1.\" Copyright (c) 2000 Jonathan Lemon 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 13.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND 14.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 15.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 16.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 17.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 18.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 19.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 20.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 21.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 22.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 23.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 24.\" 25.Dd January 24, 2026 26.Dt KQUEUE 2 27.Os 28.Sh NAME 29.Nm kqueue , 30.Nm kevent 31.Nd kernel event notification mechanism 32.Sh LIBRARY 33.Lb libc 34.Sh SYNOPSIS 35.In sys/event.h 36.Ft int 37.Fn kqueue "void" 38.Ft int 39.Fn kqueuex "u_int flags" 40.Ft int 41.Fn kqueue1 "int flags" 42.Ft int 43.Fo kevent 44.Fa "int kq" 45.Fa "const struct kevent *changelist" 46.Fa "int nchanges" 47.Fa "struct kevent *eventlist" 48.Fa "int nevents" 49.Fa "const struct timespec *timeout" 50.Fc 51.Fn EV_SET "kev" ident filter flags fflags data udata 52.Sh DESCRIPTION 53The 54.Fn kqueue 55system call 56provides a generic method of notifying the user when an event 57happens or a condition holds, based on the results of small 58pieces of kernel code termed filters. 59A kevent is identified by the (ident, filter) pair; there may only 60be one unique kevent per kqueue. 61.Pp 62The filter is executed upon the initial registration of a kevent 63in order to detect whether a preexisting condition is present, and is also 64executed whenever an event is passed to the filter for evaluation. 65If the filter determines that the condition should be reported, 66then the kevent is placed on the kqueue for the user to retrieve. 67.Pp 68The filter is also run when the user attempts to retrieve the kevent 69from the kqueue. 70If the filter indicates that the condition that triggered 71the event no longer holds, the kevent is removed from the kqueue and 72is not returned. 73.Pp 74Multiple events which trigger the filter do not result in multiple 75kevents being placed on the kqueue; instead, the filter will aggregate 76the events into a single struct kevent. 77Calling 78.Fn close 79on a file descriptor will remove any kevents that reference the descriptor. 80.Pp 81The 82.Fn kqueue 83system call 84creates a new kernel event queue and returns a descriptor. 85The queue is not inherited by a child created with 86.Xr fork 2 . 87However, if 88.Xr rfork 2 89is called without the 90.Dv RFFDG 91flag, then the descriptor table is shared, 92which will allow sharing of the kqueue between two processes. 93.Pp 94The 95.Fn kqueuex 96system call also creates a new kernel event queue, and additionally takes 97a 98.Fa flags 99argument, which is a bitwise-inclusive OR of the following flags: 100.Bl -tag -width "KQUEUE_CPONFORK" 101.It Dv KQUEUE_CLOEXEC 102The returned file descriptor is automatically closed on 103.Xr execve 2 104.It Dv KQUEUE_CPONFORK 105When this flag is set, the created kqueue is copied into 106the child process on 107.Xr fork 2 108calls. 109The kqueue descriptor index of the new kqueue will be inherited by the child, 110that is, the numeric value of the descriptor will remain the same. 111.Pp 112Copying is deep, that is, each registered event in the original kqueue is 113copied (and not shared) into the new kqueue. 114This is contrary to how other descriptor types are handled upon 115.Xr fork 2 , 116where the copied file descriptor references the same file object 117as the source descriptor (shallow copy). 118.Pp 119By default, in other words, when the flag is not set, kqueues from 120the parent are not copied on fork to the child process. 121The corresponding file descriptor indeces are unused in the child. 122.Pp 123Registered events that reference file descriptors which are not 124duplicated on fork, are not copied into the new kqueue. 