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fea681da 1.\" This manpage is Copyright (C) 1992 Drew Eckhardt;
fd185f58
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2.\" and Copyright (C) 1993 Michael Haardt, Ian Jackson.
3.\" and Copyright (C) 2008 Greg Banks
7b8ba76c 4.\" and Copyright (C) 2006, 2008, 2013, 2014 Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
fea681da 5.\"
93015253 6.\" %%%LICENSE_START(VERBATIM)
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7.\" Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
8.\" manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
9.\" preserved on all copies.
10.\"
11.\" Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
12.\" manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
13.\" entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
14.\" permission notice identical to this one.
c13182ef 15.\"
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16.\" Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this
17.\" manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date. The author(s) assume no
18.\" responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from
19.\" the use of the information contained herein. The author(s) may not
20.\" have taken the same level of care in the production of this manual,
21.\" which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working
22.\" professionally.
c13182ef 23.\"
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24.\" Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by
25.\" the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work.
4b72fb64 26.\" %%%LICENSE_END
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27.\"
28.\" Modified 1993-07-21 by Rik Faith <faith@cs.unc.edu>
29.\" Modified 1994-08-21 by Michael Haardt
30.\" Modified 1996-04-13 by Andries Brouwer <aeb@cwi.nl>
31.\" Modified 1996-05-13 by Thomas Koenig
32.\" Modified 1996-12-20 by Michael Haardt
33.\" Modified 1999-02-19 by Andries Brouwer <aeb@cwi.nl>
34.\" Modified 1998-11-28 by Joseph S. Myers <jsm28@hermes.cam.ac.uk>
35.\" Modified 1999-06-03 by Michael Haardt
c11b1abf
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36.\" Modified 2002-05-07 by Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
37.\" Modified 2004-06-23 by Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
1c1e15ed
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38.\" 2004-12-08, mtk, reordered flags list alphabetically
39.\" 2004-12-08, Martin Pool <mbp@sourcefrog.net> (& mtk), added O_NOATIME
fe75ec04 40.\" 2007-09-18, mtk, Added description of O_CLOEXEC + other minor edits
447bb15e 41.\" 2008-01-03, mtk, with input from Trond Myklebust
f4b9d6a5
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42.\" <trond.myklebust@fys.uio.no> and Timo Sirainen <tss@iki.fi>
43.\" Rewrite description of O_EXCL.
ddc4d339
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44.\" 2008-01-11, Greg Banks <gnb@melbourne.sgi.com>: add more detail
45.\" on O_DIRECT.
d77eb764 46.\" 2008-02-26, Michael Haardt: Reorganized text for O_CREAT and mode
fea681da 47.\"
61b7c1e1 48.\" FIXME . Apr 08: The next POSIX revision has O_EXEC, O_SEARCH, and
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49.\" O_TTYINIT. Eventually these may need to be documented. --mtk
50.\"
6b621d05 51.TH OPEN 2 2020-02-09 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
fea681da 52.SH NAME
7b8ba76c 53open, openat, creat \- open and possibly create a file
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54.SH SYNOPSIS
55.nf
56.B #include <sys/types.h>
57.B #include <sys/stat.h>
58.B #include <fcntl.h>
5355ff82 59.PP
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60.BI "int open(const char *" pathname ", int " flags );
61.BI "int open(const char *" pathname ", int " flags ", mode_t " mode );
5355ff82 62.PP
fea681da 63.BI "int creat(const char *" pathname ", mode_t " mode );
5355ff82 64.PP
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65.BI "int openat(int " dirfd ", const char *" pathname ", int " flags );
66.BI "int openat(int " dirfd ", const char *" pathname ", int " flags \
67", mode_t " mode );
a2dbb2e3 68.PP
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69/* Documented separately, in \fBopenat2\fP(2): */
70.BI "int openat2(int " dirfd ", const char *" pathname ,
71.BI " const struct open_how *" how ", size_t " size ");
fea681da 72.fi
5355ff82 73.PP
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74.in -4n
75Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see
76.BR feature_test_macros (7)):
77.in
5355ff82 78.PP
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79.BR openat ():
80.PD 0
81.ad l
82.RS 4
83.TP 4
84Since glibc 2.10:
b0da7b8b 85_POSIX_C_SOURCE\ >=\ 200809L
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86.TP
87Before glibc 2.10:
88_ATFILE_SOURCE
89.RE
90.ad
91.PD
fea681da 92.SH DESCRIPTION
ef81e101 93The
1f6ceb40 94.BR open ()
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95system call opens the file specified by
96.IR pathname .
97If the specified file does not exist,
98it may optionally (if
99.B O_CREAT
100is specified in
101.IR flags )
102be created by
103.BR open ().
104.PP
105The return value of
106.BR open ()
107is a file descriptor, a small, nonnegative integer that is used
108in subsequent system calls
109.RB ( read "(2), " write "(2), " lseek "(2), " fcntl (2),
110etc.) to refer to the open file.
e366dbc4 111The file descriptor returned by a successful call will be
2c4bff36 112the lowest-numbered file descriptor not currently open for the process.
e366dbc4 113.PP
fe75ec04 114By default, the new file descriptor is set to remain open across an
e366dbc4 115.BR execve (2)
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116(i.e., the
117.B FD_CLOEXEC
118file descriptor flag described in
31d79098
SP
119.BR fcntl (2)
120is initially disabled); the
fe75ec04 121.B O_CLOEXEC
d6a74b95 122flag, described below, can be used to change this default.
1f6ceb40 123The file offset is set to the beginning of the file (see
c13182ef 124.BR lseek (2)).
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125.PP
126A call to
127.BR open ()
128creates a new
129.IR "open file description" ,
130an entry in the system-wide table of open files.
61b12e2b 131The open file description records the file offset and the file status flags
20ee63c1 132(see below).
61b12e2b 133A file descriptor is a reference to an open file description;
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134this reference is unaffected if
135.I pathname
136is subsequently removed or modified to refer to a different file.
d20d9d33 137For further details on open file descriptions, see NOTES.
e366dbc4 138.PP
c4bb193f 139The argument
fea681da 140.I flags
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141must include one of the following
142.IR "access modes" :
c7992edc 143.BR O_RDONLY ", " O_WRONLY ", or " O_RDWR .
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144These request opening the file read-only, write-only, or read/write,
145respectively.
5355ff82 146.PP
bfe9ba67 147In addition, zero or more file creation flags and file status flags
c13182ef 148can be
fea681da 149.RI bitwise- or 'd
e366dbc4 150in
bfe9ba67 151.IR flags .
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152The
153.I file creation flags
154are
0e40804c 155.BR O_CLOEXEC ,
b072a788 156.BR O_CREAT ,
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157.BR O_DIRECTORY ,
158.BR O_EXCL ,
159.BR O_NOCTTY ,
160.BR O_NOFOLLOW ,
f2698a42 161.BR O_TMPFILE ,
0e40804c 162and
15fb5d03 163.BR O_TRUNC .
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164The
165.I file status flags
bfe9ba67 166are all of the remaining flags listed below.
0e40804c 167.\" SUSv4 divides the flags into:
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168.\" * Access mode
169.\" * File creation
170.\" * File status
171.\" * Other (O_CLOEXEC, O_DIRECTORY, O_NOFOLLOW)
172.\" though it's not clear what the difference between "other" and
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173.\" "File creation" flags is. I raised an Aardvark to see if this
174.\" can be clarified in SUSv4; 10 Oct 2008.
175.\" http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.standards.posix.austin.general/64/focus=67
176.\" TC1 (balloted in 2013), resolved this, so that those three constants
177.\" are also categorized" as file status flags.
178.\"
bfe9ba67 179The distinction between these two groups of flags is that
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180the file creation flags affect the semantics of the open operation itself,
181while the file status flags affect the semantics of subsequent I/O operations.
182The file status flags can be retrieved and (in some cases)
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183modified; see
184.BR fcntl (2)
185for details.
5355ff82 186.PP
bfe9ba67 187The full list of file creation flags and file status flags is as follows:
fea681da 188.TP
1c1e15ed 189.B O_APPEND
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190The file is opened in append mode.
191Before each
0bfa087b 192.BR write (2),
1e568304 193the file offset is positioned at the end of the file,
1c1e15ed 194as if with
0bfa087b 195.BR lseek (2).
17efe87f 196The modification of the file offset and the write operation
20b8f0e2 197are performed as a single atomic step.
5355ff82 198.IP
1c1e15ed 199.B O_APPEND
9ee4a2b6 200may lead to corrupted files on NFS filesystems if more than one process
c13182ef 201appends data to a file at once.
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202.\" For more background, see
203.\" http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=453946
204.\" http://nfs.sourceforge.net/
c13182ef 205This is because NFS does not support
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206appending to a file, so the client kernel has to simulate it, which
207can't be done without a race condition.
