[Go to CFHT Home Page] Man Pages
Back to Software Index  BORDER=0Manpage Top Level
    mq_open(3R) manual page Table of Contents

Name

mq_open - open a message queue

Synopsis

cc [ flag ... ] file ... -lposix4 [ library ... ]

#include <mqueue.h>

mqd_t mq_open(const char *name, int oflag, /* unsigned long mode, mq_attr attr */ ... );

struct    mq_attr {
   long    mq_flags;    /* message queue flags */

   long    mq_maxmsg;    /* maximum number of messages */

   long    mq_msgsize;    /* maximum message size */

   long    mq_curmsgs;    /* number of messages currently queued */

   ...

};

MT-Level

MT-Safe

Description

mq_open() establishes a connection to a named message queue, name, returning the address of the message queue descriptor to the caller for subsequent calls to mq_send(3R) or mq_receive(3R) . The message queue once opened remains usable by this process until the message queue is closed by a successful call to mq_close(3R) , exit(2) , or exec(2) .

name points to a string naming a message queue. The name argument must conform to the construction rules for a path-name. If name is not the name of an existing message queue and its creation is not requested, mq_open() fails and returns an error.

oflag requests the desired receive and/or send access to the message queue. The requested access permission to receive messages or send messages is granted if the calling process would be granted read or write access, respectively, to a file with the equivalent permissions.

The value of oflag is the bitwise inclusive OR of values from the following list. Applications must specify exactly one of the first three values (access modes) below in the value of oflag :

O_RDONLY
Open the message queue for receiving messages. The process can use the returned message queue descriptor with mq_receive(3R) , but not mq_send(3R) . A message queue may be open multiple times in the same or different processes for receiving messages.
O_WRONLY
Open the queue for sending messages. The process can use the returned message queue descriptor with mq_send(3R) but not mq_receive(3R) . A message queue may be open multiple times in the same or different processes for sending messages.
O_RDWR
Open the queue for both receiving and sending messages. The process can use any of the functions allowed for O_RDONLY and O_WRONLY. A message queue may be open multiple times in the same or different processes for sending messages.

Any combination of the remaining flags may additionally be specified in the value of oflag:

O_CREAT
This option is used to create a message queue, and it requires two additional arguments: mode, which is of type mode_t, and attr, which is pointer to a mq_attr structure. If the pathname, name, has already been used to create a message queue that still exists, then this flag has no effect, unless combined with O_EXCL (see below). Otherwise, a message queue is created without any messages in it.

The message queue’s user ID is set to the process’s effective user ID,
and the message queue’s group ID is set to the process’s effective group ID. The message queue’s permission bits will be set to the value of mode, and modified by clearing all bits set in the file mode creation mask of the process (see umask(2) ). ‘AND-NOT’) those already set in the file mode creation mask of the process.

If
attr is NULL, the message queue is created with the default message queue attributes, (mq_maxmsg = 128 and mq_maxsize = 1024). If attr is non-NULL , the message queue mq_maxmsg and mq_msgsize attributes are set to the values of the corresponding members in the mq_attr structure referred to by attr.

O_EXCL
If both O_EXCL and O_CREAT are set, mq_open() will fail if the message queue name exists. The check for the existence of the message queue and the creation of the message queue if it does not exist are atomic with respect to other processes executing mq_open() naming the same name with both O_EXCL and O_CREAT set.

O_NONBLOCK
The setting of this flag is associated with the open message queue descriptor and determines whether a calling mq_send(3R) waits for message buffer space or a calling mq_receive(3R) waits for messages that are not currently available; or whether the calling function fails, thereby setting errno to EAGAIN.

Return Values

Upon successful completion, mq_open() returns a message queue descriptor; otherwise the function returns (mqd_t)(-1) and sets errno to indicate the error condition.

Errors

EACCESS
The message queue exists and the permissions specified by oflag are denied, or the message queue does not exist and permission to create the message queue is denied.
EEXIST
O_CREAT and O_EXCL are set and the named message queue already exists.
EINTR
The mq_open() operation was interrupted by a signal.
EINVAL
name is not a valid name.

O_CREAT was specified in oflag, the value of attr is not NULL, and either mq_maxmsg or mq_msgsize was less than or equal to zero.

EMFILE
The number of open message queue descriptors in this process exceeds {MQ_OPEN_MAX}.
The number of open file descriptors in this process exceeds
{OPEN_MAX}.
ENAMETOOLONG
The length of the name string exceeds PATH_MAX, or a pathname component is longer than NAME_MAX while _POSIX_NO_TRUNC is in effect.
ENFILE
The system file table is full
ENOENT
O_CREAT is not set and the named message queue, name, does not exist.
ENOSPC
There is insufficient space for the creation of the new message queue.
ENOSYS
mq_open() is not supported by this implementation.

See Also

exec(2) , exit(2) , umask(2) , sysconf(3C) , mq_close(3R) , mq_receive(3R) , mq_send(3R) , mq_setattr(3R) , mq_unlink(3R) ,

Notes

In Solaris, message queues are based on shared memory. Although permissions to send and receive messages are checked by the mq_receive() and mq_send() interfaces, any application which can open the message queue can directly access the shared memory to examine and manipulate messages in the queue. Thus message queues should not be considered secure.

Bugs

In Solaris 2.5, these functions always return -1 and set errno to ENOSYS, because this release does not support the Message Passing option. It is our intention to provide support for these interfaces in future releases.


Table of Contents