RECV(2) Linux Programmers Manual RECV(2)
NAME
recv, recvfrom, recvmsg - receive a message from a socket
SYNOPSIS
#include
#include
ssize_t recv(int s, void *buf, size_t len, int flags);
ssize_t recvfrom(int s, void *buf, size_t len, int flags,
struct sockaddr *from, socklen_t *fromlen);
ssize_t recvmsg(int s, struct msghdr *msg, int flags);
DESCRIPTION
The recvfrom() and recvmsg() calls are used to receive messages from a
socket, and may be used to receive data on a socket whether or not it
is connection-oriented.
If from is not NULL, and the underlying protocol provides the source
address, this source address is filled in. The argument fromlen is a
value-result argument, initialized to the size of the buffer associated
with from, and modified on return to indicate the actual size of the
address stored there.
The recv() call is normally used only on a connected socket (see con
nect(2)) and is identical to recvfrom() with a NULL from argument.
All three routines return the length of the message on successful com
pletion. If a message is too long to fit in the supplied buffer,
excess bytes may be discarded depending on the type of socket the mes
sage is received from.
If no messages are available at the socket, the receive calls wait for
a message to arrive, unless the socket is non-blocking (see fcntl(2)),
in which case the value -1 is returned and the external variable errno
set to EAGAIN. The receive calls normally return any data available,
up to the requested amount, rather than waiting for receipt of the full
amount requested.
The select(2) or poll(2) call may be used to determine when more data
arrives.
The flags argument to a recv() call is formed by ORing one or more of
the following values:
MSG_CMSG_CLOEXEC (recvmsg() only; since Linux 2.6.23)
Set the close-on-exec flag for the file descriptor received via
a Unix domain file descriptor using the SCM_RIGHTS operation
(described in unix(7)). This flag is useful for the same rea
sons as the O_CLOEXEC flag of open(2).
MSG_DONTWAIT (since Linux 2.2)
Enables non-blocking operation; if the operation would block,
the call fails with the error EAGAIN (this can also be enabled
using the O_NONBLOCK with the F_SETFL fcntl(2)).
MSG_ERRQUEUE
This flag specifies that queued errors should be received from
the socket error queue. The error is passed in an ancillary
message with a type dependent on the protocol (for IPv4
IP_RECVERR). The user should supply a buffer of sufficient
size. See cmsg(3) and ip(7) for more information. The payload
of the original packet that caused the error is passed as normal
data via msg_iovec. The original destination address of the
datagram that caused the error is supplied via msg_name.
For local errors, no address is passed (this can be checked with
the cmsg_len member of the cmsghdr). For error receives, the
MSG_ERRQUEUE is set in the msghdr. After an error has been
passed, the pending socket error is regenerated based on the
next queued error and will be passed on the next socket opera
tion.
The error is supplied in a sock_extended_err structure:
#define SO_EE_ORIGIN_NONE 0
#define SO_EE_ORIGIN_LOCAL 1
#define SO_EE_ORIGIN_ICMP 2
#define SO_EE_ORIGIN_ICMP6 3
struct sock_extended_err
{
uint32_t ee_errno; /* error number */
uint8_t ee_origin; /* where the error originated */
uint8_t ee_type; /* type */
uint8_t ee_code; /* code */
uint8_t ee_pad; /* padding */
uint32_t ee_info; /* additional information */
uint32_t ee_data; /* other data */
/* More data may follow */
};
struct sockaddr *SO_EE_OFFENDER(struct sock_extended_err *);
ee_errno contains the errno number of the queued error. ee_ori
gin is the origin code of where the error originated. The other
fields are protocol-specific. The macro SOCK_EE_OFFENDER
returns a pointer to the address of the network object where the
error originated from given a pointer to the ancillary message.
If this address is not known, the sa_family member of the sock
addr contains AF_UNSPEC and the other fields of the sockaddr are
undefined. The payload of the packet that caused the error is
passed as normal data.
For local errors, no address is passed (this can be checked with
the cmsg_len member of the cmsghdr). For error receives, the
MSG_ERRQUEUE (since Linux 2.2) is set in the msghdr. After an
error has been passed, the pending socket error is regenerated
based on the next queued error and will be passed on the next
socket operation.
MSG_OOB
This flag requests receipt of out-of-band data that would not be
received in the normal data stream. Some protocols place expe
dited data at the head of the normal data queue, and thus this
flag cannot be used with such protocols.
MSG_PEEK
This flag causes the receive operation to return data from the
beginning of the receive queue without removing that data from
the queue. Thus, a subsequent receive call will return the same
data.