208.TP
209.B O_ASYNC
b50582eb 210Enable signal-driven I/O:
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211generate a signal
212.RB ( SIGIO
213by default, but this can be changed via
1c1e15ed
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214.BR fcntl (2))
215when input or output becomes possible on this file descriptor.
33a0ccb2 216This feature is available only for terminals, pseudoterminals,
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217sockets, and (since Linux 2.6) pipes and FIFOs.
218See
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219.BR fcntl (2)
220for further details.
9bde4908 221See also BUGS, below.
fe75ec04 222.TP
31c1f2b0 223.BR O_CLOEXEC " (since Linux 2.6.23)"
7fdec065 224.\" NOTE! several other man pages refer to this text
fe75ec04 225Enable the close-on-exec flag for the new file descriptor.
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226.\" FIXME . for later review when Issue 8 is one day released...
227.\" POSIX proposes to fix many APIs that provide hidden FDs
228.\" http://austingroupbugs.net/tag_view_page.php?tag_id=8
229.\" http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=368
24ec631f 230Specifying this flag permits a program to avoid additional
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231.BR fcntl (2)
232.B F_SETFD
24ec631f 233operations to set the
0daa9e92 234.B FD_CLOEXEC
fe75ec04 235flag.
5355ff82 236.IP
7756d157
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237Note that the use of this flag is essential in some multithreaded programs,
238because using a separate
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239.BR fcntl (2)
240.B F_SETFD
241operation to set the
0daa9e92 242.B FD_CLOEXEC
fe75ec04 243flag does not suffice to avoid race conditions
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244where one thread opens a file descriptor and
245attempts to set its close-on-exec flag using
246.BR fcntl (2)
247at the same time as another thread does a
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248.BR fork (2)
249plus
250.BR execve (2).
7756d157 251Depending on the order of execution,
30821db8 252the race may lead to the file descriptor returned by
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253.BR open ()
254being unintentionally leaked to the program executed by the child process
255created by
256.BR fork (2).
257(This kind of race is in principle possible for any system call
258that creates a file descriptor whose close-on-exec flag should be set,
259and various other Linux system calls provide an equivalent of the
260.BR O_CLOEXEC
261flag to deal with this problem.)
fe75ec04 262.\" This flag fixes only one form of the race condition;
d9cb0d7d 263.\" The race can also occur with, for example, file descriptors
fe75ec04 264.\" returned by accept(), pipe(), etc.
1c1e15ed 265.TP
fea681da 266.B O_CREAT
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267If
268.I pathname
269does not exist, create it as a regular file.
5355ff82 270.IP
40169a93 271The owner (user ID) of the new file is set to the effective user ID
c13182ef 272of the process.
5355ff82 273.IP
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274The group ownership (group ID) of the new file is set either to
275the effective group ID of the process (System V semantics)
276or to the group ID of the parent directory (BSD semantics).
277On Linux, the behavior depends on whether the
278set-group-ID mode bit is set on the parent directory:
279if that bit is set, then BSD semantics apply;
280otherwise, System V semantics apply.
281For some filesystems, the behavior also depends on the
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282.I bsdgroups
283and
284.I sysvgroups
ddf5e4ab 285mount options described in
53dcd8d2 286.BR mount (8).
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287.\" As at 2.6.25, bsdgroups is supported by ext2, ext3, ext4, and
288.\" XFS (since 2.6.14).
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289.RS
290.PP
1bab84a8 291The
4e698277 292.I mode
1bab84a8 293argument specifies the file mode bits be applied when a new file is created.
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294This argument must be supplied when
295.B O_CREAT
f2698a42
AL
296or
297.B O_TMPFILE
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298is specified in
299.IR flags ;
f2698a42 300if neither
4e698277 301.B O_CREAT
f2698a42
AL
302nor
303.B O_TMPFILE
304is specified, then
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305.I mode
306is ignored.
58222012 307The effective mode is modified by the process's
4e698277 308.I umask
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309in the usual way: in the absence of a default ACL, the mode of the
310created file is
84a275c4 311.IR "(mode\ &\ ~umask)" .
33a0ccb2 312Note that this mode applies only to future accesses of the
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313newly created file; the
314.BR open ()
315call that creates a read-only file may well return a read/write
316file descriptor.
317.PP
318The following symbolic constants are provided for
319.IR mode :
320.TP 9
321.B S_IRWXU
97d5b762 32200700 user (file owner) has read, write, and execute permission
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323.TP
324.B S_IRUSR
32500400 user has read permission
326.TP
327.B S_IWUSR
32800200 user has write permission
329.TP
330.B S_IXUSR
33100100 user has execute permission
332.TP
333.B S_IRWXG
97d5b762 33400070 group has read, write, and execute permission
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335.TP
336.B S_IRGRP
33700040 group has read permission
338.TP
339.B S_IWGRP
34000020 group has write permission
341.TP
342.B S_IXGRP
34300010 group has execute permission
344.TP
345.B S_IRWXO
97d5b762 34600007 others have read, write, and execute permission
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347.TP
348.B S_IROTH
34900004 others have read permission
350.TP
351.B S_IWOTH
35200002 others have write permission
353.TP
354.B S_IXOTH
35500001 others have execute permission
356.RE
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357.IP
358According to POSIX, the effect when other bits are set in
359.I mode
360is unspecified.
361On Linux, the following bits are also honored in
362.IR mode :
363.RS
364.TP 9
365.B S_ISUID
3660004000 set-user-ID bit
367.TP
368.B S_ISGID
3690002000 set-group-ID bit (see
e6fc1596 370.BR inode (7)).
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371.TP
372.B S_ISVTX
3730001000 sticky bit (see
e6fc1596 374.BR inode (7)).
9e1d8950 375.RE
fea681da 376.TP
31c1f2b0 377.BR O_DIRECT " (since Linux 2.4.10)"
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378Try to minimize cache effects of the I/O to and from this file.
379In general this will degrade performance, but it is useful in
380special situations, such as when applications do their own caching.
bce0482f 381File I/O is done directly to/from user-space buffers.
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382The
383.B O_DIRECT
0deb3ce9 384flag on its own makes an effort to transfer data synchronously,
015221ef
CH
385but does not give the guarantees of the
386.B O_SYNC
0deb3ce9
JM
387flag that data and necessary metadata are transferred.
388To guarantee synchronous I/O,
015221ef
CH
389.B O_SYNC
390must be used in addition to
391.BR O_DIRECT .
be02e49f 392See NOTES below for further discussion.
5355ff82 393.IP
c13182ef 394A semantically similar (but deprecated) interface for block devices
9b54d4fa 395is described in
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396.BR raw (8).
397.TP
398.B O_DIRECTORY
a8d55537 399If \fIpathname\fP is not a directory, cause the open to fail.
9f8d688a
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400.\" But see the following and its replies:
401.\" http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?t=112748702800001&r=1&w=2
402.\" [PATCH] open: O_DIRECTORY and O_CREAT together should fail
403.\" O_DIRECTORY | O_CREAT causes O_DIRECTORY to be ignored.
65496644 404This flag was added in kernel version 2.1.126, to
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405avoid denial-of-service problems if
406.BR opendir (3)
407is called on a
a3041a58 408FIFO or tape device.
1c1e15ed 409.TP
6cf19e62
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410.B O_DSYNC
411Write operations on the file will complete according to the requirements of
412synchronized I/O
413.I data
414integrity completion.
5355ff82 415.IP
6cf19e62
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416By the time
417.BR write (2)
418(and similar)
419return, the output data
420has been transferred to the underlying hardware,
421along with any file metadata that would be required to retrieve that data
422(i.e., as though each
423.BR write (2)
424was followed by a call to
425.BR fdatasync (2)).
426.IR "See NOTES below" .
427.TP
fea681da 428.B O_EXCL
f4b9d6a5
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429Ensure that this call creates the file:
430if this flag is specified in conjunction with
fea681da 431.BR O_CREAT ,
f4b9d6a5
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432and
433.I pathname
434already exists, then
1c1e15ed 435.BR open ()
26cd31fd
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436fails with the error
437.BR EEXIST .
5355ff82 438.IP
f4b9d6a5
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439When these two flags are specified, symbolic links are not followed:
440.\" POSIX.1-2001 explicitly requires this behavior.
441if
442.I pathname
443is a symbolic link, then
444.BR open ()
43116169 445fails regardless of where the symbolic link points.
5355ff82 446.IP
10b7a945
IHV
447In general, the behavior of
448.B O_EXCL
449is undefined if it is used without
450.BR O_CREAT .
451There is one exception: on Linux 2.6 and later,
452.B O_EXCL
453can be used without
454.B O_CREAT
455if
456.I pathname
457refers to a block device.