125For instance, if the event references a file descriptor opened with the 126.Dv O_CLOEXEC 127flag set, it is not copied. 128Similarly, if event references a kqueue opened without the 129.Dv KQUEUE_CPONFORK 130flag, the event is not copied. 131.El 132.Pp 133The 134.Fn kqueue 135system call is equivalent to calling 136.Fn kqueuex 137with 138.Fa flags 139set to 0. 140.Pp 141The 142.Fn kqueue1 143function exists for compatibility with 144.Nx . 145The 146.Fa flags 147argument accepts zero or more of the following values: 148.Bl -tag -width O_CLOEXEC 149.It Dv O_CLOEXEC 150The returned file descriptor is automatically closed on 151.Xr execve 2 152.El 153.Pp 154The 155.Fn kevent 156system call 157is used to register events with the queue, and return any pending 158events to the user. 159The 160.Fa changelist 161argument 162is a pointer to an array of 163.Va kevent 164structures, as defined in 165.In sys/event.h . 166All changes contained in the 167.Fa changelist 168are applied before any pending events are read from the queue. 169The 170.Fa nchanges 171argument 172gives the size of 173.Fa changelist . 174The 175.Fa eventlist 176argument 177is a pointer to an array of kevent structures. 178The 179.Fa nevents 180argument 181determines the size of 182.Fa eventlist . 183When 184.Fa nevents 185is zero, 186.Fn kevent 187will return immediately even if there is a 188.Fa timeout 189specified unlike 190.Xr select 2 . 191If 192.Fa timeout 193is a non-NULL pointer, it specifies a maximum interval to wait 194for an event, which will be interpreted as a struct timespec. 195If 196.Fa timeout 197is a NULL pointer, 198.Fn kevent 199waits indefinitely. 200To effect a poll, the 201.Fa timeout 202argument should be non-NULL, pointing to a zero-valued 203.Va timespec 204structure. 205The same array may be used for the 206.Fa changelist 207and 208.Fa eventlist . 209.Pp 210The 211.Fn EV_SET 212macro is provided for ease of initializing a 213kevent structure. 214.Pp 215The 216.Va kevent 217structure is defined as: 218.Bd -literal 219struct kevent { 220 uintptr_t ident; /* identifier for this event */ 221 short filter; /* filter for event */ 222 u_short flags; /* action flags for kqueue */ 223 u_int fflags; /* filter flag value */ 224 int64_t data; /* filter data value */ 225 void *udata; /* opaque user data identifier */ 226 uint64_t ext[4]; /* extensions */ 227}; 228.Ed 229.Pp 230The fields of 231.Fa struct kevent 232are: 233.Bl -tag -width "Fa filter" 234.It Fa ident 235Value used to identify this event. 236The exact interpretation is determined by the attached filter, 237but often is a file descriptor. 238.It Fa filter 239Identifies the kernel filter used to process this event. 240The pre-defined 241system filters are described below. 242.It Fa flags 243Actions to perform on the event. 244.It Fa fflags 245Filter-specific flags. 246.It Fa data 247Filter-specific data value. 248.It Fa udata 249Opaque user-defined value passed through the kernel unchanged. 250.It Fa ext 251Extended data passed to and from kernel. 252The meaning of the 253.Fa ext[0] 254and 255.Fa ext[1] 256members is defined by the filter. 257If a filter does not use them, 258these members are passed through the kernel unchanged. 259The 260.Fa ext[2] 261and 262.Fa ext[3] 263members are always passed through the kernel unchanged, 264providing additional user-defined values. 265.El 266.Pp 267The 268.Va flags 269field can contain the following values: 270.Bl -tag -width EV_KEEPUDATA 271.It Dv EV_ADD 272Adds the event to the kqueue. 273Re-adding an existing event 274will modify the parameters of the original event, and not result 275in a duplicate entry. 276Adding an event automatically enables it, 277unless overridden by the EV_DISABLE flag. 278.It Dv EV_ENABLE 279Permit 280.Fn kevent 281to return the event if it is triggered. 282.It Dv EV_DISABLE 283Disable the event so 284.Fn kevent 285will not return it. 286The filter itself is not disabled. 287.It Dv EV_DISPATCH 288Disable the event source immediately after delivery of an event. 