NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     msgrcv - receive a message from a message queue

LIBRARY    [Toc]    [Back]

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     #include <sys/msg.h>

     ssize_t
     msgrcv(int msqid, void *msgp, size_t msgsz, long msgtyp, int msgflg);

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     The msgrcv() function receives a message from the message queue specified
     in msqid, and places it into the user-defined structure pointed to by
     msgp.  This structure must contain a first field of type long that will
     indicate the user-defined type of the message.  The remaining fields will
     contain the contents of the message.  The following is an example of what
     this user-defined structure might look like:

     struct mymsg {
         long mtype;    /* message type */
         char mtext[1]; /* body of message */
     };

     mtype is an integer greater than 0 that can be used to select messages.
     mtext is an array of bytes, with size up to the system limit MSGMAX.

     The value of msgtyp has one of the following meanings:

     +o   msgtyp is greater than 0. The first message of type msgtyp will be
         received.

     +o   msgtyp is equal to 0. The first message on the queue will be
         received.

     +o   msgtyp is less than 0. The first message of the lowest message type
         that is less than or equal to the absolute value of msgtyp will be
         received.

     msgsz specifies the maximum length of the requested message. If the
     received message has a length greater than msgsz it will be silently
     truncated if the MSG_NOERROR flag is set in msgflg, otherwise an error
     will be returned.

     If no matching message is present on the message queue specified by
     msqid, the behaviour of msgrcv() depends on whether the IPC_NOWAIT flag
     is set in msgflg or not. If IPC_NOWAIT is set, then msgrcv() will immediately
 return a value of -1 and set errno to EAGAIN.  If IPC_NOWAIT is not
     set, the calling process will block until:

     +o   A message of the requested type becomes available on the message
         queue.

     +o   The message queue is removed, in which case -1 will be returned and
         errno set to EIDRM.

     +o   A signal is received and caught. -1 is returned and errno is set to
         EINTR.

     If a message is successfully received, the data structure associated with
     msqid is updated as follows:

     +o   msg_lrpid is set to the pid of the caller.

     +o   msg_lrtime is set to the current time.

     +o   msg_qnum is decremented by 1.

RETURN VALUES    [Toc]    [Back]

     Upon successful completion, msgrcv() returns the number of bytes received
     into the mtext field of the structure pointed to by msgp.  Otherwise, -1
     is returned, and errno set to indicate the error.

ERRORS    [Toc]    [Back]

     msgrcv() will fail if:

     [EINVAL]           msqid is not a valid message queue identifier

                        The message queue was removed while msgrcv() was waiting
 for a message of the requested type to become
                        available in it.

                        msgsz is less than 0.

     [E2BIG]            A matching message was received, but its size was
                        greater than msgsz and the MSG_NOERROR flag was not
                        set in msgflg.

     [EACCES]           The calling process does not have read access to the
                        message queue.

     [EFAULT]           msgp points to an invalid address.

     [EINTR]            The system call was interrupted by the delivery of a
                        signal.

     [EAGAIN]           There is no message of the requested type available on
                        the message queue, and IPC_NOWAIT is set in msgflg.

     [EIDRM]            The message queue identifier msqid is removed from the
                        system.

     [ENOMSG]           The queue does not contain a message of the desired
                        type and IPC_NOWAIT is set.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     msgctl(2), msgget(2), msgsnd(2)

STANDARDS    [Toc]    [Back]

     The msgrcv system call conforms to X/Open System Interfaces and Headers
     Issue 5 (``XSH5'').

HISTORY    [Toc]    [Back]

     Message queues appeared in the first release of AT&T System V UNIX.

BSD                             August 25, 1999                            BSD