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

NAME
       msync - synchronize a file with a memory map

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/mman.h>

       int msync(void *addr, size_t length, int flags);

DESCRIPTION
       msync()  flushes changes made to the in-core copy of a file that was mapped into memory using mmap(2) back to the filesystem.  Without use of this call, there is
       no guarantee that changes are written back before munmap(2) is called.  To be more precise, the part of the file that corresponds to the memory area starting  at
       addr and having length length is updated.

       The  flags  argument should specify exactly one of MS_ASYNC and MS_SYNC, and may additionally include the MS_INVALIDATE bit.  These bits have the following mean‐
       ings:

       MS_ASYNC
              Specifies that an update be scheduled, but the call returns immediately.

       MS_SYNC
              Requests an update and waits for it to complete.

       MS_INVALIDATE
              Asks to invalidate other mappings of the same file (so that they can be updated with the fresh values just written).

RETURN VALUE
       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS
       EBUSY  MS_INVALIDATE was specified in flags, and a memory lock exists for the specified address range.

       EINVAL addr is not a multiple of PAGESIZE; or any bit other than MS_ASYNC | MS_INVALIDATE | MS_SYNC is set in flags; or both MS_SYNC  and  MS_ASYNC  are  set  in
              flags.

       ENOMEM The indicated memory (or part of it) was not mapped.

CONFORMING TO
       POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008.

       This call was introduced in Linux 1.3.21, and then used EFAULT instead of ENOMEM.  In Linux 2.4.19, this was changed to the POSIX value ENOMEM.

       On  POSIX  systems  on which msync() is available, both _POSIX_MAPPED_FILES and _POSIX_SYNCHRONIZED_IO are defined in <unistd.h> to a value greater than 0.  (See
       also sysconf(3).)

NOTES
       According to POSIX, either MS_SYNC or MS_ASYNC must be specified in flags, and indeed failure to include one of these flags will cause msync() to  fail  on  some
       systems.   However, Linux permits a call to msync() that specifies neither of these flags, with semantics that are (currently) equivalent to specifying MS_ASYNC.
       (Since Linux 2.6.19, MS_ASYNC is in fact a no-op, since the kernel properly tracks dirty pages and flushes them to storage as  necessary.)   Notwithstanding  the
       Linux behavior, portable, future-proof applications should ensure that they specify either MS_SYNC or MS_ASYNC in flags.

SEE ALSO
       mmap(2)

       B.O. Gallmeister, POSIX.4, O'Reilly, pp. 128–129 and 389–391.

Linux                                                                          2021-03-22                                                                       MSYNC(2)