289See 290.Dv EV_DISABLE 291above. 292.It Dv EV_DELETE 293Removes the event from the kqueue. 294Events which are attached to 295file descriptors are automatically deleted on the last close of 296the descriptor. 297.It Dv EV_RECEIPT 298This flag is useful for making bulk changes to a kqueue without draining 299any pending events. 300When passed as input, it forces 301.Dv EV_ERROR 302to always be returned. 303When a filter is successfully added the 304.Va data 305field will be zero. 306Note that if this flag is encountered and there is no remaining space in 307.Fa eventlist 308to hold the 309.Dv EV_ERROR 310event, then subsequent changes will not get processed. 311.It Dv EV_ONESHOT 312Return only the first occurrence of the filter 313being triggered. 314After the user retrieves the event from the kqueue, 315it is deleted. 316.It Dv EV_CLEAR 317Reset the state of the event after it is retrieved by the user. 318This is useful for filters which report state transitions 319instead of the current state. 320Note that some filters may automatically 321set this flag internally. 322.It Dv EV_EOF 323Filters may set this flag to indicate filter-specific EOF condition. 324.It Dv EV_ERROR 325See 326.Sx RETURN VALUES 327below. 328.It Dv EV_KEEPUDATA 329Preserve the 330.Fa udata 331associated with an existing event. 332This allows other aspects of the event to be modified without requiring the 333caller to know the 334.Fa udata 335value previously registered with the event. 336This is especially useful with 337.Dv NOTE_TRIGGER 338or 339.Dv EV_ENABLE . 340This flag may not be used with 341.Dv EV_ADD . 342.El 343.Pp 344The predefined system filters are listed below. 345Arguments may be passed to and from the filter via the 346.Va fflags 347and 348.Va data 349fields in the kevent structure. 350.Bl -tag -width "Dv EVFILT_PROCDESC" 351.It Dv EVFILT_READ 352Takes a descriptor as the identifier, and returns whenever 353there is data available to read. 354The behavior of the filter is slightly different depending 355on the descriptor type. 356.Bl -tag -width 2n 357.It Sockets 358Sockets which have previously been passed to 359.Xr listen 2 360return when there is an incoming connection pending. 361.Va data 362contains the size of the listen backlog. 363.Pp 364Other socket descriptors return when there is data to be read, 365subject to the 366.Dv SO_RCVLOWAT 367value of the socket buffer. 368This may be overridden with a per-filter low water mark at the 369time the filter is added by setting the 370.Dv NOTE_LOWAT 371flag in 372.Va fflags , 373and specifying the new low water mark in 374.Va data . 375On return, 376.Va data 377contains the number of bytes of protocol data available to read. 378.Pp 379If the read direction of the socket has shutdown, then the filter 380also sets 381.Dv EV_EOF 382in 383.Va flags , 384and returns the socket error (if any) in 385.Va fflags . 386It is possible for EOF to be returned (indicating the connection is gone) 387while there is still data pending in the socket buffer. 388.It Vnodes 389Returns when the file pointer is not at the end of file. 390.Va data 391contains the offset from current position to end of file, 392and may be negative. 393.Pp 394This behavior is different from 395.Xr poll 2 , 396where read events are triggered for regular files unconditionally. 397This event can be triggered unconditionally by setting the 398.Dv NOTE_FILE_POLL 399flag in 400.Va fflags . 401.It "Fifos, Pipes" 402Returns when the there is data to read; 403.Va data 404contains the number of bytes available. 405.Pp 406When the last writer disconnects, the filter will set 407.Dv EV_EOF 408in 409.Va flags . 410This will be cleared by the filter when a new writer connects, 411at which point the 412filter will resume waiting for data to become available before 413returning. 414.It "BPF devices" 415Returns when the BPF buffer is full, the BPF timeout has expired, or 416when the BPF has 417.Dq immediate mode 418enabled and there is any data to read; 419.Va data 420contains the number of bytes available. 