The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6
IEEE Std 1003.1, 2004 Edition
Copyright © 2001-2004 The IEEE and The Open Group, All Rights reserved.
A newer edition of this document exists here

NAME

fcntl.h - file control options

SYNOPSIS

#include <fcntl.h>

DESCRIPTION

The <fcntl.h> header shall define the following requests and arguments for use by the functions fcntl() and open().

Values for cmd used by fcntl() (the following values are unique) are as follows:

F_DUPFD
Duplicate file descriptor.
F_GETFD
Get file descriptor flags.
F_SETFD
Set file descriptor flags.
F_GETFL
Get file status flags and file access modes.
F_SETFL
Set file status flags.
F_GETLK
Get record locking information.
F_SETLK
Set record locking information.
F_SETLKW
Set record locking information; wait if blocked.
F_GETOWN
Get process or process group ID to receive SIGURG signals.
F_SETOWN
Set process or process group ID to receive SIGURG signals.

File descriptor flags used for fcntl() are as follows:

FD_CLOEXEC
Close the file descriptor upon execution of an exec family function.

Values for l_type used for record locking with fcntl() (the following values are unique) are as follows:

F_RDLCK
Shared or read lock.
F_UNLCK
Unlock.
F_WRLCK
Exclusive or write lock.

[XSI] [Option Start] The values used for l_whence, SEEK_SET, SEEK_CUR, and SEEK_END shall be defined as described in <unistd.h>. [Option End]

The following values are file creation flags and are used in the oflag value to open(). They shall be bitwise-distinct.

O_CREAT
Create file if it does not exist.
O_EXCL
Exclusive use flag.
O_NOCTTY
Do not assign controlling terminal.
O_TRUNC
Truncate flag.

File status flags used for open() and fcntl() are as follows:

O_APPEND
Set append mode.
O_DSYNC
[SIO] [Option Start] Write according to synchronized I/O data integrity completion. [Option End]
O_NONBLOCK
Non-blocking mode.
O_RSYNC
[SIO] [Option Start] Synchronized read I/O operations. [Option End]
O_SYNC
Write according to synchronized I/O file integrity completion.

Mask for use with file access modes is as follows:

O_ACCMODE
Mask for file access modes.

File access modes used for open() and fcntl() are as follows:

O_RDONLY
Open for reading only.
O_RDWR
Open for reading and writing.
O_WRONLY
Open for writing only.

[XSI] [Option Start] The symbolic names for file modes for use as values of mode_t shall be defined as described in <sys/stat.h>. [Option End]

[ADV] [Option Start] Values for advice used by posix_fadvise() are as follows:

POSIX_FADV_NORMAL
The application has no advice to give on its behavior with respect to the specified data. It is the default characteristic if no advice is given for an open file.
POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL
The application expects to access the specified data sequentially from lower offsets to higher offsets.
POSIX_FADV_RANDOM
The application expects to access the specified data in a random order.
POSIX_FADV_WILLNEED
The application expects to access the specified data in the near future.
POSIX_FADV_DONTNEED
The application expects that it will not access the specified data in the near future.
POSIX_FADV_NOREUSE
The application expects to access the specified data once and then not reuse it thereafter.
[Option End]

The structure flock describes a file lock. It shall include the following members:

short  l_type   Type of lock; F_RDLCK, F_WRLCK, F_UNLCK. 
short  l_whence Flag for starting offset. 
off_t  l_start  Relative offset in bytes. 
off_t  l_len    Size; if 0 then until EOF. 
pid_t  l_pid    Process ID of the process holding the lock; returned with F_GETLK. 

The mode_t, off_t, and pid_t types shall be defined as described in <sys/types.h>.

The following shall be declared as functions and may also be defined as macros. Function prototypes shall be provided.

int  creat(const char *, mode_t);
int  fcntl(int, int, ...);
int  open(const char *, int, ...);
[ADV][Option Start]
int  posix_fadvise(int, off_t, off_t, int);
int  posix_fallocate(int, off_t, off_t);
[Option End]

[XSI] [Option Start] Inclusion of the <fcntl.h> header may also make visible all symbols from <sys/stat.h> and <unistd.h>. [Option End]


The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE

None.

RATIONALE

None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

None.

SEE ALSO

<sys/stat.h>, <sys/types.h>, <unistd.h>, the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, creat(), exec, fcntl(), open(), posix_fadvise(), posix_fallocate(), posix_madvise()

CHANGE HISTORY

First released in Issue 1. Derived from Issue 1 of the SVID.

Issue 5

The DESCRIPTION is updated for alignment with the POSIX Realtime Extension.

Issue 6

The following changes are made for alignment with the ISO POSIX-1:1996 standard:

The following new requirements on POSIX implementations derive from alignment with the Single UNIX Specification:

The F_GETOWN and F_SETOWN values are added for sockets.

The posix_fadvise(), posix_fallocate(), and posix_madvise() functions are added for alignment with IEEE Std 1003.1d-1999.

IEEE PASC Interpretation 1003.1 #102 is applied, moving the prototype for posix_madvise() to <sys/mman.h>.

IEEE Std 1003.1-2001/Cor 2-2004, item XBD/TC2/D6/18 is applied, updating the protoypes for posix_fadvise() and posix_fallocate() to be large file-aware, using off_t instead of size_t.

End of informative text.

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