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

NAME
       eventfd - create a file descriptor for event notification

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/eventfd.h>

       int eventfd(unsigned int initval, int flags);

DESCRIPTION
       eventfd()  creates  an "eventfd object" that can be used as an event wait/notify mechanism by user-space applications, and by the kernel to notify user-space ap‐
       plications of events.  The object contains an unsigned 64-bit integer (uint64_t) counter that is maintained by the kernel.  This counter is initialized with  the
       value specified in the argument initval.

       As its return value, eventfd() returns a new file descriptor that can be used to refer to the eventfd object.

       The following values may be bitwise ORed in flags to change the behavior of eventfd():

       EFD_CLOEXEC (since Linux 2.6.27)
              Set the close-on-exec (FD_CLOEXEC) flag on the new file descriptor.  See the description of the O_CLOEXEC flag in open(2) for reasons why this may be use‐
              ful.

       EFD_NONBLOCK (since Linux 2.6.27)
              Set the O_NONBLOCK file status flag on the open file description (see open(2)) referred to by the new file descriptor.  Using this flag saves extra  calls
              to fcntl(2) to achieve the same result.

       EFD_SEMAPHORE (since Linux 2.6.30)
              Provide semaphore-like semantics for reads from the new file descriptor.  See below.

       In Linux up to version 2.6.26, the flags argument is unused, and must be specified as zero.

       The following operations can be performed on the file descriptor returned by eventfd():

       read(2)
              Each successful read(2) returns an 8-byte integer.  A read(2) fails with the error EINVAL if the size of the supplied buffer is less than 8 bytes.

              The value returned by read(2) is in host byte orderβ€”that is, the native byte order for integers on the host machine.

              The  semantics of read(2) depend on whether the eventfd counter currently has a nonzero value and whether the EFD_SEMAPHORE flag was specified when creat‐
              ing the eventfd file descriptor:

              *  If EFD_SEMAPHORE was not specified and the eventfd counter has a nonzero value, then a read(2) returns 8 bytes containing that value, and the counter's
                 value is reset to zero.

              *  If  EFD_SEMAPHORE  was  specified and the eventfd counter has a nonzero value, then a read(2) returns 8 bytes containing the value 1, and the counter's
                 value is decremented by 1.

              *  If the eventfd counter is zero at the time of the call to read(2), then the call either blocks until the counter becomes nonzero (at  which  time,  the
                 read(2) proceeds as described above) or fails with the error EAGAIN if the file descriptor has been made nonblocking.

       write(2)
              A  write(2)  call adds the 8-byte integer value supplied in its buffer to the counter.  The maximum value that may be stored in the counter is the largest
              unsigned 64-bit value minus 1 (i.e., 0xfffffffffffffffe).  If the addition would cause the counter's value to exceed the maximum, then the write(2) either
              blocks until a read(2) is performed on the file descriptor, or fails with the error EAGAIN if the file descriptor has been made nonblocking.

              A  write(2)  fails  with  the  error  EINVAL  if  the  size  of  the  supplied  buffer  is  less than 8 bytes, or if an attempt is made to write the value
              0xffffffffffffffff.

       poll(2), select(2) (and similar)
              The returned file descriptor supports poll(2) (and analogously epoll(7)) and select(2), as follows:

              *  The file descriptor is readable (the select(2) readfds argument; the poll(2) POLLIN flag) if the counter has a value greater than 0.

              *  The file descriptor is writable (the select(2) writefds argument; the poll(2) POLLOUT flag) if it is possible to write a value of at least "1"  without
                 blocking.

              *  If an overflow of the counter value was detected, then select(2) indicates the file descriptor as being both readable and writable, and poll(2) returns
                 a POLLERR event.  As noted above, write(2) can never overflow the counter.  However an overflow can occur if 2^64 eventfd "signal posts" were performed
                 by  the KAIO subsystem (theoretically possible, but practically unlikely).  If an overflow has occurred, then read(2) will return that maximum uint64_t
                 value (i.e., 0xffffffffffffffff).

              The eventfd file descriptor also supports the other file-descriptor multiplexing APIs: pselect(2) and ppoll(2).

       close(2)
              When the file descriptor is no longer required it should be closed.  When all file descriptors associated with the same eventfd object have  been  closed,
              the resources for object are freed by the kernel.

       A  copy  of  the  file  descriptor created by eventfd() is inherited by the child produced by fork(2).  The duplicate file descriptor is associated with the same
       eventfd object.  File descriptors created by eventfd() are preserved across execve(2), unless the close-on-exec flag has been set.

RETURN VALUE
       On success, eventfd() returns a new eventfd file descriptor.  On error, -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS
       EINVAL An unsupported value was specified in flags.

       EMFILE The per-process limit on the number of open file descriptors has been reached.

       ENFILE The system-wide limit on the total number of open files has been reached.

       ENODEV Could not mount (internal) anonymous inode device.