6303d401
DB
458If the block device is in use by the system (e.g., mounted),
459.BR open ()
10b7a945
IHV
460fails with the error
461.BR EBUSY .
5355ff82 462.IP
efe08656 463On NFS,
f4b9d6a5 464.B O_EXCL
33a0ccb2 465is supported only when using NFSv3 or later on kernel 2.6 or later.
efe08656 466In NFS environments where
fea681da 467.B O_EXCL
f4b9d6a5
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468support is not provided, programs that rely on it
469for performing locking tasks will contain a race condition.
470Portable programs that want to perform atomic file locking using a lockfile,
471and need to avoid reliance on NFS support for
472.BR O_EXCL ,
473can create a unique file on
9ee4a2b6 474the same filesystem (e.g., incorporating hostname and PID), and use
fea681da 475.BR link (2)
c13182ef 476to make a link to the lockfile.
60a90ecd
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477If
478.BR link (2)
f4b9d6a5 479returns 0, the lock is successful.
c13182ef 480Otherwise, use
fea681da
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481.BR stat (2)
482on the unique file to check if its link count has increased to 2,
483in which case the lock is also successful.
484.TP
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485.B O_LARGEFILE
486(LFS)
487Allow files whose sizes cannot be represented in an
8478ee02 488.I off_t
1c1e15ed 489(but can be represented in an
8478ee02 490.IR off64_t )
1c1e15ed 491to be opened.
c13182ef 492The
bcdd964e 493.B _LARGEFILE64_SOURCE
e417acb0
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494macro must be defined
495(before including
496.I any
497header files)
498in order to obtain this definition.
c13182ef 499Setting the
bcdd964e 500.B _FILE_OFFSET_BITS
9f3d8b28
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501feature test macro to 64 (rather than using
502.BR O_LARGEFILE )
12e263f1 503is the preferred
9f3d8b28 504method of accessing large files on 32-bit systems (see
2dcbf4f7 505.BR feature_test_macros (7)).
1c1e15ed 506.TP
31c1f2b0 507.BR O_NOATIME " (since Linux 2.6.8)"
1bb72c96
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508Do not update the file last access time
509.RI ( st_atime
510in the inode)
310b7919 511when the file is
1c1e15ed 512.BR read (2).
5355ff82 513.IP
47c906e5
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514This flag can be employed only if one of the following conditions is true:
515.RS
516.IP * 3
517The effective UID of the process
518.\" Strictly speaking: the filesystem UID
519matches the owner UID of the file.
520.IP *
521The calling process has the
522.BR CAP_FOWNER
523capability in its user namespace and
524the owner UID of the file has a mapping in the namespace.
525.RE
526.IP
1c1e15ed
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527This flag is intended for use by indexing or backup programs,
528where its use can significantly reduce the amount of disk activity.
9ee4a2b6 529This flag may not be effective on all filesystems.
1c1e15ed 530One example is NFS, where the server maintains the access time.
0e1ad98c 531.\" The O_NOATIME flag also affects the treatment of st_atime
92057f4d 532.\" by mmap() and readdir(2), MTK, Dec 04.
1c1e15ed 533.TP
fea681da
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534.B O_NOCTTY
535If
536.I pathname
5503c85e 537refers to a terminal device\(emsee
1bb72c96
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538.BR tty (4)\(emit
539will not become the process's controlling terminal even if the
fea681da
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540process does not have one.
541.TP
1c1e15ed 542.B O_NOFOLLOW
7a11fc63
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543If the trailing component (i.e., basename) of
544.I pathname
545is a symbolic link, then the open fails, with the error
6ccb7137 546.BR ELOOP .
7fba0065
MK
547Symbolic links in earlier components of the pathname will still be
548followed.
549(Note that the
550.B ELOOP
551error that can occur in this case is indistinguishable from the case where
6ccb7137
MK
552an open fails because there are too many symbolic links found
553while resolving components in the prefix part of the pathname.)
5355ff82 554.IP
8db11e23
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555This flag is a FreeBSD extension, which was added to Linux in version 2.1.126,
556and has subsequently been standardized in POSIX.1-2008.
5355ff82 557.IP
1135dbe1 558See also
843068bd 559.BR O_PATH
1135dbe1 560below.
e366dbc4
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561.\" The headers from glibc 2.0.100 and later include a
562.\" definition of this flag; \fIkernels before 2.1.126 will ignore it if
a8d55537 563.\" used\fP.
fea681da
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564.TP
565.BR O_NONBLOCK " or " O_NDELAY
ff40dbb3 566When possible, the file is opened in nonblocking mode.
c13182ef 567Neither the
1c1e15ed 568.BR open ()
b0972b3b 569nor any subsequent I/O operations on the file descriptor which is
fea681da 570returned will cause the calling process to wait.
5355ff82 571.IP
f3fdbe28 572Note that the setting of this flag has no effect on the operation of
f2a11072
MK
573.BR poll (2),
574.BR select (2),
575.BR epoll (7),
576and similar,
577since those interfaces merely inform the caller about whether
578a file descriptor is "ready",
579meaning that an I/O operation performed on
580the file descriptor with the
581.B O_NONBLOCK
582flag
583.I clear
584would not block.
585.IP
9f629381
MK
586Note that this flag has no effect for regular files and block devices;
587that is, I/O operations will (briefly) block when device activity
588is required, regardless of whether
589.B O_NONBLOCK
590is set.
591Since
592.B O_NONBLOCK
593semantics might eventually be implemented,
594applications should not depend upon blocking behavior
595when specifying this flag for regular files and block devices.
5355ff82 596.IP
fea681da 597For the handling of FIFOs (named pipes), see also
af5b2ef2 598.BR fifo (7).
db28bfac 599For a discussion of the effect of
0daa9e92 600.B O_NONBLOCK
db28bfac
MK
601in conjunction with mandatory file locks and with file leases, see
602.BR fcntl (2).
fea681da 603.TP
1135dbe1
MK
604.BR O_PATH " (since Linux 2.6.39)"
605.\" commit 1abf0c718f15a56a0a435588d1b104c7a37dc9bd
606.\" commit 326be7b484843988afe57566b627fb7a70beac56
607.\" commit 65cfc6722361570bfe255698d9cd4dccaf47570d
608.\"
609.\" http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.man/2790/focus=3496
610.\" Subject: Re: [PATCH] open(2): document O_PATH
611.\" Newsgroups: gmane.linux.man, gmane.linux.kernel
612.\"
1135dbe1 613Obtain a file descriptor that can be used for two purposes:
9ee4a2b6 614to indicate a location in the filesystem tree and
1135dbe1
MK
615to perform operations that act purely at the file descriptor level.
616The file itself is not opened, and other file operations (e.g.,
617.BR read (2),
618.BR write (2),
619.BR fchmod (2),
620.BR fchown (2),
2510e4e5 621.BR fgetxattr (2),
97a45d02 622.BR ioctl (2),
2510e4e5 623.BR mmap (2))
1135dbe1
MK
624fail with the error
625.BR EBADF .
5355ff82 626.IP
1135dbe1
MK
627The following operations
628.I can
629be performed on the resulting file descriptor:
630.RS
631.IP * 3
b9307a4a
MK
632.BR close (2).
633.IP *
f3cd742c
MK
634.BR fchdir (2),
635if the file descriptor refers to a directory
b9307a4a 636(since Linux 3.5).
1135dbe1 637.\" commit 332a2e1244bd08b9e3ecd378028513396a004a24
b9307a4a 638.IP *
1135dbe1 639.BR fstat (2)
b9307a4a
MK
640(since Linux 3.6).
641.IP *
1135dbe1 642.\" fstat(): commit 55815f70147dcfa3ead5738fd56d3574e2e3c1c2
97a45d02
N
643.BR fstatfs (2)
644(since Linux 3.12).
645.\" fstatfs(): commit 9d05746e7b16d8565dddbe3200faa1e669d23bbf
1135dbe1
MK
646.IP *
647Duplicating the file descriptor
648.RB ( dup (2),
649.BR fcntl (2)
650.BR F_DUPFD ,
651etc.).
652.IP *
653Getting and setting file descriptor flags
654.RB ( fcntl (2)
655.BR F_GETFD
656and
657.BR F_SETFD ).
09f677a3
MK
658.IP *
659Retrieving open file status flags using the
660.BR fcntl (2)
13a082cb 661.BR F_GETFL
09f677a3
MK
662operation: the returned flags will include the bit
663.BR O_PATH .
1135dbe1
MK
664.IP *
665Passing the file descriptor as the
666.IR dirfd
667argument of
490f876a 668.BR openat ()
1135dbe1 669and the other "*at()" system calls.
7dee406b
AL
670This includes
671.BR linkat (2)
672with
0da5e58a 673.BR AT_EMPTY_PATH
7dee406b
AL
674(or via procfs using
675.BR AT_SYMLINK_FOLLOW )
676even if the file is not a directory.
