System Calls open(2)
NAME
open, openat - open a file
SYNOPSIS
#include
#include
#include
int open(const char *path, int oflag, /* mode_t mode */);
int openat(int fildes, const char *path, int oflag,
/* mode_t mode */);
DESCRIPTION
The open() function establishes the connection between afile and a file descriptor. It creates an open file descrip-
tion that refers to a file and a file descriptor that refers to that open file description. The file descriptor is usedby other I/O functions to refer to that file. The path argu-
ment points to a pathname naming the file.The openat() function is identical to the open() function
except that the path argument is interpreted relative to the starting point implied by the fildes argument. If the fildesargument has the special value AT_FDCWD, a relative path
argument will be resolved relative to the current working directory. If the path argument is absolute, the fildes argument is ignored. The open() function returns a file descriptor for the named file that is the lowest file descriptor not currently open for that process. The open file description is new, and therefore the file descriptor does not share it with anyother process in the system. The FD_CLOEXEC file descriptor
flag associated with the new file descriptor is cleared. The file offset used to mark the current position within the file is set to the beginning of the file. The file status flags and file access modes of the open file description are set according to the value of oflag. Themode argument is used only when O_CREAT is specified (see
below.)SunOS 5.11 Last change: 2 Mar 2010 1
System Calls open(2)Values for oflag are constructed by a bitwise-inclusive-OR
of flags from the following list, defined in. Applications must specify exactly one of the first three values (file access modes) below in the value of oflag: O_RDONLY Open for reading only.
O_WRONLY Open for writing only.
O_RDWR Open for reading and writing. The result is
undefined if this flag is applied to a FIFO. Any combination of the following may be used:O_APPEND
If set, the file offset is set to the end of the file prior to each write.O_CREAT
Create the file if it does not exist. This flag requires that the mode argument be specified. If the file exists, this flag has no effect except asnoted under O_EXCL below. Otherwise, the file is
created with the user ID of the file set to the effec-
tive user ID of the process. The group ID of the file is set to the effective group IDs of the process, or if theS_ISGID bit is set in the directory in which the file is
being created, the file's group ID is set to the group ID of its parent directory. If the group ID of the new file does not match the effective group ID or one of thesupplementary groups IDs, the S_ISGID bit is cleared.
The access permission bits (see) of the file mode are set to the value of mode, modified as fol-
lows (see creat(2)): a bitwise-AND is performed on the
file-mode bits and the corresponding bits in the comple-
ment of the process's file mode creation mask. Thus, all bits set in the process's file mode creation mask (seeumask(2)) are correspondingly cleared in the file's per-
mission mask. The "save text image after execution bit"of the mode is cleared (see chmod(2)). O_SYNC Write I/O
operations on the file descriptor complete as defined bysynchronized I/O file integrity completion (see
fcntl.h(3HEAD) definition of O_SYNC.) When bits other
than the file permission bits are set, the effect isSunOS 5.11 Last change: 2 Mar 2010 2
System Calls open(2) unspecified. The mode argument does not affect whether the file is open for reading, writing or for both.O_DSYNC
Write I/O operations on the file descriptor complete as
defined by synchronized I/O data integrity completion.
O_EXCL
If O_CREAT and O_EXCL are set, open() fails if the file
exists. The check for the existence of the file and the creation of the file if it does not exist is atomic with respect to other threads executing open() naming thesame filename in the same directory with O_EXCL and
O_CREAT set. If O_EXCL and O_CREAT are set, and path
names a symbolic link, open() fails and sets errno to EEXIST, regardless of the contents of the symbolic link.If O_EXCL is set and O_CREAT is not set, the result is
undefined.O_LARGEFILE
If set, the offset maximum in the open file description is the largest value that can be represented correctlyin an object of type off64_t.
O_NOCTTY
If set and path identifies a terminal device, open()does not cause the terminal device to become the con-
trolling terminal for the process.O_NOFOLLOW
If the path names a symbolic link, open() fails and sets errno to ELOOP.O_NOLINKS
If the link count of the named file is greater than 1, open() fails and sets errno to EMLINK.O_NONBLOCK or O_NDELAY
SunOS 5.11 Last change: 2 Mar 2010 3
System Calls open(2) These flags can affect subsequent reads and writes (seeread(2) and write(2)). If both O_NDELAY and O_NONBLOCK
are set, O_NONBLOCK takes precedence.
