msgop

MSGOP(2)                   Linux Programmer's Manual                  MSGOP(2)

NAME
       msgrcv, msgsnd - System V message queue operations

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <sys/ipc.h>
       #include <sys/msg.h>

       int msgsnd(int msqid, const void *msgp, size_t msgsz, int msgflg);

       ssize_t msgrcv(int msqid, void *msgp, size_t msgsz, long msgtyp,
                      int msgflg);

DESCRIPTION
       The  msgsnd()  and  msgrcv() system calls are used to send messages to,
       and receive messages from,  a  System V  message  queue.   The  calling
       process  must  have  write  permission on the message queue in order to
       send a message, and read permission to receive a message.

       The msgp argument is a pointer to a  caller-defined  structure  of  the
       following general form:

           struct msgbuf {
               long mtype;       /* message type, must be > 0 */
               char mtext[1];    /* message data */
           };

       The  mtext  field is an array (or other structure) whose size is speci-
       fied by msgsz, a nonnegative integer value.  Messages  of  zero  length
       (i.e.,  no  mtext  field)  are  permitted.  The mtype field must have a
       strictly positive integer value.  This value can be used by the receiv-
       ing  process for message selection (see the description of msgrcv() be-
       low).

   msgsnd()
       The msgsnd() system call appends a copy of the message  pointed  to  by
       msgp to the message queue whose identifier is specified by msqid.

       If  sufficient space is available in the queue, msgsnd() succeeds imme-
       diately.  The queue capacity is governed by the msg_qbytes field in the
       associated data structure for the message queue.  During queue creation
       this field is initialized to MSGMNB bytes, but this limit can be  modi-
       fied  using msgctl(2).  A message queue is considered to be full if ei-
       ther of the following conditions is true:

       * Adding a new message to the queue would cause  the  total  number  of
         bytes in the queue to exceed the queue's maximum size (the msg_qbytes
         field).

       * Adding another message to the queue would cause the total  number  of
         messages  in  the  queue  to  exceed  the  queue's  maximum size (the
         msg_qbytes field).  This check is necessary to prevent  an  unlimited
         number  of  zero-length messages being placed on the queue.  Although
         such messages contain no data,  they  nevertheless  consume  (locked)
         kernel memory.

       If  insufficient  space is available in the queue, then the default be-
       havior of msgsnd() is to  block  until  space  becomes  available.   If
       IPC_NOWAIT is specified in msgflg, then the call instead fails with the
       error EAGAIN.

       A blocked msgsnd() call may also fail if:

       * the queue is removed, in which case the system call fails with  errno
         set to EIDRM; or

       * a  signal  is  caught, in which case the system call fails with errno
         set  to  EINTR;see  signal(7).   (msgsnd()  is  never   automatically
         restarted  after being interrupted by a signal handler, regardless of
         the setting of the SA_RESTART flag when establishing  a  signal  han-
         dler.)

       Upon  successful completion the message queue data structure is updated
       as follows:

              msg_lspid is set to the process ID of the calling process.

              msg_qnum is incremented by 1.

              msg_stime is set to the current time.

   msgrcv()
       The msgrcv() system call removes a message from the queue specified  by
       msqid and places it in the buffer pointed to by msgp.

       The  argument  msgsz specifies the maximum size in bytes for the member
       mtext of the structure pointed to by the msgp argument.  If the message
       text  has  length  greater  than  msgsz,  then  the behavior depends on
       whether MSG_NOERROR is specified in msgflg.  If MSG_NOERROR  is  speci-
       fied,  then  the message text will be truncated (and the truncated part
       will be lost); if MSG_NOERROR is not specified, then the message  isn't
       removed  from the queue and the system call fails returning -1 with er-
       rno set to E2BIG.

       Unless MSG_COPY is specified in msgflg (see below), the msgtyp argument
       specifies the type of message requested, as follows:

       * If msgtyp is 0, then the first message in the queue is read.

       * If  msgtyp  is greater than 0, then the first message in the queue of
         type msgtyp is read, unless MSG_EXCEPT was specified  in  msgflg,  in
         which case the first message in the queue of type not equal to msgtyp
         will be read.

       * If msgtyp is less than 0, then the first message in  the  queue  with
         the  lowest  type  less than or equal to the absolute value of msgtyp
         will be read.

       The msgflg argument is a bit mask constructed by ORing together zero or
       more of the following flags:

       IPC_NOWAIT
              Return immediately if no message of the requested type is in the
              queue.  The system call fails with errno set to ENOMSG.

       MSG_COPY (since Linux 3.8)
              Nondestructively fetch a copy of the message at the ordinal  po-
              sition in the queue specified by msgtyp (messages are considered
              to be numbered starting at 0).

