.\" This manpage is copyright (C) 2001 Paul Sheer. .\" .\" Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this .\" manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are .\" preserved on all copies. .\" .\" Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this .\" manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the .\" entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a .\" permission notice identical to this one. .\" .\" Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this .\" manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date. The author(s) assume no .\" responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from .\" the use of the information contained herein. The author(s) may not .\" have taken the same level of care in the production of this manual, .\" which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working .\" professionally. .\" .\" Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by .\" the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work. .\" .\" very minor changes, aeb .\" .\" Modified 5 June 2002, Michael Kerrisk .\" .TH SELECT_TUT 2 "October 21, 2001" "Linux 2.4" "Linux Programmer's Manual" .SH NAME select, pselect, FD_CLR, FD_ISSET, FD_SET, FD_ZERO \- synchronous I/O multiplexing .SH SYNOPSIS .B #include .br .B #include .br .B #include .sp .BI "int select(int " nfds ", fd_set *" readfds , .BI "fd_set *" writefds ", fd_set *" exceptfds , .BI "struct timeval *" utimeout ); .sp .BI "int pselect(int " nfds ", fd_set *" readfds , .BI "fd_set *" writefds ", fd_set *" exceptfds , .BI "const struct timespec *" ntimeout ", sigset_t *" sigmask ); .sp .BI "FD_CLR(int " fd ", fd_set *" set ); .br .BI "FD_ISSET(int " fd ", fd_set *" set ); .br .BI "FD_SET(int " fd ", fd_set *" set ); .br .BI "FD_ZERO(fd_set *" set ); .fi .SH DESCRIPTION \fBselect\fP (or \fBpselect\fP) is the pivot function of most C programs that handle more than one simultaneous file descriptor (or socket handle) in an efficient manner. Its principal arguments are three arrays of file descriptors: \fIreadfds\fP, \fIwritefds\fP, and \fIexceptfds\fP. The way that \fBselect\fP is usually used is to block while waiting for a "change of status" on one or more of the file descriptors. A "change of status" is when more characters become available from the file descriptor, \fIor\fP when space becomes available within the kernel's internal buffers for more to be written to the file descriptor, \fIor\fP when a file descriptor goes into error (in the case of a socket or pipe this is when the other end of the connection is closed). In summary, \fBselect\fP just watches multiple file descriptors, and is the standard Unix call to do so. The arrays of file descriptors are called \fIfile descriptor sets\fP. Each set is declared as type \fBfd_set\fP, and its contents can be altered with the macros \fBFD_CLR\fP, \fBFD_ISSET\fP, \fBFD_SET\fP, and \fBFD_ZERO\fP. \fBFD_ZERO\fP is usually the first function to be used on a newly declared set. Thereafter, the individual file descriptors that you are interested in can be added one by one with \fBFD_SET\fP. \fBselect\fP modifies the contents of the sets according to the rules described below; after calling \fBselect\fP you can test if your file descriptor is still present in the set with the \fBFD_ISSET\fP macro. \fBFD_ISSET\fP returns non-zero if the descriptor is present and zero if it is not. \fBFD_CLR\fP removes a file descriptor from the set although I can't see the use for it in a clean program. .SH ARGUMENTS .TP \fIreadfds\fP This set is watched to see if data is available for reading from any of its file descriptors. After \fBselect\fP has returned, \fIreadfds\fP will be cleared of all file descriptors except for those file descriptors that are immediately available for reading with a \fBrecv()\fP (for sockets) or \fBread()\fP (for pipes, files, and sockets) call. .TP \fIwritefds\fP This set is watched to see if there is space to write data to any of its file descriptor. After \fBselect\fP has returned, \fIwritefds\fP will be cleared of all file descriptors except for those file descriptors that are immediately available for writing with a \fBsend()\fP (for sockets) or \fBwrite()\fP (for pipes, files, and sockets) call. .TP \fIexceptfds\fP This set is watched for exceptions or errors on any of the file descriptors. However, that is actually just a rumor. How you use \fIexceptfds\fP is to watch for \fIout\-of\-band\fP (OOB) data. OOB data is data sent on a socket