select - synchronous I/O multiplexing
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/time.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int
select(int nfds, fd_set *readfds, fd_set *writefds, fd_set *exceptfds,
struct timeval *timeout);
FD_SET(fd, fdset);
FD_CLR(fd, fdset);
FD_ISSET(fd, fdset);
FD_ZERO(fdset);
select() examines the I/O descriptor sets whose addresses are passed in
readfds, writefds, and exceptfds to see if some of their descriptors are
ready for reading, are ready for writing, or have an exceptional condition
pending, respectively. The first nfds descriptors are checked in
each set; i.e., the descriptors from 0 through nfds-1 in the descriptor
sets are examined. On return, select() replaces the given descriptor
sets with subsets consisting of those descriptors that are ready for the
requested operation. select() returns the total number of ready descriptors
in all the sets.
The descriptor sets are stored as bit fields in arrays of integers. The
following macros are provided for manipulating such descriptor sets:
FD_ZERO(fdset) initializes a descriptor set fdset to the null set.
FD_SET(fd, fdset) includes a particular descriptor fd in fdset.
FD_CLR(fd, fdset) removes fd from fdset. FD_ISSET(fd, fdset) is non-zero
if fd is a member of fdset, zero otherwise. The behavior of these macros
is undefined if a descriptor value is less than zero or greater than or
equal to FD_SETSIZE, which is normally at least equal to the maximum number
of descriptors supported by the system.
If timeout is a non-nil pointer, it specifies a maximum interval to wait
for the selection to complete. If timeout is a nil pointer, the select
blocks indefinitely. To affect a poll, the timeout argument should be
non-nil, pointing to a zero-valued timeval structure.
Any of readfds, writefds, and exceptfds may be given as nil pointers if
no descriptors are of interest.
select() returns the number of ready descriptors that are contained in
the descriptor sets, or -1 if an error occurred. If the time limit
expires, select() returns 0. If select() returns with an error, including
one due to an interrupted call, the descriptor sets will be unmodified.
An error return from select() indicates:
[EFAULT] One or more of readfds, writefds, or exceptfds points
outside the process's allocated address space.
[EBADF] One of the descriptor sets specified an invalid
descriptor.
[EINTR] A signal was delivered before the time limit expired
and before any of the selected events occurred.
[EINVAL] The specified time limit is invalid. One of its components
is negative or too large.
accept(2), connect(2), gettimeofday(2), poll(2), read(2), recv(2),
send(2), write(2), getdtablesize(3)
The select() function call appeared in 4.2BSD.
Although the provision of getdtablesize(3) was intended to allow user
programs to be written independent of the kernel limit on the number of
open files, the dimension of a sufficiently large bit field for select
remains a problem. The default size FD_SETSIZE (currently 256) is somewhat
larger than the current kernel limit to the number of open files.
However, in order to accommodate programs which might potentially use a
larger number of open files with select, it is possible to increase this
size within a program by providing a larger definition of FD_SETSIZE
before the inclusion of <sys/types.h>.
select() should probably return the time remaining from the original
timeout, if any, by modifying the time value in place. This may be
implemented in future versions of the system. Thus, it is unwise to
assume that the timeout value will be unmodified by the select() call.
BSD March 25, 1994 BSD
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