       ENOMEM There was insufficient memory to create a new eventfd file descriptor.

VERSIONS
       eventfd() is available on Linux since kernel 2.6.22.  Working support is provided in glibc since version 2.8.  The eventfd2() system call (see NOTES)  is  avail‐
       able on Linux since kernel 2.6.27.  Since version 2.9, the glibc eventfd() wrapper will employ the eventfd2() system call, if it is supported by the kernel.

ATTRIBUTES
       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

       β”Œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”¬β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”¬β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”
       β”‚Interface                                                                                                                             β”‚ Attribute     β”‚ Value   β”‚
       β”œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”Όβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”Όβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€
       β”‚eventfd()                                                                                                                             β”‚ Thread safety β”‚ MT-Safe β”‚
       β””β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”΄β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”΄β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”˜

CONFORMING TO
       eventfd() and eventfd2() are Linux-specific.

NOTES
       Applications  can  use an eventfd file descriptor instead of a pipe (see pipe(2)) in all cases where a pipe is used simply to signal events.  The kernel overhead
       of an eventfd file descriptor is much lower than that of a pipe, and only one file descriptor is required (versus the two required for a pipe).

       When used in the kernel, an eventfd file descriptor can provide a bridge from kernel to user space, allowing, for example, functionalities like KAIO (kernel AIO)
       to signal to a file descriptor that some operation is complete.

       A  key  point about an eventfd file descriptor is that it can be monitored just like any other file descriptor using select(2), poll(2), or epoll(7).  This means
       that an application can simultaneously monitor the readiness of "traditional" files and the readiness of other kernel mechanisms that support the eventfd  inter‐
       face.  (Without the eventfd() interface, these mechanisms could not be multiplexed via select(2), poll(2), or epoll(7).)

       The  current  value  of  an eventfd counter can be viewed via the entry for the corresponding file descriptor in the process's /proc/[pid]/fdinfo directory.  See
       proc(5) for further details.

   C library/kernel differences
       There are two underlying Linux system calls: eventfd() and the more recent eventfd2().  The former system call does not implement a flags argument.   The  latter
       system call implements the flags values described above.  The glibc wrapper function will use eventfd2() where it is available.

   Additional glibc features
       The  GNU  C library defines an additional type, and two functions that attempt to abstract some of the details of reading and writing on an eventfd file descrip‐
       tor:

           typedef uint64_t eventfd_t;

           int eventfd_read(int fd, eventfd_t *value);
           int eventfd_write(int fd, eventfd_t value);

       The functions perform the read and write operations on an eventfd file descriptor, returning 0 if the correct number of bytes was transferred, or -1 otherwise.

EXAMPLES
       The following program creates an eventfd file descriptor and then forks to create a child process.  While the parent briefly sleeps, the child writes each of the
       integers  supplied in the program's command-line arguments to the eventfd file descriptor.  When the parent has finished sleeping, it reads from the eventfd file
       descriptor.

       The following shell session shows a sample run of the program:

           $ ./a.out 1 2 4 7 14
           Child writing 1 to efd
           Child writing 2 to efd
           Child writing 4 to efd
           Child writing 7 to efd
           Child writing 14 to efd
           Child completed write loop
           Parent about to read
           Parent read 28 (0x1c) from efd

   Program source

       #include <sys/eventfd.h>
       #include <unistd.h>
       #include <inttypes.h>           /* Definition of PRIu64 & PRIx64 */
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdint.h>             /* Definition of uint64_t */

       #define handle_error(msg) \
           do { perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } while (0)

       int
       main(int argc, char *argv[])
       {
           int efd;
           uint64_t u;
           ssize_t s;

           if (argc < 2) {
               fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s <num>...\n", argv[0]);
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }

           efd = eventfd(0, 0);
           if (efd == -1)
               handle_error("eventfd");

           switch (fork()) {
           case 0:
               for (int j = 1; j < argc; j++) {
                   printf("Child writing %s to efd\n", argv[j]);
                   u = strtoull(argv[j], NULL, 0);
                           /* strtoull() allows various bases */
                   s = write(efd, &u, sizeof(uint64_t));
                   if (s != sizeof(uint64_t))
                       handle_error("write");
               }
               printf("Child completed write loop\n");

               exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);

           default:
               sleep(2);

               printf("Parent about to read\n");
               s = read(efd, &u, sizeof(uint64_t));
               if (s != sizeof(uint64_t))
                   handle_error("read");
               printf("Parent read %"PRIu64" (%#"PRIx64") from efd\n", u, u);
               exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);

           case -1:
               handle_error("fork");
           }
       }

SEE ALSO
       futex(2), pipe(2), poll(2), read(2), select(2), signalfd(2), timerfd_create(2), write(2), epoll(7), sem_overview(7)

Linux                                                                          2021-03-22                                                                     EVENTFD(2)