using the \fBMSG_OOB\fP flag, and hence \fIexceptfds\fP only really applies to sockets. See \fBrecv\fP(2) and \fBsend\fP(2) about this. After \fBselect\fP has returned, \fIexceptfds\fP will be cleared of all file descriptors except for those descriptors that are available for reading OOB data. You can only ever read one byte of OOB data though (which is done with \fBrecv()\fP), and writing OOB data (done with \fBsend\fP) can be done at any time and will not block. Hence there is no need for a fourth set to check if a socket is available for writing OOB data. .TP \fInfds\fP This is an integer one more than the maximum of any file descriptor in any of the sets. In other words, while you are busy adding file descriptors to your sets, you must calculate the maximum integer value of all of them, then increment this value by one, and then pass this as \fInfds\fP to \fBselect\fP. .TP \fIutimeout\fP .RS This is the longest time \fBselect\fP must wait before returning, even if nothing interesting happened. If this value is passed as \fBNULL\fP, then \fBselect\fP blocks indefinitely waiting for an event. \fIutimeout\fP can be set to zero seconds, which causes \fBselect\fP to return immediately. The structure \fBstruct timeval\fP is defined as, .PP .nf struct timeval { time_t tv_sec; /* seconds */ long tv_usec; /* microseconds */ }; .fi .RE .TP \fIntimeout\fP .RS This argument has the same meaning as \fIutimeout\fP but \fBstruct timespec\fP has nanosecond precision as follows, .PP .nf struct timespec { long tv_sec; /* seconds */ long tv_nsec; /* nanoseconds */ }; .fi .RE .TP \fIsigmask\fP This argument holds a set of signals to allow while performing a \fBpselect\fP call (see \fBsigaddset\fP(3) and \fBsigprocmask\fP(2)). It can be passed as NULL, in which case it does not modify the set of allowed signals on entry and exit to the function. It will then behave just like \fBselect\fP. .SH COMBINING SIGNAL AND DATA EVENTS \fBpselect\fP must be used if you are waiting for a signal as well as data from a file descriptor. Programs that receive signals as events normally use the signal handler only to raise a global flag. The global flag will indicate that the event must be processed in the main loop of the program. A signal will cause the \fBselect\fP (or \fBpselect\fP) call to return with \fBerrno\fP set to \fBEINTR\fP. This behavior is essential so that signals can be processed in the main loop of the program, otherwise \fBselect\fP would block indefinitely. Now, somewhere in the main loop will be a conditional to check the global flag. So we must ask: what if a signal arrives after the conditional, but before the \fBselect\fP call? The answer is that \fBselect\fP would block indefinitely, even though an event is actually pending. This race condition is solved by the \fBpselect\fP call. This call can be used to mask out signals that are not to be received except within the \fBpselect\fP call. For instance, let us say that the event in question was the exit of a child process. Before the start of the main loop, we would block \fBSIGCHLD\fP using \fBsigprocmask\fP. Our \fBpselect\fP call would enable \fBSIGCHLD\fP by using the virgin signal mask. Our program would look like: .PP .nf int child_events = 0; void child_sig_handler (int x) { child_events++; signal (SIGCHLD, child_sig_handler); } int main (int argc, char **argv) { sigset_t sigmask, orig_sigmask; sigemptyset (&sigmask); sigaddset (&sigmask, SIGCHLD); sigprocmask (SIG_BLOCK, &sigmask, &orig_sigmask); signal (SIGCHLD, child_sig_handler); for (;;) { /* main loop */ for (; child_events > 0; child_events--) { /* do event work here */ } r = pselect (nfds, &rd, &wr, &er, 0, &orig_sigmask); /* main body of program */ } } .fi .PP Note that the above \fBpselect\fP call can be replaced with: .PP .nf sigprocmask (SIG_BLOCK, &orig_sigmask, 0); r = select (nfds, &rd, &wr, &er, 0); sigprocmask (SIG_BLOCK, &sigmask, 0); .fi .PP but then there is still the possibility that a signal could arrive after the first \fBsigprocmask\fP and before the \fBselect\fP. If you do do this, it is prudent to at least put a finite timeout so that the process does not block. At present glibc probably works this way. The Linux kernel does not have a native \fBpselect\fP system call as yet so this is all probably much of a moot point. .PP .SH PRACTICAL So what is the point of \fBselect\fP? Can't I just read and write to my descriptors whenever I want? The point of select is that it watches multiple descriptors at the same