1135dbe1
MK
677.IP *
678Passing the file descriptor to another process via a UNIX domain socket
679(see
680.BR SCM_RIGHTS
681in
682.BR unix (7)).
683.RE
684.IP
685When
686.B O_PATH
687is specified in
688.IR flags ,
689flag bits other than
6807fc6f
MK
690.BR O_CLOEXEC ,
691.BR O_DIRECTORY ,
1135dbe1
MK
692and
693.BR O_NOFOLLOW
694are ignored.
5355ff82 695.IP
4a3b9ffc
MK
696Opening a file or directory with the
697.B O_PATH
698flag requires no permissions on the object itself
699(but does require execute permission on the directories in the path prefix).
700Depending on the subsequent operation,
701a check for suitable file permissions may be performed (e.g.,
702.BR fchdir (2)
703requires execute permission on the directory referred to
704by its file descriptor argument).
705By contrast,
706obtaining a reference to a filesystem object by opening it with the
707.B O_RDONLY
708flag requires that the caller have read permission on the object,
709even when the subsequent operation (e.g.,
710.BR fchdir (2),
711.BR fstat (2))
712does not require read permission on the object.
713.IP
d30344ab
MK
714If
715.I pathname
716is a symbolic link and the
1135dbe1
MK
717.BR O_NOFOLLOW
718flag is also specified,
719then the call returns a file descriptor referring to the symbolic link.
720This file descriptor can be used as the
721.I dirfd
722argument in calls to
723.BR fchownat (2),
724.BR fstatat (2),
725.BR linkat (2),
726and
727.BR readlinkat (2)
728with an empty pathname to have the calls operate on the symbolic link.
5355ff82 729.IP
97a45d02
N
730If
731.I pathname
732refers to an automount point that has not yet been triggered, so no
733other filesystem is mounted on it, then the call returns a file
734descriptor referring to the automount directory without triggering a mount.
735.BR fstatfs (2)
736can then be used to determine if it is, in fact, an untriggered
737automount point
738.RB ( ".f_type == AUTOFS_SUPER_MAGIC" ).
d1304ede
MK
739.IP
740One use of
741.B O_PATH
742for regular files is to provide the equivalent of POSIX.1's
743.B O_EXEC
744functionality.
745This permits us to open a file for which we have execute
ebab32e1 746permission but not read permission, and then execute that file,
d1304ede
MK
747with steps something like the following:
748.IP
749.in +4n
750.EX
751char buf[PATH_MAX];
752fd = open("some_prog", O_PATH);
8e13d566 753snprintf(buf, PATH_MAX, "/proc/self/fd/%d", fd);
d1304ede
MK
754execl(buf, "some_prog", (char *) NULL);
755.EE
756.in
e982cebf
MK
757.IP
758An
759.B O_PATH
760file descriptor can also be passed as the argument of
761.BR fexecve (3).
1135dbe1 762.TP
fea681da 763.B O_SYNC
6cf19e62
MK
764Write operations on the file will complete according to the requirements of
765synchronized I/O
766.I file
767integrity completion
f36a1468 768(by contrast with the
6cf19e62
MK
769synchronized I/O
770.I data
771integrity completion
772provided by
773.BR O_DSYNC .)
5355ff82 774.IP
6cf19e62
MK
775By the time
776.BR write (2)
ca20a8a5
MK
777(or similar)
778returns, the output data and associated file metadata
6cf19e62
MK
779have been transferred to the underlying hardware
780(i.e., as though each
781.BR write (2)
782was followed by a call to
783.BR fsync (2)).
784.IR "See NOTES below" .
fea681da 785.TP
40398c1a
MK
786.BR O_TMPFILE " (since Linux 3.11)"
787.\" commit 60545d0d4610b02e55f65d141c95b18ccf855b6e
788.\" commit f4e0c30c191f87851c4a53454abb55ee276f4a7e
789.\" commit bb458c644a59dbba3a1fe59b27106c5e68e1c4bd
6a11a5d4 790Create an unnamed temporary regular file.
40398c1a
MK
791The
792.I pathname
793argument specifies a directory;
794an unnamed inode will be created in that directory's filesystem.
795Anything written to the resulting file will be lost when
796the last file descriptor is closed, unless the file is given a name.
5355ff82 797.IP
40398c1a
MK
798.B O_TMPFILE
799must be specified with one of
800.B O_RDWR
801or
802.B O_WRONLY
803and, optionally,
804.BR O_EXCL .
805If
806.B O_EXCL
807is not specified, then
808.BR linkat (2)
809can be used to link the temporary file into the filesystem, making it
810permanent, using code like the following:
5355ff82 811.IP
40398c1a 812.in +4n
5355ff82 813.EX
40398c1a
MK
814char path[PATH_MAX];
815fd = open("/path/to/dir", O_TMPFILE | O_RDWR,
0fb83d00
MK
816 S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR);
817
40398c1a 818/* File I/O on 'fd'... */
0fb83d00 819
fc29a199 820linkat(fd, NULL, AT_FDCWD, "/path/for/file", AT_EMPTY_PATH);
a2587fbb
MK
821
822/* If the caller doesn't have the CAP_DAC_READ_SEARCH
823 capability (needed to use AT_EMPTY_PATH with linkat(2)),
824 and there is a proc(5) filesystem mounted, then the
825 linkat(2) call above can be replaced with:
826
827snprintf(path, PATH_MAX, "/proc/self/fd/%d", fd);
828linkat(AT_FDCWD, path, AT_FDCWD, "/path/for/file",
829 AT_SYMLINK_FOLLOW);
830*/
5355ff82 831.EE
40398c1a 832.in
5355ff82 833.IP
40398c1a
MK
834In this case,
835the
836.BR open ()
837.I mode
838argument determines the file permission mode, as with
839.BR O_CREAT .
5355ff82 840.IP
0115aaed
MK
841Specifying
842.B O_EXCL
843in conjunction with
844.B O_TMPFILE
845prevents a temporary file from being linked into the filesystem
846in the above manner.
847(Note that the meaning of
848.B O_EXCL
849in this case is different from the meaning of
850.B O_EXCL
851otherwise.)
5355ff82 852.IP
40398c1a
MK
853There are two main use cases for
854.\" Inspired by http://lwn.net/Articles/559147/
855.BR O_TMPFILE :
856.RS
857.IP * 3
858Improved
859.BR tmpfile (3)
860functionality: race-free creation of temporary files that
861(1) are automatically deleted when closed;
862(2) can never be reached via any pathname;
863(3) are not subject to symlink attacks; and
864(4) do not require the caller to devise unique names.
865.IP *
866Creating a file that is initially invisible, which is then populated
8b04592d 867with data and adjusted to have appropriate filesystem attributes
c89a9937
EB
868.RB ( fchown (2),
869.BR fchmod (2),
40398c1a
MK
870.BR fsetxattr (2),
871etc.)
872before being atomically linked into the filesystem
873in a fully formed state (using
874.BR linkat (2)
875as described above).
876.RE
877.IP
878.B O_TMPFILE
879requires support by the underlying filesystem;
40398c1a 880only a subset of Linux filesystems provide that support.
cde2074a 881In the initial implementation, support was provided in
9af6b115 882the ext2, ext3, ext4, UDF, Minix, and shmem filesystems.
bd79a35a 883.\" To check for support, grep for "tmpfile" in kernel sources
6065b906
MK
884Support for other filesystems has subsequently been added as follows:
885XFS (Linux 3.15);
cde2074a
MK
886.\" commit 99b6436bc29e4f10e4388c27a3e4810191cc4788
887.\" commit ab29743117f9f4c22ac44c13c1647fb24fb2bafe
1b9d5819 888Btrfs (Linux 3.16);
e746db2e 889.\" commit ef3b9af50bfa6a1f02cd7b3f5124b712b1ba3e3c
6065b906 890F2FS (Linux 3.16);
bd79a35a 891.\" commit 50732df02eefb39ab414ef655979c2c9b64ad21c
6065b906 892and ubifs (Linux 4.9)
40398c1a 893.TP
1c1e15ed 894.B O_TRUNC
4d61d36a 895If the file already exists and is a regular file and the access mode allows
682edefb
MK
896writing (i.e., is
897.B O_RDWR
898or
899.BR O_WRONLY )
900it will be truncated to length 0.
901If the file is a FIFO or terminal device file, the
902.B O_TRUNC
c13182ef 903flag is ignored.
2b9b829d 904Otherwise, the effect of
682edefb
MK
905.B O_TRUNC
906is unspecified.
7b8ba76c 907.SS creat()
1f7191bb 908A call to
1c1e15ed 909.BR creat ()
1f7191bb 910is equivalent to calling
1c1e15ed 911.BR open ()
fea681da
MK
912with
913.I flags
914equal to
915.BR O_CREAT|O_WRONLY|O_TRUNC .
