Command Section

SHM_OPEN(2)               FreeBSD System Calls Manual              SHM_OPEN(2)

NAME
     memfd_create, shm_open, shm_rename, shm_unlink - shared memory object
     operations

LIBRARY
     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/types.h>
     #include <sys/mman.h>
     #include <fcntl.h>

     int
     memfd_create(const char *name, unsigned int flags);

     int
     shm_open(const char *path, int flags, mode_t mode);

     int
     shm_rename(const char *path_from, const char *path_to, int flags);

     int
     shm_unlink(const char *path);

DESCRIPTION
     The shm_open() system call opens (or optionally creates) a POSIX shared
     memory object named path.  The flags argument contains a subset of the
     flags used by open(2).  An access mode of either O_RDONLY or O_RDWR must
     be included in flags.  The optional flags O_CREAT, O_EXCL, and O_TRUNC
     may also be specified.

     If O_CREAT is specified, then a new shared memory object named path will
     be created if it does not exist.  In this case, the shared memory object
     is created with mode mode subject to the process' umask value.  If both
     the O_CREAT and O_EXCL flags are specified and a shared memory object
     named path already exists, then shm_open() will fail with EEXIST.

     Newly created objects start off with a size of zero.  If an existing
     shared memory object is opened with O_RDWR and the O_TRUNC flag is
     specified, then the shared memory object will be truncated to a size of
     zero.  The size of the object can be adjusted via ftruncate(2) and
     queried via fstat(2).

     The new descriptor is set to close during execve(2) system calls; see
     close(2) and fcntl(2).

     As a FreeBSD extension, the constant SHM_ANON may be used for the path
     argument to shm_open().  In this case, an anonymous, unnamed shared
     memory object is created.  Since the object has no name, it cannot be
     removed via a subsequent call to shm_unlink(), or moved with a call to
     shm_rename().  Instead, the shared memory object will be garbage
     collected when the last reference to the shared memory object is removed.
     The shared memory object may be shared with other processes by sharing
     the file descriptor via fork(2) or sendmsg(2).  Attempting to open an
     anonymous shared memory object with O_RDONLY will fail with EINVAL.  All
     other flags are ignored.

     The shm_rename() system call atomically removes a shared memory object
     named path_from and relinks it at path_to.  If another object is already
     linked at path_to, that object will be unlinked, unless one of the
     following flags are provided:

           SHM_RENAME_EXCHANGE
                              Atomically exchange the shms at path_from and
                              path_to.

           SHM_RENAME_NOREPLACE
                              Return an error if an shm exists at path_to,
                              rather than unlinking it.
     shm_rename() is also a FreeBSD extension.

     The shm_unlink() system call removes a shared memory object named path.

     The memfd_create() function creates an anonymous shared memory object,
     identical to that created by shm_open() when SHM_ANON is specified.
     Newly created objects start off with a size of zero.  The size of the new
     object must be adjusted via ftruncate(2).

     The name argument must not be NULL, but it may be an empty string.  The
     length of the name argument may not exceed NAME_MAX minus six characters
     for the prefix "memfd:", which will be prepended.  The name argument is
     intended solely for debugging purposes and will never be used by the
     kernel to identify a memfd.  Names are therefore not required to be
     unique.

     The following flags may be specified to memfd_create():

     MFD_CLOEXEC        Set FD_CLOEXEC on the resulting file descriptor.

     MFD_ALLOW_SEALING  Allow adding seals to the resulting file descriptor
                        using the F_ADD_SEALS fcntl(2) command.

     MFD_HUGETLB        This flag is currently unsupported.

RETURN VALUES
     If successful, memfd_create() and shm_open() both return a non-negative
     integer, and shm_rename() and shm_unlink() return zero.  All functions
     return -1 on failure, and set errno to indicate the error.

COMPATIBILITY
     The path, path_from, and path_to arguments do not necessarily represent a
     pathname (although they do in most other implementations).  Two processes
     opening the same path are guaranteed to access the same shared memory
     object if and only if path begins with a slash (`/') character.

     Only the O_RDONLY, O_RDWR, O_CREAT, O_EXCL, and O_TRUNC flags may be used
     in portable programs.

     POSIX specifications state that the result of using open(2), read(2), or
     write(2) on a shared memory object, or on the descriptor returned by
     shm_open(), is undefined.  However, the FreeBSD kernel implementation
     explicitly includes support for read(2) and write(2).