421.It Eventfds 422Returns when the counter is greater than 0; 423.Va data 424contains the counter value, which must be cast to 425.Vt uint64_t . 426.It Kqueues 427Returns when pending events are present on the queue; 428.Va data 429contains the number of events available. 430.El 431.It Dv EVFILT_WRITE 432Takes a descriptor as the identifier, and returns whenever 433it is possible to write to the descriptor. 434For sockets, pipes 435and fifos, 436.Va data 437will contain the amount of space remaining in the write buffer. 438The filter will set 439.Dv EV_EOF 440when the reader disconnects, and for the fifo case, this will be cleared 441when a new reader connects. 442Note that this filter is not supported for vnodes. 443.Pp 444For sockets, the low water mark and socket error handling is 445identical to the 446.Dv EVFILT_READ 447case. 448.Pp 449For eventfds, 450.Va data 451will contain the maximum value that can be added to the counter 452without blocking. 453.Pp 454For BPF devices, when the descriptor is attached to an interface the filter 455always indicates that it is possible to write and 456.Va data 457will contain the MTU size of the underlying interface. 458.It Dv EVFILT_EMPTY 459Takes a descriptor as the identifier, and returns whenever 460there is no remaining data in the write buffer. 461.It Dv EVFILT_AIO 462Events for this filter are not registered with 463.Fn kevent 464directly but are registered via the 465.Va aio_sigevent 466member of an asynchronous I/O request when it is scheduled via an 467asynchronous I/O system call such as 468.Fn aio_read . 469The filter returns under the same conditions as 470.Fn aio_error . 471For more details on this filter see 472.Xr sigevent 3 and 473.Xr aio 4 . 474.It Dv EVFILT_VNODE 475Takes a file descriptor as the identifier and the events to watch for in 476.Va fflags , 477and returns when one or more of the requested events occurs on the descriptor. 478The events to monitor are: 479.Bl -tag -width "Dv NOTE_CLOSE_WRITE" 480.It Dv NOTE_ATTRIB 481The file referenced by the descriptor had its attributes changed. 482.It Dv NOTE_CLOSE 483A file descriptor referencing the monitored file, was closed. 484The closed file descriptor did not have write access. 485.It Dv NOTE_CLOSE_WRITE 486A file descriptor referencing the monitored file, was closed. 487The closed file descriptor had write access. 488.Pp 489This note, as well as 490.Dv NOTE_CLOSE , 491are not activated when files are closed forcibly by 492.Xr unmount 2 or 493.Xr revoke 2 . 494Instead, 495.Dv NOTE_REVOKE 496is sent for such events. 497.It Dv NOTE_DELETE 498The 499.Fn unlink 500system call was called on the file referenced by the descriptor. 501.It Dv NOTE_EXTEND 502For regular file, the file referenced by the descriptor was extended. 503.Pp 504For directory, reports that a directory entry was added or removed, 505as the result of rename operation. 506The 507.Dv NOTE_EXTEND 508event is not reported when a name is changed inside the directory. 509.It Dv NOTE_LINK 510The link count on the file changed. 511In particular, the 512.Dv NOTE_LINK 513event is reported if a subdirectory was created or deleted inside 514the directory referenced by the descriptor. 515.It Dv NOTE_OPEN 516The file referenced by the descriptor was opened. 517.It Dv NOTE_READ 518A read occurred on the file referenced by the descriptor. 519.It Dv NOTE_RENAME 520The file referenced by the descriptor was renamed. 521.It Dv NOTE_REVOKE 522Access to the file was revoked via 523.Xr revoke 2 524or the underlying file system was unmounted. 525.It Dv NOTE_WRITE 526A write occurred on the file referenced by the descriptor. 527.El 528.Pp 529On return, 530.Va fflags 531contains the events which triggered the filter. 532.It Dv EVFILT_PROC 533Takes the process ID to monitor as the identifier and the events to watch for 534in 535.Va fflags , 536and returns when the process performs one or more of the requested events. 537If a process can normally see another process, it can attach an event to it. 538The events to monitor are: 539.Bl -tag -width "Dv NOTE_TRACKERR" 540.It Dv NOTE_EXIT 541The process has exited. 