bsd man page for fcntl

FCNTL(2)							System Calls Manual							  FCNTL(2)

NAME
       fcntl - file control

SYNOPSIS
       #include <fcntl.h>

       res = fcntl(fd, cmd, arg)
       int res;
       int fd, cmd, arg;

DESCRIPTION
       Fcntl provides for control over descriptors.  The argument fd is a descriptor to be operated on by cmd as follows:

       F_DUPFD	      Return a new descriptor as follows:

		      Lowest numbered available descriptor greater than or equal to arg.

		      Same object references as the original descriptor.

		      New descriptor shares the same file pointer if the object was a file.

		      Same access mode (read, write or read/write).

		      Same file status flags (i.e., both file descriptors share the same file status flags).

		      The close-on-exec flag associated with the new file descriptor is set to remain open across execv(2) system calls.

       F_GETFD	      Get  the	close-on-exec  flag  associated with the file descriptor fd.  If the low-order bit is 0, the file will remain open
		      across exec, otherwise the file will be closed upon execution of exec.

       F_SETFD	      Set the close-on-exec flag associated with fd to the low order bit of arg (0 or 1 as above).

       F_GETFL	      Get descriptor status flags, as described below.

       F_SETFL	      Set descriptor status flags.

       F_GETOWN       Get the process ID or process group currently receiving SIGIO and SIGURG signals; process groups are  returned  as  negative
		      values.

       F_SETOWN       Set the process or process group to receive SIGIO and SIGURG signals; process groups are specified by supplying arg as nega-
		      tive, otherwise arg is interpreted as a process ID.

       The flags for the F_GETFL and F_SETFL flags are as follows:

       O_NONBLOCK     Non-blocking I/O; if no data is available to a read call, or if a write operation would block, the call returns -1 with  the
		      error EWOULDBLOCK.

       O_APPEND       Force each write to append at the end of file; corresponds to the O_APPEND flag of open(2).

       O_ASYNC	      Enable the SIGIO signal to be sent to the process group when I/O is possible, e.g., upon availability of data to be read.

RETURN VALUE
       Upon successful completion, the value returned depends on cmd as follows:
	 F_DUPFD   A new file descriptor.
	 F_GETFD   Value of flag (only the low-order bit is defined).
	 F_GETFL   Value of flags.
	 F_GETOWN  Value of file descriptor owner.
	 other	   Value other than -1.
       Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS
       Fcntl will fail if one or more of the following are true:

       [EBADF]	      Fildes is not a valid open file descriptor.

       [EMFILE]       Cmd is F_DUPFD and the maximum allowed number of file descriptors are currently open.

       [EINVAL]       Cmd is F_DUPFD and arg is negative or greater than the maximum allowable number (see getdtablesize(2)).

       [ESRCH]	      Cmd is F_SETOWN and the process ID given as argument is not in use.

SEE ALSO
       close(2), execve(2), getdtablesize(2), open(2), sigvec(2)

BUGS
       The asynchronous I/O facilities of O_NONBLOCK and O_ASYNC are currently available only for tty and socket operations.

4.2 Berkeley Distribution					   Nov 30, 1994 							  FCNTL(2)