     FreeBSD also supports zero-copy transmission of data from shared memory
     objects with sendfile(2).

     Neither shared memory objects nor their contents persist across reboots.

     Writes do not extend shared memory objects, so ftruncate(2) must be
     called before any data can be written.  See EXAMPLES.

EXAMPLES
     This example fails without the call to ftruncate(2):

             uint8_t buffer[getpagesize()];
             ssize_t len;
             int fd;

             fd = shm_open(SHM_ANON, O_RDWR | O_CREAT, 0600);
             if (fd < 0)
                     err(EX_OSERR, "%s: shm_open", __func__);
             if (ftruncate(fd, getpagesize()) < 0)
                     err(EX_IOERR, "%s: ftruncate", __func__);
             len = pwrite(fd, buffer, getpagesize(), 0);
             if (len < 0)
                     err(EX_IOERR, "%s: pwrite", __func__);
             if (len != getpagesize())
                     errx(EX_IOERR, "%s: pwrite length mismatch", __func__);

ERRORS
     memfd_create() fails with these error codes for these conditions:

     [EBADF]            The name argument was NULL.

     [EINVAL]           The name argument was too long.

                        An invalid or unsupported flag was included in flags.

     [EMFILE]           The process has already reached its limit for open
                        file descriptors.

     [ENFILE]           The system file table is full.

     [ENOSYS]           In memfd_create, MFD_HUGETLB was specified in flags,
                        and this system does not support forced hugetlb
                        mappings.

     shm_open() fails with these error codes for these conditions:

     [EINVAL]           A flag other than O_RDONLY, O_RDWR, O_CREAT, O_EXCL,
                        or O_TRUNC was included in flags.

     [EMFILE]           The process has already reached its limit for open
                        file descriptors.

     [ENFILE]           The system file table is full.

     [EINVAL]           O_RDONLY was specified while creating an anonymous
                        shared memory object via SHM_ANON.

     [EFAULT]           The path argument points outside the process'
                        allocated address space.

     [ENAMETOOLONG]     The entire pathname exceeds 1023 characters.

     [EINVAL]           The path does not begin with a slash (`/') character.

     [ENOENT]           O_CREAT is not specified and the named shared memory
                        object does not exist.

     [EEXIST]           O_CREAT and O_EXCL are specified and the named shared
                        memory object does exist.

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

     The following errors are defined for shm_rename():

     [EFAULT]           The path_from or path_to argument points outside the
                        process' allocated address space.

     [ENAMETOOLONG]     The entire pathname exceeds 1023 characters.

     [ENOENT]           The shared memory object at path_from does not exist.

     [EACCES]           The required permissions are denied.

     [EEXIST]           An shm exists at path_to, and the SHM_RENAME_NOREPLACE
                        flag was provided.

     shm_unlink() fails with these error codes for these conditions:

     [EFAULT]           The path argument points outside the process'
                        allocated address space.

     [ENAMETOOLONG]     The entire pathname exceeds 1023 characters.

     [ENOENT]           The named shared memory object does not exist.

     [EACCES]           The required permissions are denied.  shm_unlink()
                        requires write permission to the shared memory object.

SEE ALSO
     close(2), fstat(2), ftruncate(2), mmap(2), munmap(2), sendfile(2)

STANDARDS
     The memfd_create() function is expected to be compatible with the Linux
     system call of the same name.

     The shm_open() and shm_unlink() functions are believed to conform to IEEE
     Std 1003.1b-1993 ("POSIX.1b").

HISTORY
     The memfd_create() function appeared in FreeBSD 13.0.

     The shm_open() and shm_unlink() functions first appeared in FreeBSD 4.3.
     The functions were reimplemented as system calls using shared memory
     objects directly rather than files in FreeBSD 8.0.

     shm_rename() first appeared in FreeBSD 13.0 as a FreeBSD extension.

AUTHORS
     Garrett A. Wollman <wollman@FreeBSD.org> (C library support and this
     manual page)

     Matthew Dillon <dillon@FreeBSD.org> (MAP_NOSYNC)

     Matthew Bryan <matthew.bryan@isilon.com> (shm_rename implementation)

FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6       September 26, 2019       FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6

Command Section

man2web Home...