When opening a FIFO with O_RDONLY or O_WRONLY set:
o If O_NONBLOCK or O_NDELAY is set, an open() for
reading only returns without delay. An open() for writing only returns an error if no process currently has the file open for reading.o If O_NONBLOCK and O_NDELAY are clear, an open()
for reading only blocks until a thread opens the file for writing. An open() for writing only blocks the calling thread until a thread opens the file for reading. After both ends of a FIFO have been opened, there is noguarantee that further calls to open() O_RDONLY
(O_WRONLY) will synchronize with later calls to open()
O_WRONLY (O_RDONLY) until both ends of the FIFO have
been closed by all readers and writers. Any data writ-
ten into a FIFO will be lost if both ends of the FIFO are closed before the data is read. When opening a block special or character special filethat supports non-blocking opens:
o If O_NONBLOCK or O_NDELAY is set, the open()
function returns without blocking for the dev-
ice to be ready or available. Subsequentbehavior of the device is device-specific.
o If O_NONBLOCK and O_NDELAY are clear, the
open() function blocks the calling thread untilthe device is ready or available before return-
ing.Otherwise, the behavior of O_NONBLOCK and O_NDELAY is
unspecified.O_RSYNC
Read I/O operations on the file descriptor complete at
the same level of integrity as specified by the O_DSYNC
and O_SYNC flags. If both O_DSYNC and O_RSYNC are set in
oflag, all I/O operations on the file descriptor com-
plete as defined by synchronized I/O data integrity com-
pletion. If both O_SYNC and O_RSYNC are set in oflag,
all I/O operations on the file descriptor complete as
defined by synchronized I/O file integrity completion.
SunOS 5.11 Last change: 2 Mar 2010 4
System Calls open(2)O_SYNC
Write I/O operations on the file descriptor complete as
defined by synchronized I/O file integrity completion.
O_TRUNC
If the file exists and is a regular file, and the fileis successfully opened O_RDWR or O_WRONLY, its length is
truncated to 0 and the mode and owner are unchanged. It has no effect on FIFO special files or terminal device files. Its effect on other file types isimplementation-dependent. The result of using O_TRUNC
with O_RDONLY is undefined.
O_XATTR
If set in openat(), a relative path argument is inter-
preted as a reference to an extended attribute of the file associated with the supplied file descriptor. This flag therefore requires the presence of a legal fildes argument. If set in open(), the implied file descriptor is that for the current working directory. Extendedattributes must be referenced with a relative path; pro-
viding an absolute path results in a normal file refer-
ence.If O_CREAT is set and the file did not previously exist,
upon successful completion, open() marks for update thest_atime, st_ctime, and st_mtime fields of the file and the
st_ctime and st_mtime fields of the parent directory.
If O_TRUNC is set and the file did previously exist, upon
successful completion, open() marks for update the st_ctime
and st_mtime fields of the file.
If both the O_SYNC and O_DSYNC flags are set, the effect is
as if only the O_SYNC flag was set.
If path refers to a STREAMS file, oflag may be constructedfrom O_NONBLOCK or O_NODELAY OR-ed with either O_RDONLY,
O_WRONLY, or O_RDWR. Other flag values are not applicable to
STREAMS devices and have no effect on them. The valuesO_NONBLOCK and O_NODELAY affect the operation of STREAMS
drivers and certain functions (see read(2), getmsg(2),SunOS 5.11 Last change: 2 Mar 2010 5
System Calls open(2)putmsg(2), and write(2)) applied to file descriptors associ-
ated with STREAMS files. For STREAMS drivers, the implemen-
tation of O_NONBLOCK and O_NODELAY is device-specific.
When open() is invoked to open a named stream, and the connld module (see connld(7M)) has been pushed on the pipe, open() blocks until the server process has issued anI_RECVFD ioctl() (see streamio(7I)) to receive the file
descriptor.If path names the master side of a pseudo-terminal device,
then it is unspecified whether open() locks the slave side so that it cannot be opened. Portable applications must call unlockpt(3C) before opening the slave side. If the file is a regular file and the local file system is mounted with the nbmand mount option, then a mandatory share reservation is automatically obtained on the file. The share reservation is obtained as if fcntl(2) were called with cmdF_SHARE_NBMAND and the fshare_t values set as follows:
f_access Set to the type of read/write access for which
the file is opened.f_deny F_NODNY
f_id The file descriptor value returned from open().
If path is a symbolic link and O_CREAT and O_EXCL are set,
the link is not followed. Certain flag values can be set following open() as described in fcntl(2). The largest value that can be represented correctly in anobject of type off_t is established as the offset maximum in
the open file description.RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion, the open() function opens thefile and return a non-negative integer representing the
lowest numbered unused file descriptor. Otherwise, -1 is
returned, errno is set to indicate the error, and no filesSunOS 5.11 Last change: 2 Mar 2010 6
System Calls open(2) are created or modified.ERRORS
The open() and openat() functions will fail if:
EACCES Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix.The file exists and the permissions speci-
fied by oflag are denied. The file does not exist and write permission is denied for the parent directory of the file to be created.O_TRUNC is specified and write permission is
denied.The {PRIV_FILE_DAC_SEARCH} privilege allows
processes to search directories regardless of permission bits. The{PRIV_FILE_DAC_WRITE} privilege allows
processes to open files for writing regard-
less of permission bits. See privileges(5) for special considerations when opening files owned by UID 0 for writing. The{PRIV_FILE_DAC_READ} privilege allows
processes to open files for reading regard-
less of permission bits. To open a file for reading or writing, thebasic privileges {PRIV_FILE_READ} and
{PRIV_FILE_WRITE}, respectively, need to be
asserted in the effective set. EAGAIN A mandatory share reservation could not beobtained because the desired access con-
flicts with an existing f_deny share reser-
vation.EBADF The file descriptor provided to openat() is
invalid.EDQUOT The file does not exist, O_CREAT is speci-
fied, and either the directory where the new file entry is being placed cannot be extended because the user's quota of disk blocks on that file system has been exhausted, or the user's quota of inodes onSunOS 5.11 Last change: 2 Mar 2010 7
System Calls open(2) the file system where the file is being created has been exhausted.EEXIST The O_CREAT and O_EXCL flags are set and the
named file exists.EILSEQ The path argument includes non-UTF8 charac-
ters and the file system accepts only file names where all characters are part of theUTF-8 character codeset.