7b8ba76c
MK
916.SS openat()
917The
918.BR openat ()
919system call operates in exactly the same way as
cadd38ba 920.BR open (),
7b8ba76c 921except for the differences described here.
3130d10b 922.PP
7b8ba76c
MK
923If the pathname given in
924.I pathname
925is relative, then it is interpreted relative to the directory
3ad65ff0 926referred to by the file descriptor
7b8ba76c
MK
927.I dirfd
928(rather than relative to the current working directory of
929the calling process, as is done by
cadd38ba 930.BR open ()
7b8ba76c 931for a relative pathname).
3130d10b 932.PP
7b8ba76c
MK
933If
934.I pathname
935is relative and
936.I dirfd
937is the special value
938.BR AT_FDCWD ,
939then
940.I pathname
941is interpreted relative to the current working
942directory of the calling process (like
cadd38ba 943.BR open ()).
3130d10b 944.PP
7b8ba76c
MK
945If
946.I pathname
947is absolute, then
948.I dirfd
949is ignored.
4b322a2f 950.\"
a2dbb2e3
AS
951.SS openat2(2)
952The
953.BR openat2 (2)
954system call is an extension of
955.BR openat (),
4b322a2f
MK
956and provides a superset of the features of
957.BR openat ().
aec13430 958It is documented separately, in
4b322a2f 959.BR openat2 (2).
47297adb 960.SH RETURN VALUE
7b8ba76c
MK
961.BR open (),
962.BR openat (),
c13182ef 963and
e1d6264d 964.BR creat ()
ed09120a
MK
965return the new file descriptor (a nonnegative integer),
966or \-1 if an error occurred
1c1e15ed 967(in which case,
fea681da
MK
968.I errno
969is set appropriately).
fea681da 970.SH ERRORS
7b8ba76c
MK
971.BR open (),
972.BR openat (),
973and
974.BR creat ()
975can fail with the following errors:
fea681da
MK
976.TP
977.B EACCES
978The requested access to the file is not allowed, or search permission
979is denied for one of the directories in the path prefix of
980.IR pathname ,
981or the file did not exist yet and write access to the parent directory
982is not allowed.
983(See also
ad7cc990 984.BR path_resolution (7).)
fea681da 985.TP
2ddf885a
JS
986.B EACCES
987.\" commit 30aba6656f61ed44cba445a3c0d38b296fa9e8f5
988Where
989.B O_CREAT
d9e7db1b
MK
990is specified, the
991.I protected_fifos
992or
510adbed 993.I protected_regular
d9e7db1b 994sysctl is enabled, the file already exists and is a FIFO or regular file, the
2ddf885a
JS
995owner of the file is neither the current user nor the owner of the
996containing directory, and the containing directory is both world- or
997group-writable and sticky.
d9e7db1b
MK
998For details, see the descriptions of
999.IR /proc/sys/fs/protected_fifos
1000and
1001.IR /proc/sys/fs/protected_regular
1002in
1003.BR proc (5).
2ddf885a 1004.TP
a1f01685
MH
1005.B EDQUOT
1006Where
1007.B O_CREAT
1008is specified, the file does not exist, and the user's quota of disk
9ee4a2b6 1009blocks or inodes on the filesystem has been exhausted.
a1f01685 1010.TP
fea681da
MK
1011.B EEXIST
1012.I pathname
1013already exists and
1014.BR O_CREAT " and " O_EXCL
1015were used.
1016.TP
1017.B EFAULT
0daa9e92 1018.I pathname
e1d6264d 1019points outside your accessible address space.
fea681da 1020.TP
9f5773f7 1021.B EFBIG
7c7fb552
MK
1022See
1023.BR EOVERFLOW .
9f5773f7 1024.TP
e51412ea
MK
1025.B EINTR
1026While blocked waiting to complete an open of a slow device
1027(e.g., a FIFO; see
1028.BR fifo (7)),
1029the call was interrupted by a signal handler; see
1030.BR signal (7).
1031.TP
ef490193
DG
1032.B EINVAL
1033The filesystem does not support the
1034.BR O_DIRECT
e6f89ed2
MK
1035flag.
1036See
ef490193
DG
1037.BR NOTES
1038for more information.
1039.TP
8e335391
MK
1040.B EINVAL
1041Invalid value in
1042.\" In particular, __O_TMPFILE instead of O_TMPFILE
1043.IR flags .
1044.TP
1045.B EINVAL
1046.B O_TMPFILE
1047was specified in
1048.IR flags ,
1049but neither
1050.B O_WRONLY
1051nor
1052.B O_RDWR
1053was specified.
1054.TP
5c6f8de0
MK
1055.B EINVAL
1056.B O_CREAT
1057was specified in
1058.I flags
1059and the final component ("basename") of the new file's
1060.I pathname
1061is invalid
1062(e.g., it contains characters not permitted by the underlying filesystem).
ed6fe005 1063.TP
ed6fe005
MK
1064.B EINVAL
1065The final component ("basename") of
1066.I pathname
1067is invalid
1068(e.g., it contains characters not permitted by the underlying filesystem).
5c6f8de0 1069.TP
fea681da
MK
1070.B EISDIR
1071.I pathname
1072refers to a directory and the access requested involved writing
1073(that is,
1074.B O_WRONLY
1075or
1076.B O_RDWR
1077is set).
1078.TP
8e335391 1079.B EISDIR
843068bd
MK
1080.I pathname
1081refers to an existing directory,
8e335391
MK
1082.B O_TMPFILE
1083and one of
1084.B O_WRONLY
1085or
1086.B O_RDWR
1087were specified in
1088.IR flags ,
1089but this kernel version does not provide the
1090.B O_TMPFILE
1091functionality.
1092.TP
fea681da
MK
1093.B ELOOP
1094Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving
289f7907
MK
1095.IR pathname .
1096.TP
1097.B ELOOP
fea681da 1098.I pathname
289f7907
MK
1099was a symbolic link, and
1100.I flags
1101specified
1102.BR O_NOFOLLOW
1103but not
1104.BR O_PATH .
fea681da
MK
1105.TP
1106.B EMFILE
26c32fab 1107The per-process limit on the number of open file descriptors has been reached
12c21590
MK
1108(see the description of
1109.BR RLIMIT_NOFILE
1110in
1111.BR getrlimit (2)).
fea681da
MK
1112.TP
1113.B ENAMETOOLONG
0daa9e92 1114.I pathname
e1d6264d 1115was too long.
fea681da
MK
1116.TP
1117.B ENFILE
e258766b 1118The system-wide limit on the total number of open files has been reached.
fea681da
MK
1119.TP
1120.B ENODEV
1121.I pathname
1122refers to a device special file and no corresponding device exists.
682edefb
MK
1123(This is a Linux kernel bug; in this situation
1124.B ENXIO
1125must be returned.)
fea681da
MK
1126.TP
1127.B ENOENT
682edefb
MK
1128.B O_CREAT
1129is not set and the named file does not exist.
115bbafa
MK
1130.TP
1131.B ENOENT
1132A directory component in
fea681da
MK
1133.I pathname
1134does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link.
1135.TP
ba03011f
MK
1136.B ENOENT
1137.I pathname
1138refers to a nonexistent directory,
1139.B O_TMPFILE
1140and one of
1141.B O_WRONLY
1142or
1143.B O_RDWR
1144were specified in
1145.IR flags ,
1146but this kernel version does not provide the
1147.B O_TMPFILE
1148functionality.
1149.TP
fea681da 1150.B ENOMEM
8ef529f9
MK
1151The named file is a FIFO,
1152but memory for the FIFO buffer can't be allocated because
1153the per-user hard limit on memory allocation for pipes has been reached
1154and the caller is not privileged; see
1155.BR pipe (7).
1156.TP
1157.B ENOMEM
fea681da
MK
1158Insufficient kernel memory was available.
1159.TP
1160.B ENOSPC
1161.I pathname
1162was to be created but the device containing
1163.I pathname
1164has no room for the new file.
1165.TP
1166.B ENOTDIR
1167A component used as a directory in
1168.I pathname
a8d55537 1169is not, in fact, a directory, or \fBO_DIRECTORY\fP was specified and
fea681da
MK
1170.I pathname
1171was not a directory.
1172.TP
1173.B ENXIO
682edefb 1174.BR O_NONBLOCK " | " O_WRONLY
103ea4f6
MK
1175is set, the named file is a FIFO, and
1176no process has the FIFO open for reading.
7b032b23
MK
1177.TP
1178.B ENXIO
1179The file is a device special file and no corresponding device exists.
fea681da 1180.TP
71b12d0a 1181.B ENXIO
8b5bbcfa 1182The file is a UNIX domain socket.