time and properly puts the process to sleep if there is no activity. It does this while enabling you to handle multiple simultaneous pipes and sockets. Unix programmers often find themselves in a position where they have to handle IO from more than one file descriptor where the data flow may be intermittent. If you were to merely create a sequence of \fBread\fP and \fBwrite\fP calls, you would find that one of your calls may block waiting for data from/to a file descriptor, while another file descriptor is unused though available for data. \fBselect\fP efficiently copes with this situation. A classic example of \fBselect\fP comes from the \fBselect\fP man page: .nf #include #include #include #include int main(void) { fd_set rfds; struct timeval tv; int retval; /* Watch stdin (fd 0) to see when it has input. */ FD_ZERO(&rfds); FD_SET(0, &rfds); /* Wait up to five seconds. */ tv.tv_sec = 5; tv.tv_usec = 0; retval = select(1, &rfds, NULL, NULL, &tv); /* Don't rely on the value of tv now! */ if (retval == -1) perror("select()"); else if (retval) printf("Data is available now.\\n"); /* FD_ISSET(0, &rfds) will be true. */ else printf("No data within five seconds.\\n"); exit(0); } .fi .SH PORT FORWARDING EXAMPLE Here is an example that better demonstrates the true utility of \fBselect\fP. The listing below is a TCP forwarding program that forwards from one TCP port to another. .PP .nf #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #include static int forward_port; #undef max #define max(x,y) ((x) > (y) ? (x) : (y)) static int listen_socket (int listen_port) { struct sockaddr_in a; int s; int yes; if ((s = socket (AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0)) < 0) { perror ("socket"); return -1; } yes = 1; if (setsockopt (s, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, (char *) &yes, sizeof (yes)) < 0) { perror ("setsockopt"); close (s); return -1; } memset (&a, 0, sizeof (a)); a.sin_port = htons (listen_port); a.sin_family = AF_INET; if (bind (s, (struct sockaddr *) &a, sizeof (a)) < 0) { perror ("bind"); close (s); return -1; } printf ("accepting connections on port %d\\n", (int) listen_port); listen (s, 10); return s; } static int connect_socket (int connect_port, char *address) { struct sockaddr_in a; int s; if ((s = socket (AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0)) < 0) { perror ("socket"); close (s); return -1; } memset (&a, 0, sizeof (a)); a.sin_port = htons (connect_port); a.sin_family = AF_INET; if (!inet_aton (address, (struct in_addr *) &a.sin_addr.s_addr)) { perror ("bad IP address format"); close (s); return -1; } if (connect (s, (struct sockaddr *) &a, sizeof (a)) < 0) { perror ("connect()"); shutdown (s, SHUT_RDWR); close (s); return -1; } return s; } #define SHUT_FD1 { \\ if (fd1 >= 0) { \\ shutdown (fd1, SHUT_RDWR); \\ close (fd1); \\ fd1 = -1; \\ } \\ } #define SHUT_FD2 { \\ if (fd2 >= 0) { \\ shutdown (fd2, SHUT_RDWR); \\ close (fd2); \\ fd2 = -1; \\ } \\ } #define BUF_SIZE 1024 int main (int argc, char **argv) { int h; int fd1 = -1, fd2 = -1; char buf1[BUF_SIZE], buf2[BUF_SIZE]; int buf1_avail, buf1_written; int buf2_avail, buf2_written; if (argc != 4) { fprintf (stderr, "Usage\\n\\tfwd \\ \\n"); exit (1); } signal (SIGPIPE, SIG_IGN); forward_port = atoi (argv[2]); h = listen_socket (atoi (argv[1])); if (h < 0) exit (1); for (;;) { int r, nfds = 0; fd_set rd, wr, er; FD_ZERO (&rd); FD_ZERO (&wr); FD_ZERO (&er); FD_SET (h, &rd); nfds = max (nfds, h); if (fd1 > 0 && buf1_avail < BUF_SIZE) { FD_SET (fd1, &rd); nfds = max (nfds, fd1); } if (fd2 > 0 && buf2_avail < BUF_SIZE) { FD_SET (fd2, &rd); nfds = max (nfds, fd2); } if (fd1 > 0 && buf2_avail - buf2_written > 0) { FD_SET (fd1, &wr); nfds = max (nfds, fd1); } if (fd2 > 0 && buf1_avail - buf1_written > 0) { FD_SET (fd2, &wr); nfds = max (nfds, fd2); } if (fd1 > 0) { FD_SET (fd1, &er); nfds = max (nfds, fd1); } if (fd2 > 0) { FD_SET (fd2, &er); nfds = max (nfds, fd2); } r = select (nfds + 1, &rd, &wr, &er, NULL); if (r == -1 && errno == EINTR) continue; if (r < 0) { perror ("select()"); exit (1); } if (FD_ISSET (h, &rd)) { unsigned int l; struct sockaddr_in client_address; memset (&client_address, 0, l = sizeof (client_address)); r = accept (h, (struct sockaddr *) &client_address, &l); if (r < 0) { perror ("accept()"); } else { SHUT_FD1; SHUT_FD2; buf1_avail = buf1_written = 0; buf2_avail = buf2_written = 0; fd1 = r; fd2 = connect_socket (forward_port, argv[3]); if (fd2 < 0) { SHUT_FD1; } else printf ("connect from %s\\n", inet_ntoa (client_address.sin_addr)); } } /* NB: read oob data before normal reads */ if (fd1 > 0) if (FD_ISSET (fd1, &er)) { char c; errno = 0; r = recv (fd1, &c, 1, MSG_OOB); if (r < 1) { SHUT_FD1; } else send (fd2, &c, 1, MSG_OOB); } if (fd2 > 0) if (FD_ISSET (fd2, &er)) { char c; errno = 0; r = recv (fd2, &c, 1, MSG_OOB); if (r < 1) { SHUT_FD1; } else send (fd1, &c, 1, MSG_OOB); } if (fd1 > 0) if (FD_ISSET (fd1, &rd)) { r = read (fd1, buf1 + buf1_avail, BUF_SIZE - buf1_avail); if (r < 1) { SHUT_FD1; } else buf1_avail += r; } if (fd2 > 0) if (FD_ISSET (fd2, &rd)) { r = read (fd2, buf2 + buf2_avail, BUF_SIZE - buf2_avail); if (r < 1) { SHUT_FD2; } else buf2_avail += r; } if (fd1 > 0) if (FD_ISSET (fd1, &wr)) { r = write (fd1, buf2 + buf2_written, buf2_avail - buf2_written); if (r < 1) { SHUT_FD1; } else buf2_written += r; } if (fd2 > 0) if (FD_ISSET (fd2, &wr)) { r = write (fd2, buf1 + buf1_written, buf1_avail - buf1_written); if (r < 1) { SHUT_FD2; } else buf1_written += r; } /* check if write data has caught read data */ if (buf1_written == buf1_avail) buf1_written = buf1_avail = 0; if (buf2_written == buf2_avail) buf2_written = buf2_avail = 0; /* one side has closed the connection, keep writing to the other side until empty */ if (fd1 < 0 && buf1_avail - buf1_written == 0) { SHUT_FD2; } if (fd2 < 0 && buf2_avail - buf2_written == 0) { SHUT_FD1; } } return 0; } .fi .PP The above program properly forwards most kinds of TCP connections including OOB signal data transmitted by \fBtelnet\fP servers. It handles the tricky problem of having data flow in both directions simultaneously. You might think it more efficient to use a \fBfork()\fP call and devote a thread to each stream. This becomes more tricky than you might suspect. Another idea is to set non-blocking IO using an \fBioctl()\fP call. This also has its problems because you end up having to have inefficient timeouts. The program does not handle more than one simultaneous connection at a time, although it could easily be extended to do this with a linked list of buffers - one for each connection. At the moment, new connections cause the current connection to be dropped. .SH SELECT LAW Many people who try to use \fBselect\fP come across behavior that is difficult to understand and produces non-portable or borderline results. For instance, the above program is carefully written not to block at any point, even though it does not set its file descriptors to non-blocking mode at all (see \fBioctl\fP(2)). It is easy to introduce subtle errors that will remove the advantage of using \fBselect\fP, hence I will present a list of essentials to watch for when using the \fBselect\fP call. .TP \fB1.\fP You should always try use \fBselect\fP without a timeout. Your program should have nothing to do if there is no data available. Code that depends on timeouts is not usually portable and difficult to debug. .TP \fB2.\fP The value \fInfds\fP must be properly calculated for efficiency as explained above. .TP \fB3.\fP No file descriptor must be added to any set if you do not intend to check its result after the \fBselect\fP call, and respond appropriately. See next rule. .TP \fB4.\fP After \fBselect\fP returns, all file descriptors in all sets \fImust\fP be checked. Any file descriptor that is available for writing \fImust\fP be written to, and any file descriptor available for reading \fImust\fP be read, etc. .TP \fB5.\fP The functions \fBread()\fP, \fBrecv()\fP, \fBwrite()\fP, and \fBsend()\fP do \fInot\fP necessarily read/write the full amount of data that you have requested. If they do read/write the full amount, its because you have a low traffic load and a fast stream. This is not always going to be the case. You should cope with the case of your functions only managing to send or receive a single byte. .TP \fB6.\fP Never read/write only in single bytes at a time unless your are really sure that you have a small amount of data to process. It is extremely inefficient not to read/write as much data as you can buffer each time. The buffers in the example above are 1024 bytes although they could easily be made as large as the maximum possible packet size on your local network. .TP \fB7.\fP The functions \fBread()\fP, \fBrecv()\fP, \fBwrite()\fP, and \fBsend()\fP as well as the \fBselect()\fP call can return \-1 with an errno of \fBEINTR\fP or \fBEAGAIN\fP (\fBEWOULDBLOCK\fP) which are not errors. These results must be properly managed (not done properly above). If your program is not going to receive any signals then it is unlikely you will get \fBEINTR\fP. If your program does not set non-blocking IO, you will not get \fBEAGAIN\fP. Nonetheless you should still cope with these errors for completeness. .TP \fB8.