542The exit status will be stored in 543.Va data 544in the same format as the status returned by 545.Xr wait 2 . 546.It Dv NOTE_FORK 547The process has called 548.Fn fork . 549.It Dv NOTE_EXEC 550The process has executed a new process via 551.Xr execve 2 552or a similar call. 553.It Dv NOTE_TRACK 554Follow a process across 555.Fn fork 556calls. 557The parent process registers a new kevent to monitor the child process 558using the same 559.Va fflags 560as the original event. 561The child process will signal an event with 562.Dv NOTE_CHILD 563set in 564.Va fflags 565and the parent PID in 566.Va data . 567.Pp 568If the parent process fails to register a new kevent 569.Pq usually due to resource limitations , 570it will signal an event with 571.Dv NOTE_TRACKERR 572set in 573.Va fflags , 574and the child process will not signal a 575.Dv NOTE_CHILD 576event. 577.El 578.Pp 579On return, 580.Va fflags 581contains the events which triggered the filter. 582.It Dv EVFILT_PROCDESC 583Takes the process descriptor created by 584.Xr pdfork 2 585to monitor as the identifier and the events to watch for in 586.Va fflags , 587and returns when the associated process performs one or more of the 588requested events. 589The events to monitor are: 590.Bl -tag -width "Dv NOTE_PDSIGCHLD" 591.It Dv NOTE_EXIT 592The process has exited. 593The exit status will be stored in 594.Va data . 595.It Dv NOTE_PDSIGCHLD 596Activates on events that are reported through 597.Xr pdwait 2 598on the process descriptor. 599After the event is reported, the 600.Xr pdwait 2 601can be called to obtain the information about the process 602status change. 603.El 604.Pp 605On return, 606.Va fflags 607contains the events which triggered the filter. 608.It Dv EVFILT_SIGNAL 609Takes the signal number to monitor as the identifier and returns 610when the given signal is delivered to the process. 611This coexists with the 612.Fn signal 613and 614.Fn sigaction 615facilities, and has a lower precedence. 616The filter will record 617all attempts to deliver a signal to a process, even if the signal has 618been marked as 619.Dv SIG_IGN , 620except for the 621.Dv SIGCHLD 622signal, which, if ignored, will not be recorded by the filter. 623Event notification happens before normal 624signal delivery processing. 625.Va data 626returns the number of times the signal has occurred since the last call to 627.Fn kevent . 628This filter automatically sets the 629.Dv EV_CLEAR 630flag internally. 631.It Dv EVFILT_JAIL 632Takes the jail ID to monitor as the identifier and the events to watch for 633in 634.Va fflags , 635and returns when the jail performs one or more of the requested events. 636If a process can normally see a jail, it can attach an event to it. 637An identifier of zero will watch the process's own jail. 638The events to monitor are: 639.Bl -tag -width "Dv NOTE_JAIL_ATTACH" 640.It Dv NOTE_JAIL_SET 641The jail has been changed via 642.Xr jail_set 2 . 643.It Dv NOTE_JAIL_ATTACH 644A process has attached to the jail via 645.Xr jail_attach 2 646or a similar call. 647The process ID will be stored in 648.Va data . 649If more than one process has attached since the last call to 650.Fn kevent , 651.Va data 652will be zero. 653.It Dv NOTE_JAIL_REMOVE 654The jail has been removed. 655.It Dv NOTE_JAIL_CHILD 656A child of the watched jail has been created. 657Its jail ID will be stored in 658.Va data . 659If more than one jail has been created since the last call to 660.Fn kevent , 661.Va data 662will be zero. 663.El 664.Pp 665On return, 666.Va fflags 667contains the events which triggered the filter. 668It will also contain 669.Dv NOTE_JAIL_MULTI 670if more than one 671.Dv NOTE_JAIL_ATTACH 672or 673.Dv NOTE_JAIL_CHILD 674event has been received since the last call to 675.Fn kevent . 676.It Dv EVFILT_JAILDESC 677Takes a jail descriptor returned by 678.Xr jail_set 2 679or 680.Xr jail_get 2 681as the identifier and the events to watch for in 682.Va fflags , 683and returns when the jail performs one or more of the requested events. 