71b12d0a 1183.TP
bbe02b45
MK
1184.BR EOPNOTSUPP
1185The filesystem containing
1186.I pathname
1187does not support
1188.BR O_TMPFILE .
1189.TP
7c7fb552
MK
1190.B EOVERFLOW
1191.I pathname
1192refers to a regular file that is too large to be opened.
1193The usual scenario here is that an application compiled
1194on a 32-bit platform without
5e4dc269 1195.I -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64
7c7fb552 1196tried to open a file whose size exceeds
4e1a4d72
MK
1197.I (1<<31)-1
1198bytes;
7c7fb552
MK
1199see also
1200.B O_LARGEFILE
1201above.
c84d3aa3 1202This is the error specified by POSIX.1;
7c7fb552
MK
1203in kernels before 2.6.24, Linux gave the error
1204.B EFBIG
1205for this case.
1206.\" See http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7253
1207.\" "Open of a large file on 32-bit fails with EFBIG, should be EOVERFLOW"
1208.\" Reported 2006-10-03
1209.TP
1c1e15ed
MK
1210.B EPERM
1211The
1212.B O_NOATIME
1213flag was specified, but the effective user ID of the caller
9ee4a2b6 1214.\" Strictly speaking, it's the filesystem UID... (MTK)
47c906e5 1215did not match the owner of the file and the caller was not privileged.
1c1e15ed 1216.TP
fbab10e5
MK
1217.B EPERM
1218The operation was prevented by a file seal; see
1219.BR fcntl (2).
1220.TP
fea681da
MK
1221.B EROFS
1222.I pathname
9ee4a2b6 1223refers to a file on a read-only filesystem and write access was
fea681da
MK
1224requested.
1225.TP
1226.B ETXTBSY
1227.I pathname
1228refers to an executable image which is currently being executed and
1229write access was requested.
d3952311 1230.TP
19d37126
JH
1231.B ETXTBSY
1232.I pathname
1233refers to a file that is currently in use as a swap file, and the
1234.B O_TRUNC
1235flag was specified.
1236.TP
1237.B ETXTBSY
1238.I pathname
1239refers to a file that is currently being read by the kernel (e.g. for
1240module/firmware loading), and write access was requested.
1241.TP
d3952311
MK
1242.B EWOULDBLOCK
1243The
1244.B O_NONBLOCK
1245flag was specified, and an incompatible lease was held on the file
1246(see
1247.BR fcntl (2)).
7b8ba76c
MK
1248.PP
1249The following additional errors can occur for
1250.BR openat ():
1251.TP
1252.B EBADF
1253.I dirfd
1254is not a valid file descriptor.
1255.TP
1256.B ENOTDIR
1257.I pathname
2feae602 1258is a relative pathname and
7b8ba76c
MK
1259.I dirfd
1260is a file descriptor referring to a file other than a directory.
1261.SH VERSIONS
1262.BR openat ()
1263was added to Linux in kernel 2.6.16;
1264library support was added to glibc in version 2.4.
47297adb 1265.SH CONFORMING TO
7b8ba76c
MK
1266.BR open (),
1267.BR creat ()
72ac7268 1268SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008.
5355ff82 1269.PP
7b8ba76c
MK
1270.BR openat ():
1271POSIX.1-2008.
5355ff82 1272.PP
a2dbb2e3
AS
1273.BR openat2 (2)
1274is Linux-specific.
1275.PP
fea681da 1276The
72ac7268 1277.BR O_DIRECT ,
1c1e15ed 1278.BR O_NOATIME ,
72ac7268 1279.BR O_PATH ,
fea681da 1280and
72ac7268
MK
1281.BR O_TMPFILE
1282flags are Linux-specific.
1283One must define
61b7c1e1
MK
1284.B _GNU_SOURCE
1285to obtain their definitions.
5355ff82 1286.PP
9f91e36c 1287The
72ac7268
MK
1288.BR O_CLOEXEC ,
1289.BR O_DIRECTORY ,
1290and
1291.BR O_NOFOLLOW
1292flags are not specified in POSIX.1-2001,
1293but are specified in POSIX.1-2008.
1294Since glibc 2.12, one can obtain their definitions by defining either
1295.B _POSIX_C_SOURCE
1296with a value greater than or equal to 200809L or
1297.BR _XOPEN_SOURCE
1298with a value greater than or equal to 700.
1299In glibc 2.11 and earlier, one obtains the definitions by defining
1300.BR _GNU_SOURCE .
5355ff82 1301.PP
72ac7268
MK
1302As noted in
1303.BR feature_test_macros (7),
84fc2a6e 1304feature test macros such as
72ac7268
MK
1305.BR _POSIX_C_SOURCE ,
1306.BR _XOPEN_SOURCE ,
1307and
fe75ec04 1308.B _GNU_SOURCE
72ac7268 1309must be defined before including
e417acb0 1310.I any
72ac7268 1311header files.
a1d5f77c 1312.SH NOTES
988db661 1313Under Linux, the
a1d5f77c 1314.B O_NONBLOCK
3897a3f8 1315flag is sometimes used in cases where one wants to open
a1d5f77c 1316but does not necessarily have the intention to read or write.
3897a3f8
MK
1317For example,
1318this may be used to open a device in order to get a file descriptor
a1d5f77c
MK
1319for use with
1320.BR ioctl (2).
dd3568a1 1321.PP
fea681da
MK
1322The (undefined) effect of
1323.B O_RDONLY | O_TRUNC
c13182ef 1324varies among implementations.
bcdd964e 1325On many systems the file is actually truncated.
fea681da
MK
1326.\" Linux 2.0, 2.5: truncate
1327.\" Solaris 5.7, 5.8: truncate
1328.\" Irix 6.5: truncate
1329.\" Tru64 5.1B: truncate
1330.\" HP-UX 11.22: truncate
1331.\" FreeBSD 4.7: truncate
5355ff82 1332.PP
5dc8986d
MK
1333Note that
1334.BR open ()
1335can open device special files, but
1336.BR creat ()
1337cannot create them; use
1338.BR mknod (2)
1339instead.
5355ff82 1340.PP
5dc8986d
MK
1341If the file is newly created, its
1342.IR st_atime ,
1343.IR st_ctime ,
1344.I st_mtime
1345fields
1346(respectively, time of last access, time of last status change, and
1347time of last modification; see
1348.BR stat (2))
1349are set
1350to the current time, and so are the
1351.I st_ctime
1352and
1353.I st_mtime
1354fields of the
1355parent directory.
1356Otherwise, if the file is modified because of the
1357.B O_TRUNC
3a9c5a29
MK
1358flag, its
1359.I st_ctime
1360and
1361.I st_mtime
1362fields are set to the current time.
5355ff82 1363.PP
aaf7a574
MK
1364The files in the
1365.I /proc/[pid]/fd
1366directory show the open file descriptors of the process with the PID
1367.IR pid .
1368The files in the
1369.I /proc/[pid]/fdinfo
d40e0bfc 1370directory show even more information about these file descriptors.
aaf7a574
MK
1371See
1372.BR proc (5)
1373for further details of both of these directories.
8132c115 1374.PP
319e9b31 1375The Linux header file
8132c115
ES
1376.B <asm/fcntl.h>
1377doesn't define
1378.BR O_ASYNC ;
319e9b31 1379the (BSD-derived)
8132c115 1380.B FASYNC
319e9b31 1381synonym is defined instead.
5dc8986d
MK
1382.\"
1383.\"
d20d9d33
MK
1384.SS Open file descriptions
1385The term open file description is the one used by POSIX to refer to the
1386entries in the system-wide table of open files.
91085d85 1387In other contexts, this object is
d20d9d33
MK
1388variously also called an "open file object",
1389a "file handle", an "open file table entry",
1390or\(emin kernel-developer parlance\(ema
1391.IR "struct file" .
5355ff82 1392.PP
d20d9d33
MK
1393When a file descriptor is duplicated (using
1394.BR dup (2)
1395or similar),
1396the duplicate refers to the same open file description
1397as the original file descriptor,
1398and the two file descriptors consequently share
1399the file offset and file status flags.
1400Such sharing can also occur between processes:
1401a child process created via
91085d85 1402.BR fork (2)
d20d9d33
MK
1403inherits duplicates of its parent's file descriptors,
1404and those duplicates refer to the same open file descriptions.
5355ff82 1405.PP
d20d9d33 1406Each
bf7bc8b8 1407.BR open ()
d20d9d33
MK
1408of a file creates a new open file description;
1409thus, there may be multiple open file descriptions
1410corresponding to a file inode.
