OPEN(2) 							System Calls Manual							   OPEN(2)

NAME

       open - open a file for reading or writing, or create a new file

SYNOPSIS

       #include <fcntl.h>

       open(path, flags, mode)
       char *path;
       int flags, mode;

DESCRIPTION

       Open  opens the file path for reading and/or writing, as specified by the flags argument and returns a descriptor for that file.  The flags
       argument may indicate the file is to be created if it does not already exist (by specifying the O_CREAT flag), in which case  the  file	is
       created with mode mode as described in chmod(2) and modified by the process' umask value (see umask(2)).

       Path  is  the  address  of  a string of ASCII characters representing a path name, terminated by a null character.  The flags specified are
       formed by or'ing the following values

	       O_RDONLY open for reading only
	       O_WRONLY open for writing only
	       O_RDWR	open for reading and writing
	       O_NONBLOCK    do not block on open
	       O_APPEND append on each write
	       O_CREAT	create file if it does not exist
	       O_TRUNC	truncate size to 0
	       O_EXCL	error if create and file exists
	       O_NOCTTY do not acquire as controlling terminal
	       O_SHLOCK atomically obtain a shared lock
	       O_EXLOCK atomically obtain an exclusive lock

       Opening a file with O_APPEND set causes each write on the file to be appended to the end.  If O_TRUNC is specified and the file exists, the
       file  is truncated to zero length.  If O_EXCL is set with O_CREAT, then if the file already exists, the open returns an error.  This can be
       used to implement a simple exclusive access locking mechanism.  If O_EXCL is set and the last component of the pathname is a symbolic link,
       the  open  will	fail even if the symbolic link points to a non-existent name.  If the O_NONBLOCK flag is specified and the open call would
       result in the process being blocked for some reason (e.g. waiting for carrier on a dialup line), the open returns immediately.	The  first
       time the process attempts to perform i/o on the open file it will block.

       The  flag O_NOCTTY indicates that even if the file is a terminal device, the call should not result in acquiring the terminal device as the
       controlling terminal of the caller.  This flag is not the default and is currently unimplemented (it will be Real Soon Now).

       When opening a file, a lock with flock(2) semantics can be obtained by setting O_SHLOCK for a shared lock, or  O_EXLOCK	for  an  exclusive
       lock.  If creating a file with O_CREAT, the request for the lock will never fail.

       Upon successful completion a non-negative integer termed a file descriptor is returned.	The file pointer used to mark the current position
       within the file is set to the beginning of the file.

       The new descriptor is set to remain open across execve system calls; see close(2).

       The system imposes a limit on the number of file descriptors open simultaneously by one process.  Getdtablesize(2) returns the current sys-
       tem limit.

ERRORS

       The named file is opened unless one or more of the following are true:

       [ENOTDIR]      A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

       [EINVAL]       The pathname contains a character with the high-order bit set.

       [ENAMETOOLONG] A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.

       [ENOENT]       O_CREAT is not set and the named file does not exist.

       [ENOENT]       A component of the path name that must exist does not exist.

       [EACCES]       Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.

       [EACCES]       The required permissions (for reading and/or writing) are denied for the named flag.

       [EACCES]       O_CREAT is specified, the file does not exist, and the directory in which it is to be created does not permit writing.

       [ELOOP]	      Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.

       [EISDIR]       The named file is a directory, and the arguments specify it is to be opened for writting.

       [EROFS]	      The named file resides on a read-only file system, and the file is to be modified.

       [EMFILE]       The system limit for open file descriptors per process has already been reached.

       [ENFILE]       The system file table is full.

       [ENXIO]	      The  named  file	is  a  character  special or block special file, and the device associated with this special file does not
		      exist.

       [ENOSPC]       O_CREAT is specified, the file does not exist, and the directory in which the entry for the new file is being placed  cannot
		      be extended because there is no space left on the file system containing the directory.

       [ENOSPC]       O_CREAT  is  specified,  the file does not exist, and there are no free inodes on the file system on which the file is being
		      created.

       [EDQUOT]       O_CREAT is specified, the file does not exist, and the directory in which the entry for the new fie is being  placed  cannot
		      be extended because the user's quota of disk blocks on the file system containing the directory has been exhausted.

       [EDQUOT]       O_CREAT  is specified, the file does not exist, and the user's quota of inodes on the file system on which the file is being
		      created has been exhausted.

       [EIO]	      An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry or allocating the inode for O_CREAT.

       [ETXTBSY]      The file is a pure procedure (shared text) file that is being executed and the open call requests write access.

       [EFAULT]       Path points outside the process's allocated address space.

       [EEXIST]       O_CREAT and O_EXCL were specified and the file exists.

       [EOPNOTSUPP]   An attempt was made to open a socket (not currently implemented).

SEE ALSO

       chmod(2), close(2), dup(2), getdtablesize(2), lseek(2), read(2), write(2), umask(2)

4th Berkeley Distribution					   Nov 30, 1994 							   OPEN(2)