684The events to monitor and the resulting 685.Va fflags 686are the same as those listed in 687.Dv EVFILT_JAIL , 688above. 689.It Dv EVFILT_TIMER 690Establishes an arbitrary timer identified by 691.Va ident . 692When adding a timer, 693.Va data 694specifies the moment to fire the timer (for 695.Dv NOTE_ABSTIME ) 696or the timeout period. 697The timer will be periodic unless 698.Dv EV_ONESHOT 699or 700.Dv NOTE_ABSTIME 701is specified. 702On return, 703.Va data 704contains the number of times the timeout has expired since the last call to 705.Fn kevent . 706For non-monotonic timers, this filter automatically sets the 707.Dv EV_CLEAR 708flag internally. 709.Pp 710The filter accepts the following flags in the 711.Va fflags 712argument: 713.Bl -tag -width "Dv NOTE_MSECONDS" 714.It Dv NOTE_SECONDS 715.Va data 716is in seconds. 717.It Dv NOTE_MSECONDS 718.Va data 719is in milliseconds. 720.It Dv NOTE_USECONDS 721.Va data 722is in microseconds. 723.It Dv NOTE_NSECONDS 724.Va data 725is in nanoseconds. 726.It Dv NOTE_ABSTIME 727The specified expiration time is absolute. 728.El 729.Pp 730If 731.Va fflags 732is not set, the default is milliseconds. 733On return, 734.Va fflags 735contains the events which triggered the filter. 736.Pp 737Periodic timers with a specified timeout of 0 will be silently adjusted to 738timeout after 1 of the time units specified by the requested precision in 739.Va fflags . 740If an absolute time is specified that has already passed, then it is treated as 741if the current time were specified and the event will fire as soon as possible. 742.Pp 743If an existing timer is re-added, the existing timer will be 744effectively canceled (throwing away any undelivered record of previous 745timer expiration) and re-started using the new parameters contained in 746.Va data 747and 748.Va fflags . 749.Pp 750There is a system wide limit on the number of timers 751which is controlled by the 752.Va kern.kq_calloutmax 753sysctl. 754.It Dv EVFILT_USER 755Establishes a user event identified by 756.Va ident 757which is not associated with any kernel mechanism but is triggered by 758user level code. 759The lower 24 bits of the 760.Va fflags 761may be used for user defined flags and manipulated using the following: 762.Bl -tag -width "Dv NOTE_FFLAGSMASK" 763.It Dv NOTE_FFNOP 764Ignore the input 765.Va fflags . 766.It Dv NOTE_FFAND 767Bitwise AND 768.Va fflags . 769.It Dv NOTE_FFOR 770Bitwise OR 771.Va fflags . 772.It Dv NOTE_FFCOPY 773Copy 774.Va fflags . 775.It Dv NOTE_FFCTRLMASK 776Control mask for 777.Va fflags . 778.It Dv NOTE_FFLAGSMASK 779User defined flag mask for 780.Va fflags . 781.El 782.Pp 783A user event is triggered for output with the following: 784.Bl -tag -width "Dv NOTE_FFLAGSMASK" 785.It Dv NOTE_TRIGGER 786Cause the event to be triggered. 787.El 788.Pp 789On return, 790.Va fflags 791contains the users defined flags in the lower 24 bits. 792.El 793.Sh CANCELLATION BEHAVIOUR 794If 795.Fa nevents 796is non-zero, i.e., the function is potentially blocking, the call 797is a cancellation point. 798Otherwise, i.e., if 799.Fa nevents 800is zero, the call is not cancellable. 801Cancellation can only occur before any changes are made to the kqueue, 802or when the call was blocked and no changes to the queue were requested. 803.Sh RETURN VALUES 804The 805.Fn kqueue 806system call 807creates a new kernel event queue and returns a file descriptor. 808If there was an error creating the kernel event queue, a value of -1 is 809returned and errno set. 810.Pp 811The 812.Fn kevent 813system call 814returns the number of events placed in the 815.Fa eventlist , 816up to the value given by 817.Fa nevents . 818If an error occurs while processing an element of the 819.Fa changelist 820and there is enough room in the 821.Fa eventlist , 822then the event will be placed in the 823.Fa eventlist 824with 825.Dv EV_ERROR 826set in 827.Va flags 828and the system error in 829.Va data . 830Otherwise, 831.Dv -1 832will be returned, and 833.Dv errno 834will be set to indicate the error condition. 835If the time limit expires, then 836.Fn kevent 837returns 0. 