll</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>clock_gettime</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                </para>
        </refsect1>

</refentry>