xref: /illumos-gate/usr/src/man/man3c/timerfd_create.3c (revision 04427e3bf236c18cc532680b957267ee70b1037d)
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14.Dd March 26, 2017
15.Dt TIMERFD 3C
16.Os
17.Sh NAME
18.Nm timerfd_create ,
19.Nm timerfd_settime ,
20.Nm timerfd_gettime
21.Nd create and manipulate timers via a file descriptor interface
22.Sh SYNOPSIS
23.In sys/timerfd.h
24.Ft int
25.Fo timerfd_create
26.Fa "int clockid"
27.Fa "int flags"
28.Fc
29.Ft int
30.Fo timerfd_settime
31.Fa "int fd"
32.Fa "int flags"
33.Fa "const struct itimerspec *restrict value"
34.Fa "struct itimterspec *restrict ovalue"
35.Fc
36.Ft int
37.Fo timerfd_gettime
38.Fa "int fd"
39.Fa "struct itimerspec *value"
40.Fc
41.Sh DESCRIPTION
42These routines create and manipulate timers in which events are associated
43with a file descriptor, allowing for timer-based events to be used
44in file-descriptor based facilities like
45.Xr poll 2 ,
46.Xr port_get 3C
47or
48.Xr epoll_wait 3C .
49The
50.Fn timerfd_create
51function creates a timer with the clock
52type specified by
53.Fa clockid .
54The
55.Sy CLOCK_REALTIME
56and
57.Sy CLOCK_HIGHRES
58clock types, as defined in
59.Xr timer_create 3C ,
60are supported by
61.Fn timerfd_create .
62(Note that
63.Sy CLOCK_MONOTONIC
64may be used as an alias for
65.Sy CLOCK_HIGHRES Ns .)
66.Pp
67The
68.Fa flags
69argument specifies additional parameters for the timer instance, and can have
70any of the following values:
71.Bl -hang -width Ds
72.It Sy TFD_CLOEXEC
73.Bd -filled -compact
74Instance will be closed upon an
75.Xr exec 2 ;
76see
77.Xr open 2 Ns 's
78description of
79.Sy O_CLOEXEC .
80.Ed
81.It Sy TFD_NONBLOCK
82.Bd -filled -compact
83Instance will be set to be non-blocking.
84A
85.Xr read 2
86on a
87.Sy timerfd
88instance that has been initialized with
89.Sy TFD_NONBLOCK
90will return
91.Sy EAGAIN
92in lieu of blocking if the
93timer has not expired since the last
94.Fn timerfd_settime
95or successful
96.Fn read .
97.Ed
98.El
99.Pp
100The following operations can be performed upon a
101.Sy timerfd
102instance:
103.Bl -hang -width Ds
104.It Sy read(2)
105.Bd -filled -compact
106Atomically reads and clears the number of timer expirations since the
107last successful
108.Xr read 2
109or
110.Fn timerfd_settime .
111Upon success,
112the number of expirations will be copied into the eight byte buffer
113passed to the system call.
114If there have been no expirations of the timer since the last successful
115.Xr read 2
116or
117.Fn timerfd_sttime ,
118.Xr read 2
119will block until at least the next expiration,
120or return
121.Sy EAGAIN
122if the instance was created with
123.Sy TFD_NONBLOCK .
124Note that if multiple threads are blocked in
125.Xr read 2
126for the same timer, only one of them will return upon
127a single timer expiration.
128.Pp
129If the buffer specified to
130.Xr read 2
131is less than
132eight bytes in length,
133.Sy EINVAL
134will be returned.
135.Ed
136.It Sy poll(2), port_get(3C), epoll_wait(3C)
137.Bd -filled -compact
138Provide notification when the timer expires or has expired in the past without
139a more recent
140.Xr read 2 .
141Note that threads being simultaneously
142blocked in
143.Xr read 2
144and
145.Xr poll 2
146(or equivalents) for the same
147timer constitute an application-level race; on a timer expiration,
148the thread blocked in
149.Xr poll 2
150may or may not return depending on how
151it is scheduled with respect to the thread blocked in
152.Xr read 2 .
153.Ed
154.It Sy timerfd_gettime()
155.Bd -filled -compact
156Returns the amount of time until the next timer expiration, with the
157same functional signature and semantics as
158.Xr timer_gettime 3C .
159.Ed
160.It Sy timerfd_settime()
161.Bd -filled -compact
162Sets or disarms the timer, with the
163same functional signature and semantics as
164.Xr timer_settime 3C .
165.Ed
166.El
167.Sh RETURN VALUES
168Upon successful completion, a file descriptor associated with the instance
169is returned.
170Otherwise,
171.Sy -1
172is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.
173.Sh ERRORS
174The
175.Fn timerfd_create
176function will fail if:
177.Bl -tag -width Er
178.It Er EINAL
179The
180.Fa flags
181are invalid.
182.It Er EMFILE
183There are currently
184.Pf { Sy OPEN_MAX Ns }
185file descriptors open in the calling process.
186.It Er EPERM
187The
188.Fa clock_id ,
189is
190.Sy CLOCK_HIGHRES
191and the
192.Pf { Sy PRIV_PROC_CLOCK_HIGHRES Ns }
193is not asserted in the effective set of the calling process.
194.El
195.Sh SEE ALSO
196.Xr poll 2 ,
197.Xr epoll_wait 3C ,
198.Xr port_get 3C ,
199.Xr timer_create 3C ,
200.Xr timer_gettime 3C ,
201.Xr timer_settime 3C ,
202.Xr privileages 5 ,
203.Xr timerfd 5
204