EPOLL_WAIT(2)                       Linux Programmer's Manual                       EPOLL_WAIT(2)



NAME
       epoll_wait, epoll_pwait - wait for an I/O event on an epoll file descriptor

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/epoll.h>

       int epoll_wait(int epfd, struct epoll_event *events,
                      int maxevents, int timeout);
       int epoll_pwait(int epfd, struct epoll_event *events,
                      int maxevents, int timeout,
                      const sigset_t *sigmask);

DESCRIPTION
       The  epoll_wait() system call waits for events on the epoll(7) instance referred to by the
       file descriptor epfd.  The memory area pointed to by events will contain the  events  that
       will be available for the caller.  Up to maxevents are returned by epoll_wait().  The max‐
       events argument must be greater than zero.

       The timeout argument specifies the number of milliseconds that  epoll_wait()  will  block.
       The call will block until either:

       *  a file descriptor delivers an event;

       *  the call is interrupted by a signal handler; or

       *  the timeout expires.

       Note  that  the  timeout  interval will be rounded up to the system clock granularity, and
       kernel scheduling delays mean that the blocking interval may overrun by  a  small  amount.
       Specifying  a  timeout of -1 causes epoll_wait() to block indefinitely, while specifying a
       timeout equal to zero cause epoll_wait() to return immediately,  even  if  no  events  are
       available.

       The struct epoll_event is defined as :

           typedef union epoll_data {
               void    *ptr;
               int      fd;
               uint32_t u32;
               uint64_t u64;
           } epoll_data_t;

           struct epoll_event {
               uint32_t     events;    /* Epoll events */
               epoll_data_t data;      /* User data variable */
           };

       The  data  of  each  returned  structure  will  contain the same data the user set with an
       epoll_ctl(2) (EPOLL_CTL_ADD, EPOLL_CTL_MOD) while  the  events  member  will  contain  the
       returned event bit field.

   epoll_pwait()
       The  relationship  between epoll_wait() and epoll_pwait() is analogous to the relationship
       between select(2) and pselect(2): like pselect(2), epoll_pwait() allows an application  to
       safely wait until either a file descriptor becomes ready or until a signal is caught.

       The following epoll_pwait() call:

           ready = epoll_pwait(epfd, &events, maxevents, timeout, &sigmask);

       is equivalent to atomically executing the following calls:

           sigset_t origmask;

           sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, &sigmask, &origmask);
           ready = epoll_wait(epfd, &events, maxevents, timeout);
           sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, &origmask, NULL);

       The  sigmask  argument may be specified as NULL, in which case epoll_pwait() is equivalent
       to epoll_wait().

RETURN VALUE
       When successful, epoll_wait() returns  the  number  of  file  descriptors  ready  for  the
       requested  I/O,  or  zero  if no file descriptor became ready during the requested timeout
       milliseconds.  When an error occurs, epoll_wait() returns -1 and errno  is  set  appropri‐
       ately.

ERRORS
       EBADF  epfd is not a valid file descriptor.

       EFAULT The memory area pointed to by events is not accessible with write permissions.

       EINTR  The call was interrupted by a signal handler before either (1) any of the requested
              events occurred or (2) the timeout expired; see signal(7).

       EINVAL epfd is not an epoll file descriptor, or maxevents is less than or equal to zero.

VERSIONS
       epoll_wait() was added to the kernel in version 2.6.  Library support is provided in glibc
       starting with version 2.3.2.

       epoll_pwait()  was  added to Linux in kernel 2.6.19.  Library support is provided in glibc
       starting with version 2.6.

CONFORMING TO
       epoll_wait() is Linux-specific.

NOTES
       While one thread is blocked in a call to epoll_pwait(), it is possible for another  thread
       to  add  a  file descriptor to the waited-upon epoll instance.  If the new file descriptor
       becomes ready, it will cause the epoll_wait() call to unblock.

       For a discussion of what may happen if a file descriptor in an epoll instance being  moni‐
       tored by epoll_wait() is closed in another thread, see select(2).

BUGS
       In  kernels  before  2.6.37,  a timeout value larger than approximately LONG_MAX / HZ mil‐
       liseconds is treated as -1 (i.e., infinity).  Thus, for example, on  a  system  where  the
       sizeof(long)  is  4 and the kernel HZ value is 1000, this means that timeouts greater than
       35.79 minutes are treated as infinity.

   C library/kernel ABI differences
       The raw epoll_pwait() system call has a sixth argument, size_t sigsetsize, which specifies
       the size in bytes of the sigmask argument.  The glibc epoll_pwait() wrapper function spec‐
       ifies this argument as a fixed value (equal to sizeof(sigset_t)).

SEE ALSO
       epoll_create(2), epoll_ctl(2), epoll(7)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.74 of the Linux man-pages project.  A  description  of  the
       project,  information  about  reporting  bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be
       found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



Linux                                       2014-08-19                              EPOLL_WAIT(2)