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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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