838.Sh EXAMPLES 839.Bd -literal -compact 840#include <sys/event.h> 841#include <err.h> 842#include <fcntl.h> 843#include <stdio.h> 844#include <stdlib.h> 845#include <string.h> 846 847int 848main(int argc, char **argv) 849{ 850 struct kevent event; /* Event we want to monitor */ 851 struct kevent tevent; /* Event triggered */ 852 int kq, fd, ret; 853 854 if (argc != 2) 855 err(EXIT_FAILURE, "Usage: %s path\en", argv[0]); 856 fd = open(argv[1], O_RDONLY); 857 if (fd == -1) 858 err(EXIT_FAILURE, "Failed to open '%s'", argv[1]); 859 860 /* Create kqueue. */ 861 kq = kqueue(); 862 if (kq == -1) 863 err(EXIT_FAILURE, "kqueue() failed"); 864 865 /* Initialize kevent structure. */ 866 EV_SET(&event, fd, EVFILT_VNODE, EV_ADD | EV_CLEAR, NOTE_WRITE, 867 0, NULL); 868 /* Attach event to the kqueue. */ 869 ret = kevent(kq, &event, 1, NULL, 0, NULL); 870 if (ret == -1) 871 err(EXIT_FAILURE, "kevent register"); 872 873 for (;;) { 874 /* Sleep until something happens. */ 875 ret = kevent(kq, NULL, 0, &tevent, 1, NULL); 876 if (ret == -1) { 877 err(EXIT_FAILURE, "kevent wait"); 878 } else if (ret > 0) { 879 if (tevent.flags & EV_ERROR) 880 errx(EXIT_FAILURE, "Event error: %s", strerror(event.data)); 881 else 882 printf("Something was written in '%s'\en", argv[1]); 883 } 884 } 885 886 /* kqueues are destroyed upon close() */ 887 (void)close(kq); 888 (void)close(fd); 889} 890.Ed 891.Sh ERRORS 892The 893.Fn kqueue 894system call fails if: 895.Bl -tag -width Er 896.It Bq Er ENOMEM 897The kernel failed to allocate enough memory for the kernel queue. 898.It Bq Er ENOMEM 899The 900.Dv RLIMIT_KQUEUES 901rlimit 902(see 903.Xr getrlimit 2 ) 904for the current user would be exceeded. 905.It Bq Er EMFILE 906The per-process descriptor table is full. 907.It Bq Er ENFILE 908The system file table is full. 909.El 910.Pp 911The 912.Fn kevent 913system call fails if: 914.Bl -tag -width Er 915.It Bq Er EACCES 916The process does not have permission to register a filter. 917.It Bq Er EFAULT 918There was an error reading or writing the 919.Va kevent 920structure. 921.It Bq Er EBADF 922The specified descriptor is invalid. 923.It Bq Er EINTR 924A signal was delivered before the timeout expired and before any 925events were placed on the kqueue for return. 926.It Bq Er EINTR 927A cancellation request was delivered to the thread, but not yet handled. 928.It Bq Er EINVAL 929The specified time limit or filter is invalid. 930.It Bq Er EINVAL 931The specified length of the event or change lists is negative. 932.It Bq Er ENOENT 933The event could not be found to be modified or deleted. 934.It Bq Er ENOMEM 935No memory was available to register the event 936or, in the special case of a timer, the maximum number of 937timers has been exceeded. 938This maximum is configurable via the 939.Va kern.kq_calloutmax 940sysctl. 941.It Bq Er ESRCH 942The specified process to attach to does not exist. 943.El 944.Pp 945When 946.Fn kevent 947call fails with 948.Er EINTR 949error, all changes in the 950.Fa changelist 951have been applied. 952.Sh SEE ALSO 953.Xr aio_error 2 , 954.Xr aio_read 2 , 955.Xr aio_return 2 , 956.Xr poll 2 , 957.Xr read 2 , 958.Xr select 2 , 959.Xr sigaction 2 , 960.Xr write 2 , 961.Xr pthread_setcancelstate 3 , 962.Xr signal 3 963.Rs 964.%A Jonathan Lemon 965.%T "Kqueue: A Generic and Scalable Event Notification Facility" 966.%I USENIX Association 967.%B Proceedings of the FREENIX Track: 2001 USENIX Annual Technical Conference 968.%D June 25-30, 2001 969.\".http://www.usenix.org/event/usenix01/freenix01/full_papers/lemon/lemon.pdf 970.Re 971.Sh HISTORY 972The 973.Fn kqueue 974and 975.Fn kevent 976system calls first appeared in 977.Fx 4.1 . 978The 979.Fn kqueuex 980system call 981and 982.Fn kqueue1 983function first appeared in 984.Fx 14.0 . 985.Sh AUTHORS 986The 987.Em kqueue 988subsystem and this manual page were written by 989.An Jonathan Lemon Aq Mt jlemon@FreeBSD.org . 990.Sh BUGS 991.Pp 992In versions older than 993.Fx 12.0 , 994.In sys/event.h 995failed to parse without including 996.In sys/types.h 997manually. 998