\fP Never call \fBread()\fP, \fBrecv()\fP, \fBwrite()\fP, or \fBsend()\fP with a buffer length of zero. .TP \fB9.\fP Except as indicated in \fB7.\fP, the functions \fBread()\fP, \fBrecv()\fP, \fBwrite()\fP, and \fBsend()\fP never have a return value less than 1 except if an error has occurred. For instance, a \fBread()\fP on a pipe where the other end has died returns zero (so does an end-of-file error), \fIbut\fP only returns zero once (a followup read or write will return \-1). Should any of these functions return 0 or \-1, you should \fInot\fP pass that descriptor to select ever again. In the above example, I close the descriptor immediately, and then set it to \-1 to prevent it being included in a set. .TP \fB10.\fP The timeout value must be initialized with each new call to \fBselect\fP, since some operating systems modify the structure. \fBpselect\fP however does not modify its timeout structure. .TP \fB11.\fP I have heard that the Windows socket layer does not cope with OOB data properly. It also does not cope with \fBselect\fP calls when no file descriptors are set at all. Having no file descriptors set is a useful way to sleep the process with sub-second precision by using the timeout. (See further on.) .SH USLEEP EMULATION On systems that do not have a \fBusleep\fP function, you can call \fBselect\fP with a finite timeout and no file descriptors as follows: .PP .nf struct timeval tv; tv.tv_sec = 0; tv.tv_usec = 200000; /* 0.2 seconds */ select (0, NULL, NULL, NULL, &tv); .fi .PP This is only guaranteed to work on Unix systems, however. .SH RETURN VALUE On success, \fBselect\fP returns the total number of file descriptors still present in the file descriptor sets. If \fBselect\fP timed out, then the file descriptors sets should be all empty (but may not be on some systems). However the return value will definitely be zero. A return value of \-1 indicates an error, with \fBerrno\fP being set appropriately. In the case of an error, the returned sets and the timeout struct contents are undefined and should not be used. \fBpselect\fP however never modifies \fIntimeout\fP. .SH ERRORS .TP \fBEBADF\fP A set contained an invalid file descriptor. This error often occurs when you add a file descriptor to a set that you have already issued a \fBclose\fP on, or when that file descriptor has experienced some kind of error. Hence you should cease adding to sets any file descriptor that returns an error on reading or writing. .TP \fBEINTR\fP An interrupting signal was caught like \fBSIGINT\fP or \fBSIGCHLD\fP etc. In this case you should rebuild your file descriptor sets and retry. .TP \fBEINVAL\fP Occurs if \fInfds\fP is negative or an invalid value is specified in \fIutimeout\fP or \fIntimeout\fP. .TP \fBENOMEM\fP Internal memory allocation failure. .SH NOTES Generally speaking, all operating systems that support sockets, also support \fBselect\fP. Some people consider \fBselect\fP to be an esoteric and rarely used function. Indeed, many types of programs become extremely complicated without it. \fBselect\fP can be used to solve many problems in a portable and efficient way that naive programmers try to solve with threads, forking, IPCs, signals, memory sharing and other dirty methods. \fBpselect\fP is a newer function that is less commonly used. .PP The .BR poll (2) system call has the same functionality as \fBselect\fP, but with less subtle behavior. It is less portable than \fBselect\fP. .SH CONFORMING TO 4.4BSD (the \fBselect\fP function first appeared in 4.2BSD). Generally portable to/from non-BSD systems supporting clones of the BSD socket layer (including System V variants). However, note that the System V variant typically sets the timeout variable before exit, but the BSD variant does not. .PP The \fBpselect\fP function is defined in IEEE Std 1003.1g-2000 (POSIX.1g). It is found in glibc2.1 and later. Glibc2.0 has a function with this name, that however does not take a \fIsigmask\fP parameter. .SH SEE ALSO .BR accept (2), .BR connect (2), .BR ioctl (2), .BR poll (2), .BR read (2), .BR recv (2), .BR select (2), .BR send (2), .BR sigprocmask (2), .BR write (2), .BR sigaddset (3), .BR sigdelset (3), .BR sigemptyset (3), .BR sigfillset (3), .BR sigismember (3) .SH AUTHORS This man page was written by Paul Sheer.