5355ff82 1411.PP
9539ebc9
MK
1412On Linux, one can use the
1413.BR kcmp (2)
1414.B KCMP_FILE
1415operation to test whether two file descriptors
1416(in the same process or in two different processes)
1417refer to the same open file description.
d20d9d33
MK
1418.\"
1419.\"
5dc8986d 1420.SS Synchronized I/O
6cf19e62
MK
1421The POSIX.1-2008 "synchronized I/O" option
1422specifies different variants of synchronized I/O,
1423and specifies the
1424.BR open ()
1425flags
015221ef
CH
1426.BR O_SYNC ,
1427.BR O_DSYNC ,
1428and
6cf19e62
MK
1429.BR O_RSYNC
1430for controlling the behavior.
1431Regardless of whether an implementation supports this option,
1432it must at least support the use of
1433.BR O_SYNC
1434for regular files.
5355ff82 1435.PP
89851a00 1436Linux implements
6cf19e62
MK
1437.BR O_SYNC
1438and
1439.BR O_DSYNC ,
1440but not
015221ef 1441.BR O_RSYNC .
352c4c5c 1442Somewhat incorrectly, glibc defines
6cf19e62
MK
1443.BR O_RSYNC
1444to have the same value as
352c4c5c
MK
1445.BR O_SYNC .
1446.RB ( O_RSYNC
1447is defined in the Linux header file
1448.I <asm/fcntl.h>
1449on HP PA-RISC, but it is not used.)
5355ff82 1450.PP
6cf19e62
MK
1451.BR O_SYNC
1452provides synchronized I/O
1453.I file
1454integrity completion,
1455meaning write operations will flush data and all associated metadata
1456to the underlying hardware.
1457.BR O_DSYNC
1458provides synchronized I/O
1459.I data
1460integrity completion,
1461meaning write operations will flush data
1462to the underlying hardware,
1463but will only flush metadata updates that are required
1464to allow a subsequent read operation to complete successfully.
1465Data integrity completion can reduce the number of disk operations
1466that are required for applications that don't need the guarantees
1467of file integrity completion.
5355ff82 1468.PP
a83923ca 1469To understand the difference between the two types of completion,
6cf19e62
MK
1470consider two pieces of file metadata:
1471the file last modification timestamp
1472.RI ( st_mtime )
1473and the file length.
1474All write operations will update the last file modification timestamp,
1475but only writes that add data to the end of the
1476file will change the file length.
1477The last modification timestamp is not needed to ensure that
1478a read completes successfully, but the file length is.
1479Thus,
1480.BR O_DSYNC
1481would only guarantee to flush updates to the file length metadata
1482(whereas
1483.BR O_SYNC
1484would also always flush the last modification timestamp metadata).
5355ff82 1485.PP
6cf19e62
MK
1486Before Linux 2.6.33, Linux implemented only the
1487.BR O_SYNC
89851a00 1488flag for
6cf19e62
MK
1489.BR open ().
1490However, when that flag was specified,
1491most filesystems actually provided the equivalent of synchronized I/O
1492.I data
1493integrity completion (i.e.,
1494.BR O_SYNC
1495was actually implemented as the equivalent of
1496.BR O_DSYNC ).
5355ff82 1497.PP
6cf19e62
MK
1498Since Linux 2.6.33, proper
1499.BR O_SYNC
1500support is provided.
1501However, to ensure backward binary compatibility,
1502.BR O_DSYNC
1503was defined with the same value as the historical
015221ef 1504.BR O_SYNC ,
015221ef 1505and
6cf19e62 1506.BR O_SYNC
89851a00 1507was defined as a new (two-bit) flag value that includes the
6cf19e62
MK
1508.BR O_DSYNC
1509flag value.
1510This ensures that applications compiled against
1511new headers get at least
1512.BR O_DSYNC
1513semantics on pre-2.6.33 kernels.
5dc8986d 1514.\"
76f054b1
MK
1515.SS C library/kernel differences
1516Since version 2.26,
1517the glibc wrapper function for
1518.BR open ()
1519employs the
1520.BR openat ()
1521system call, rather than the kernel's
1522.BR open ()
1523system call.
1524For certain architectures, this is also true in glibc versions before 2.26.
5dc8986d
MK
1525.\"
1526.SS NFS
1527There are many infelicities in the protocol underlying NFS, affecting
1528amongst others
1529.BR O_SYNC " and " O_NDELAY .
5355ff82 1530.PP
9ee4a2b6 1531On NFS filesystems with UID mapping enabled,
a1d5f77c
MK
1532.BR open ()
1533may
75b94dc3 1534return a file descriptor but, for example,
a1d5f77c
MK
1535.BR read (2)
1536requests are denied
1537with \fBEACCES\fP.
1538This is because the client performs
1539.BR open ()
1540by checking the
1541permissions, but UID mapping is performed by the server upon
1542read and write requests.
5dc8986d
MK
1543.\"
1544.\"
1bdc161d
MK
1545.SS FIFOs
1546Opening the read or write end of a FIFO blocks until the other
1547end is also opened (by another process or thread).
1548See
1549.BR fifo (7)
1550for further details.
1551.\"
1552.\"
5dc8986d
MK
1553.SS File access mode
1554Unlike the other values that can be specified in
1555.IR flags ,
1556the
1557.I "access mode"
1558values
1559.BR O_RDONLY ", " O_WRONLY ", and " O_RDWR
1560do not specify individual bits.
1561Rather, they define the low order two bits of
1562.IR flags ,
1563and are defined respectively as 0, 1, and 2.
1564In other words, the combination
1565.B "O_RDONLY | O_WRONLY"
1566is a logical error, and certainly does not have the same meaning as
1567.BR O_RDWR .
5355ff82 1568.PP
5dc8986d
MK
1569Linux reserves the special, nonstandard access mode 3 (binary 11) in
1570.I flags
1571to mean:
d9cb0d7d 1572check for read and write permission on the file and return a file descriptor
5dc8986d
MK
1573that can't be used for reading or writing.
1574This nonstandard access mode is used by some Linux drivers to return a
d9cb0d7d 1575file descriptor that is to be used only for device-specific
5dc8986d
MK
1576.BR ioctl (2)
1577operations.
1578.\" See for example util-linux's disk-utils/setfdprm.c
1579.\" For some background on access mode 3, see
1580.\" http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/653123
1581.\" "[RFC] correct flags to f_mode conversion in __dentry_open"
1582.\" LKML, 12 Mar 2008
7b8ba76c
MK
1583.\"
1584.\"
80d250b4 1585.SS Rationale for openat() and other "directory file descriptor" APIs
7b8ba76c 1586.BR openat ()
80d250b4
MK
1587and the other system calls and library functions that take
1588a directory file descriptor argument
7b8ba76c 1589(i.e.,
c6a16783 1590.BR execveat (2),
7b8ba76c 1591.BR faccessat (2),
80d250b4 1592.BR fanotify_mark (2),
7b8ba76c
MK
1593.BR fchmodat (2),
1594.BR fchownat (2),
5c30e7cd 1595.BR fspick (2),
7b8ba76c
MK
1596.BR fstatat (2),
1597.BR futimesat (2),
1598.BR linkat (2),
1599.BR mkdirat (2),
5c30e7cd 1600.BR move_mount (2),
7b8ba76c 1601.BR mknodat (2),
80d250b4 1602.BR name_to_handle_at (2),
5c30e7cd 1603.BR open_tree (2),
e64c566c 1604.BR openat2 (2),
7b8ba76c
MK
1605.BR readlinkat (2),
1606.BR renameat (2),
3f092cef 1607.BR statx (2),
7b8ba76c
MK
1608.BR symlinkat (2),
1609.BR unlinkat (2),
f37759b1 1610.BR utimensat (2),
80d250b4 1611.BR mkfifoat (3),
7b8ba76c 1612and
80d250b4 1613.BR scandirat (3))
a98e0304 1614address two problems with the older interfaces that preceded them.
92692952 1615Here, the explanation is in terms of the
7b8ba76c 1616.BR openat ()
d26f8a31 1617call, but the rationale is analogous for the other interfaces.
5355ff82 1618.PP
7b8ba76c
MK
1619First,
1620.BR openat ()
1621allows an application to avoid race conditions that could
1622occur when using
cadd38ba 1623.BR open ()
7b8ba76c
MK
1624to open files in directories other than the current working directory.
1625These race conditions result from the fact that some component
1626of the directory prefix given to
cadd38ba 1627.BR open ()
7b8ba76c 1628could be changed in parallel with the call to
cadd38ba 1629.BR open ().
54305f5b 1630Suppose, for example, that we wish to create the file
a710e359 1631.I dir1/dir2/xxx.dep
54305f5b 1632if the file
a710e359 1633.I dir1/dir2/xxx
54305f5b 1634exists.
069d2f9a 1635The problem is that between the existence check and the file-creation step,
a710e359 1636.I dir1
54305f5b 1637or
a710e359 1638.I dir2
54305f5b
MK
1639(which might be symbolic links)
1640could be modified to point to a different location.