              This flag must be specified in conjunction with IPC_NOWAIT, with
              the  result  that, if there is no message available at the given
              position, the call fails immediately with the error ENOMSG.  Be-
              cause  they  alter  the  meaning  of  msgtyp in orthogonal ways,
              MSG_COPY and MSG_EXCEPT may not both be specified in msgflg.

              The MSG_COPY flag was added for the implementation of the kernel
              checkpoint-restore  facility and is available only if the kernel
              was built with the CONFIG_CHECKPOINT_RESTORE option.

       MSG_EXCEPT
              Used with msgtyp greater than 0 to read the first message in the
              queue with message type that differs from msgtyp.

       MSG_NOERROR
              To truncate the message text if longer than msgsz bytes.

       If  no  message of the requested type is available and IPC_NOWAIT isn't
       specified in msgflg, the calling process is blocked until  one  of  the
       following conditions occurs:

       * A message of the desired type is placed in the queue.

       * The message queue is removed from the system.  In this case, the sys-
         tem call fails with errno set to EIDRM.

       * The calling process catches a signal.  In this case, the system  call
         fails  with  errno  set  to  EINTR.  (msgrcv() is never automatically
         restarted after being interrupted by a signal handler, regardless  of
         the  setting  of  the SA_RESTART flag when establishing a signal han-
         dler.)

       Upon successful completion the message queue data structure is  updated
       as follows:

              msg_lrpid is set to the process ID of the calling process.

              msg_qnum is decremented by 1.

              msg_rtime is set to the current time.

RETURN VALUE
       On  failure  both  functions return -1 with errno indicating the error,
       otherwise msgsnd() returns 0 and msgrcv() returns the number  of  bytes
       actually copied into the mtext array.

ERRORS
       When  msgsnd() fails, errno will be set to one among the following val-
       ues:

       EACCES The calling process does not have write permission on  the  mes-
              sage  queue,  and  does not have the CAP_IPC_OWNER capability in
              the user namespace that governs its IPC namespace.

       EAGAIN The message can't be sent due to the msg_qbytes  limit  for  the
              queue and IPC_NOWAIT was specified in msgflg.

       EFAULT The address pointed to by msgp isn't accessible.

       EIDRM  The message queue was removed.

       EINTR  Sleeping on a full message queue condition, the process caught a
              signal.

       EINVAL Invalid msqid value, or nonpositive mtype value, or invalid  ms-
              gsz value (less than 0 or greater than the system value MSGMAX).

       ENOMEM The  system  does  not  have enough memory to make a copy of the
              message pointed to by msgp.

       When msgrcv() fails, errno will be set to one among the following  val-
       ues:

       E2BIG  The  message  text  length is greater than msgsz and MSG_NOERROR
              isn't specified in msgflg.

       EACCES The calling process does not have read permission on the message
              queue,  and  does  not  have the CAP_IPC_OWNER capability in the
              user namespace that governs its IPC namespace.

       EFAULT The address pointed to by msgp isn't accessible.

       EIDRM  While the process was sleeping to receive a message, the message
              queue was removed.

       EINTR  While the process was sleeping to receive a message, the process
              caught a signal; see signal(7).

       EINVAL msqid was invalid, or msgsz was less than 0.

       EINVAL (since Linux 3.14)
              msgflg specified MSG_COPY, but not IPC_NOWAIT.

       EINVAL (since Linux 3.14)
              msgflg specified both MSG_COPY and MSG_EXCEPT.

       ENOMSG IPC_NOWAIT was specified in msgflg and no  message  of  the  re-
              quested type existed on the message queue.

       ENOMSG IPC_NOWAIT  and  MSG_COPY were specified in msgflg and the queue
              contains less than msgtyp messages.

       ENOSYS (since Linux 3.8)
              MSG_COPY was specified in msgflg, and this kernel was configured
              without CONFIG_CHECKPOINT_RESTORE.

CONFORMING TO
       POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, SVr4.

       The MSG_EXCEPT and MSG_COPY flags are Linux-specific; their definitions
       can be obtained by defining the _GNU_SOURCE feature test macro.

NOTES
       The inclusion of <sys/types.h> and <sys/ipc.h> isn't required on  Linux
       or by any version of POSIX.  However, some old implementations required
       the inclusion of these header files, and the SVID also documented their
       inclusion.   Applications  intended  to be portable to such old systems
       may need to include these header files.

       The msgp argument is declared as struct msgbuf * in glibc 2.0 and  2.1.
       It  is  declared as void * in glibc 2.2 and later, as required by SUSv2
       and SUSv3.

       The following limits on message queue  resources  affect  the  msgsnd()
       call:

       MSGMAX Maximum  size  of  a message text, in bytes (default value: 8192
              bytes).  On Linux, this limit  can  be  read  and  modified  via
              /proc/sys/kernel/msgmax.