MSG_TRUNC (since Linux 2.2)
Return the real length of the packet, even when it was longer
than the passed buffer. Only valid for packet sockets.
MSG_WAITALL (since Linux 2.2)
This flag requests that the operation block until the full
request is satisfied. However, the call may still return less
data than requested if a signal is caught, an error or discon
nect occurs, or the next data to be received is of a different
type than that returned.
The recvmsg() call uses a msghdr structure to minimize the number of
directly supplied arguments. This structure has the following form, as
defined in :
struct msghdr {
void *msg_name; /* optional address */
socklen_t msg_namelen; /* size of address */
struct iovec *msg_iov; /* scatter/gather array */
size_t msg_iovlen; /* # elements in msg_iov */
void *msg_control; /* ancillary data, see below */
socklen_t msg_controllen; /* ancillary data buffer len */
int msg_flags; /* flags on received message */
};
Here msg_name and msg_namelen specify the source address if the socket
is unconnected; msg_name may be given as a null pointer if no names are
desired or required. The fields msg_iov and msg_iovlen describe scat
ter-gather locations, as discussed in readv(2). The field msg_control,
which has length msg_controllen, points to a buffer for other protocol
control-related messages or miscellaneous ancillary data. When
recvmsg() is called, msg_controllen should contain the length of the
available buffer in msg_control; upon return from a successful call it
will contain the length of the control message sequence.
The messages are of the form:
struct cmsghdr {
socklen_t cmsg_len; /* data byte count, including hdr */
int cmsg_level; /* originating protocol */
int cmsg_type; /* protocol-specific type */
/* followed by
unsigned char cmsg_data[]; */
};
Ancillary data should only be accessed by the macros defined in
cmsg(3).
As an example, Linux uses this auxiliary data mechanism to pass
extended errors, IP options or file descriptors over Unix sockets.
The msg_flags field in the msghdr is set on return of recvmsg(). It
can contain several flags:
MSG_EOR
indicates end-of-record; the data returned completed a record
(generally used with sockets of type SOCK_SEQPACKET).
MSG_TRUNC
indicates that the trailing portion of a datagram was discarded
because the datagram was larger than the buffer supplied.
MSG_CTRUNC
indicates that some control data were discarded due to lack of
space in the buffer for ancillary data.
MSG_OOB
is returned to indicate that expedited or out-of-band data were
received.
MSG_ERRQUEUE
indicates that no data was received but an extended error from
the socket error queue.
RETURN VALUE
These calls return the number of bytes received, or -1 if an error
occurred. The return value will be 0 when the peer has performed an
orderly shutdown.
ERRORS
These are some standard errors generated by the socket layer. Addi
tional errors may be generated and returned from the underlying proto
col modules; see their manual pages.
EAGAIN The socket is marked non-blocking and the receive operation
would block, or a receive timeout had been set and the timeout
expired before data was received.
EBADF The argument s is an invalid descriptor.
ECONNREFUSED
A remote host refused to allow the network connection (typically
because it is not running the requested service).
EFAULT The receive buffer pointer(s) point outside the processs
address space.
EINTR The receive was interrupted by delivery of a signal before any
data were available; see signal(7).
EINVAL Invalid argument passed.
ENOMEM Could not allocate memory for recvmsg().
ENOTCONN
The socket is associated with a connection-oriented protocol and
has not been connected (see connect(2) and accept(2)).
ENOTSOCK
The argument s does not refer to a socket.
CONFORMING TO
4.4BSD (these function calls first appeared in 4.2BSD), POSIX.1-2001.
POSIX.1-2001 only describes the MSG_OOB, MSG_PEEK, and MSG_WAITALL
flags.
NOTES
The prototypes given above follow glibc2. The Single Unix Specifica
tion agrees, except that it has return values of type ssize_t (while
4.x BSD and libc4 and libc5 all have int). The flags argument is int
in 4.x BSD, but unsigned int in libc4 and libc5. The len argument is
int in 4.x BSD, but size_t in libc4 and libc5. The fromlen argument is
int * in 4.x BSD, libc4 and libc5. The present socklen_t * was
invented by POSIX. See also accept(2).
According to POSIX.1-2001, the msg_controllen field of the msghdr
structure should be typed as socklen_t, but glibc currently (2.4) types
it as size_t.
EXAMPLE
An example of the use of recvfrom() is shown in getaddrinfo(3).
SEE ALSO
fcntl(2), getsockopt(2), read(2), select(2), shutdown(2), socket(2),
cmsg(3), sockatmark(3)
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.05 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Linux 2008-07-14 RECV(2)
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