7b8ba76c
MK
1641Such races can be avoided by
1642opening a file descriptor for the target directory,
1643and then specifying that file descriptor as the
1644.I dirfd
54305f5b
MK
1645argument of (say)
1646.BR fstatat (2)
1647and
7b8ba76c 1648.BR openat ().
941d2892
MK
1649The use of the
1650.I dirfd
1651file descriptor also has other benefits:
1652.IP * 3
1653the file descriptor is a stable reference to the directory,
1654even if the directory is renamed; and
1655.IP *
1656the open file descriptor prevents the underlying filesystem from
1657being dismounted,
1658just as when a process has a current working directory on a filesystem.
1659.PP
7b8ba76c
MK
1660Second,
1661.BR openat ()
1662allows the implementation of a per-thread "current working
1663directory", via file descriptor(s) maintained by the application.
1664(This functionality can also be obtained by tricks based
1665on the use of
1666.IR /proc/self/fd/ dirfd,
1667but less efficiently.)
96c44b8f
MK
1668.PP
1669The
1670.I dirfd
1671argument for these APIs can be obtained by using
1672.BR open ()
1673or
1674.BR openat ()
1675to open a directory (with either the
1676.BR O_RDONLY
1677or the
1678.BR O_PATH
1679flag).
1680Alternatively, such a file descriptor can be obtained by applying
1681.BR dirfd (3)
1682to a directory stream created using
1683.BR opendir (3).
7b8ba76c
MK
1684.\"
1685.\"
ddc4d339 1686.SS O_DIRECT
dd3568a1 1687.PP
ddc4d339
MK
1688The
1689.B O_DIRECT
1690flag may impose alignment restrictions on the length and address
7fac88a9 1691of user-space buffers and the file offset of I/Os.
ddc4d339 1692In Linux alignment
9ee4a2b6 1693restrictions vary by filesystem and kernel version and might be
ddc4d339 1694absent entirely.
9ee4a2b6 1695However there is currently no filesystem\-independent
ddc4d339 1696interface for an application to discover these restrictions for a given
9ee4a2b6
MK
1697file or filesystem.
1698Some filesystems provide their own interfaces
ddc4d339
MK
1699for doing so, for example the
1700.B XFS_IOC_DIOINFO
1701operation in
1702.BR xfsctl (3).
dd3568a1 1703.PP
85c2bdba
MK
1704Under Linux 2.4, transfer sizes, and the alignment of the user buffer
1705and the file offset must all be multiples of the logical block size
9ee4a2b6 1706of the filesystem.
21557928 1707Since Linux 2.6.0, alignment to the logical block size of the
e6042e4a 1708underlying storage (typically 512 bytes) suffices.
21557928 1709The logical block size can be determined using the
e6042e4a
PS
1710.BR ioctl (2)
1711.B BLKSSZGET
21557928 1712operation or from the shell using the command:
5355ff82
MK
1713.PP
1714.EX
21557928 1715 blockdev \-\-getss
5355ff82
MK
1716.EE
1717.PP
1847167b
NP
1718.B O_DIRECT
1719I/Os should never be run concurrently with the
04cd7f64 1720.BR fork (2)
1847167b
NP
1721system call,
1722if the memory buffer is a private mapping
1723(i.e., any mapping created with the
02ace852 1724.BR mmap (2)
1847167b 1725.BR MAP_PRIVATE
0ab8aeec 1726flag;
1847167b
NP
1727this includes memory allocated on the heap and statically allocated buffers).
1728Any such I/Os, whether submitted via an asynchronous I/O interface or from
1729another thread in the process,
1730should be completed before
1731.BR fork (2)
1732is called.
1733Failure to do so can result in data corruption and undefined behavior in
1734parent and child processes.
1735This restriction does not apply when the memory buffer for the
1736.B O_DIRECT
1737I/Os was created using
1738.BR shmat (2)
1739or
1740.BR mmap (2)
1741with the
1742.B MAP_SHARED
1743flag.
1744Nor does this restriction apply when the memory buffer has been advised as
1745.B MADV_DONTFORK
0ab8aeec 1746with
02ace852 1747.BR madvise (2),
1847167b
NP
1748ensuring that it will not be available
1749to the child after
1750.BR fork (2).
dd3568a1 1751.PP
ddc4d339
MK
1752The
1753.B O_DIRECT
1754flag was introduced in SGI IRIX, where it has alignment
1755restrictions similar to those of Linux 2.4.
1756IRIX has also a
1757.BR fcntl (2)
1758call to query appropriate alignments, and sizes.
1759FreeBSD 4.x introduced
1760a flag of the same name, but without alignment restrictions.
dd3568a1 1761.PP
ddc4d339
MK
1762.B O_DIRECT
1763support was added under Linux in kernel version 2.4.10.
1764Older Linux kernels simply ignore this flag.
fedb2ff5 1765Some filesystems may not implement the flag, in which case
ddc4d339 1766.BR open ()
9e4be7e9 1767fails with the error
ddc4d339
MK
1768.B EINVAL
1769if it is used.
dd3568a1 1770.PP
ddc4d339
MK
1771Applications should avoid mixing
1772.B O_DIRECT
1773and normal I/O to the same file,
1774and especially to overlapping byte regions in the same file.
9ee4a2b6 1775Even when the filesystem correctly handles the coherency issues in
ddc4d339
MK
1776this situation, overall I/O throughput is likely to be slower than
1777using either mode alone.
1778Likewise, applications should avoid mixing
1779.BR mmap (2)
1780of files with direct I/O to the same files.
dd3568a1 1781.PP
a1fa36af 1782The behavior of
ddc4d339 1783.B O_DIRECT
9ee4a2b6 1784with NFS will differ from local filesystems.
ddc4d339
MK
1785Older kernels, or
1786kernels configured in certain ways, may not support this combination.
1787The NFS protocol does not support passing the flag to the server, so
1788.B O_DIRECT
33a0ccb2 1789I/O will bypass the page cache only on the client; the server may
ddc4d339
MK
1790still cache the I/O.
1791The client asks the server to make the I/O
1792synchronous to preserve the synchronous semantics of
1793.BR O_DIRECT .
1794Some servers will perform poorly under these circumstances, especially
1795if the I/O size is small.
1796Some servers may also be configured to
1797lie to clients about the I/O having reached stable storage; this
1798will avoid the performance penalty at some risk to data integrity
1799in the event of server power failure.
1800The Linux NFS client places no alignment restrictions on
1801.B O_DIRECT
1802I/O.
1803.PP
1804In summary,
1805.B O_DIRECT
1806is a potentially powerful tool that should be used with caution.
1807It is recommended that applications treat use of
1808.B O_DIRECT
1809as a performance option which is disabled by default.
ddc4d339 1810.SH BUGS
b50582eb
MK
1811Currently, it is not possible to enable signal-driven
1812I/O by specifying
1813.B O_ASYNC
c13182ef 1814when calling
b50582eb
MK
1815.BR open ();
1816use
1817.BR fcntl (2)
1818to enable this flag.
0e1ad98c 1819.\" FIXME . Check bugzilla report on open(O_ASYNC)
92057f4d 1820.\" See http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5993
5355ff82 1821.PP
0d730fcc
MK
1822One must check for two different error codes,
1823.B EISDIR
1824and
1825.BR ENOENT ,
1826when trying to determine whether the kernel supports
0d55b37f 1827.B O_TMPFILE
0d730fcc 1828functionality.
5355ff82 1829.PP
320f8a8e
MK
1830When both
1831.B O_CREAT
1832and
1833.B O_DIRECTORY
1834are specified in
1835.IR flags
1836and the file specified by
1837.I pathname
1838does not exist,
1839.BR open ()
1840will create a regular file (i.e.,
1841.B O_DIRECTORY
1842is ignored).
47297adb 1843.SH SEE ALSO
a3bf8022
MK
1844.BR chmod (2),
1845.BR chown (2),
fea681da 1846.BR close (2),
e366dbc4 1847.BR dup (2),
fea681da
MK
1848.BR fcntl (2),
1849.BR link (2),
1f6ceb40 1850.BR lseek (2),
fea681da 1851.BR mknod (2),
e366dbc4 1852.BR mmap (2),
f0c34053 1853.BR mount (2),
a2dbb2e3 1854.BR openat2 (2),
fa5d243f 1855.BR open_by_handle_at (2),
fea681da
MK
1856.BR read (2),
1857.BR socket (2),
1858.BR stat (2),
1859.BR umask (2),
1860.BR unlink (2),
1861.BR write (2),
1862.BR fopen (3),
b31056e3 1863.BR acl (5),
f0c34053 1864.BR fifo (7),
3b363b62 1865.BR inode (7),
a9cfde1d
MK
1866.BR path_resolution (7),
1867.BR symlink (7)