       MSGMNB Maximum number of bytes that can be held in a message queue (de-
              fault value: 16384 bytes).  On Linux, this limit can be read and
              modified  via  /proc/sys/kernel/msgmnb.   A  privileged  process
              (Linux: a process with the CAP_SYS_RESOURCE capability) can  in-
              crease  the  size of a message queue beyond MSGMNB using the ms-
              gctl(2) IPC_SET operation.

       The implementation has no intrinsic system-wide limits on the number of
       message  headers  (MSGTQL)  and the number of bytes in the message pool
       (MSGPOOL).

BUGS
       In Linux 3.13 and earlier, if msgrcv() was  called  with  the  MSG_COPY
       flag, but without IPC_NOWAIT, and the message queue contained less than
       msgtyp messages, then the call would block until the  next  message  is
       written  to  the queue.  At that point, the call would return a copy of
       the message, regardless of whether that message was at the ordinal  po-
       sition msgtyp.  This bug is fixed in Linux 3.14.

       Specifying  both  MSG_COPY  and MSC_EXCEPT in msgflg is a logical error
       (since these flags impose different  interpretations  on  msgtyp).   In
       Linux 3.13 and earlier, this error was not diagnosed by msgrcv().  This
       bug is fixed in Linux 3.14.

EXAMPLE
       The program below demonstrates the use of msgsnd() and msgrcv().

       The example program is first run with the -s option to send  a  message
       and then run again with the -r option to receive a message.

       The following shell session shows a sample run of the program:

           $ ./a.out -s
           sent: a message at Wed Mar  4 16:25:45 2015

           $ ./a.out -r
           message received: a message at Wed Mar  4 16:25:45 2015

   Program source

       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <string.h>
       #include <time.h>
       #include <unistd.h>
       #include <errno.h>
       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <sys/ipc.h>
       #include <sys/msg.h>

       struct msgbuf {
           long mtype;
           char mtext[80];
       };

       static void
       usage(char *prog_name, char *msg)
       {
           if (msg != NULL)
               fputs(msg, stderr);

           fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s [options]\n", prog_name);
           fprintf(stderr, "Options are:\n");
           fprintf(stderr, "-s        send message using msgsnd()\n");
           fprintf(stderr, "-r        read message using msgrcv()\n");
           fprintf(stderr, "-t        message type (default is 1)\n");
           fprintf(stderr, "-k        message queue key (default is 1234)\n");
           exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
       }

       static void
       send_msg(int qid, int msgtype)
       {
           struct msgbuf msg;
           time_t t;

           msg.mtype = msgtype;

           time(&t);
           snprintf(msg.mtext, sizeof(msg.mtext), "a message at %s",
                   ctime(&t));

           if (msgsnd(qid, (void *) &msg, sizeof(msg.mtext),
                       IPC_NOWAIT) == -1) {
               perror("msgsnd error");
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }
           printf("sent: %s\n", msg.mtext);
       }

       static void
       get_msg(int qid, int msgtype)
       {
           struct msgbuf msg;

           if (msgrcv(qid, (void *) &msg, sizeof(msg.mtext), msgtype,
                      MSG_NOERROR | IPC_NOWAIT) == -1) {
               if (errno != ENOMSG) {
                   perror("msgrcv");
                   exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
               }
               printf("No message available for msgrcv()\n");
           } else
               printf("message received: %s\n", msg.mtext);
       }

       int
       main(int argc, char *argv[])
       {
           int qid, opt;
           int mode = 0;               /* 1 = send, 2 = receive */
           int msgtype = 1;
           int msgkey = 1234;

           while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "srt:k:")) != -1) {
               switch (opt) {
               case 's':
                   mode = 1;
                   break;
               case 'r':
                   mode = 2;
                   break;
               case 't':
                   msgtype = atoi(optarg);
                   if (msgtype <= 0)
                       usage(argv[0], "-t option must be greater than 0\n");
                   break;
               case 'k':
                   msgkey = atoi(optarg);
                   break;
               default:
                   usage(argv[0], "Unrecognized option\n");
               }
           }

           if (mode == 0)
               usage(argv[0], "must use either -s or -r option\n");

           qid = msgget(msgkey, IPC_CREAT | 0666);

           if (qid == -1) {
               perror("msgget");
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }

           if (mode == 2)
               get_msg(qid, msgtype);
           else
               send_msg(qid, msgtype);

           exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
       }

SEE ALSO
       msgctl(2), msgget(2), capabilities(7), mq_overview(7), sysvipc(7)

COLOPHON
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       description of the project, information about reporting bugs,  and  the
       latest     version     of     this    page,    can    be    found    at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux                             2019-08-02                          MSGOP(2)
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