EINTR A signal was caught during open(). EFAULT The path argument points to an illegal address.EINVAL The system does not support synchronized I/O
for this file, or the O_XATTR flag was sup-
plied and the underlying file system does not support extended file attributes. EIO The path argument names a STREAMS file and a hangup or error occurred during the open(). EISDIR The named file is a directory and oflagincludes O_WRONLY or O_RDWR.
ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving path. A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution of the path argument.The O_NOFOLLOW flag is set and the final
component of path is a symbolic link.EMFILE There are currently {OPEN_MAX} file descrip-
tors open in the calling process.EMLINK The O_NOLINKS flag is set and the named file
has a link count greater than 1.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 2 Mar 2010 8
System Calls open(2)EMULTIHOP Components of path require hopping to multi-
ple remote machines and the file system does not allow it.ENAMETOOLONG The length of the path argument exceeds
{PATH_MAX} or a pathname component is longer
than {NAME_MAX}.
ENFILE The maximum allowable number of files is currently open in the system.ENOENT The O_CREAT flag is not set and the named
file does not exist; or the O_CREAT flag is
set and either the path prefix does not exist or the path argument points to an empty string. ENOLINK The path argument points to a remote machine, and the link to that machine is no longer active.ENOSR The path argument names a STREAMS-based file
and the system is unable to allocate a STREAM.ENOSPC The directory or file system that would con-
tain the new file cannot be expanded, thefile does not exist, and O_CREAT is speci-
fied.ENOSYS The device specified by path does not sup-
port the open operation. ENOTDIR A component of the path prefix is not a directory or a relative path was supplied toopenat(), the O_XATTR flag was not supplied,
and the file descriptor does not refer to a directory.ENXIO The O_NONBLOCK flag is set, the named file
is a FIFO, the O_WRONLY flag is set, and no
process has the file open for reading; or the named file is a character special orSunOS 5.11 Last change: 2 Mar 2010 9
System Calls open(2) block special file and the device associated with this special file does not exist or hasbeen retired by the fault management frame-
work . EOPNOTSUPP An attempt was made to open a path thatcorresponds to a AF_UNIX socket.
EOVERFLOW The named file is a regular file and eitherO_LARGEFILE is not set and the size of the
file cannot be represented correctly in anobject of type off_t or O_LARGEFILE is set
and the size of the file cannot be represented correctly in an object of typeoff64_t.
EROFS The named file resides on a read-only file
system and either O_WRONLY, O_RDWR, O_CREAT
(if file does not exist), or O_TRUNC is set
in the oflag argument.The openat() function will fail if:
EBADF The fildes argument is not a valid open filedescriptor or is not AT_FTCWD.
The open() function may fail if: EAGAIN The path argument names the slave side of apseudo-terminal device that is locked.
EINVAL The value of the oflag argument is not valid.ENAMETOOLONG Pathname resolution of a symbolic link pro-
duced an intermediate result whose lengthexceeds {PATH_MAX}.
ENOMEM The path argument names a STREAMS file and the system is unable to allocate resources.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 2 Mar 2010 10
System Calls open(2) ETXTBSY The file is a pure procedure (shared text) file that is being executed and oflag isO_WRONLY or O_RDWR.
EXAMPLES
Example 1 Open a file for writing by the owner. The following example opens the file /tmp/file, either by creating it if it does not already exist, or by truncating its length to 0 if it does exist. If the call creates a new file, the access permission bits in the file mode of the file are set to permit reading and writing by the owner, and to permit reading only by group members and others. If the call to open() is successful, the file is opened for writing.#include
... int fd;mode_t mode = S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH;
char *filename = "/tmp/file"; ...fd = open(filename, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_TRUNC, mode);
... Example 2 Open a file using an existence check. The following example uses the open() function to try to create the LOCKFILE file and open it for writing. Since theopen() function specifies the O_EXCL flag, the call fails if
the file already exists. In that case, the application assumes that someone else is updating the password file and exits.#include
#include
#include
#define LOCKFILE "/etc/ptmp"
... int pfd; /* Integer for file descriptor returned by open() call. */ ...if ((pfd = open(LOCKFILE, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_EXCL,
S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH)) == -1)
SunOS 5.11 Last change: 2 Mar 2010 11
System Calls open(2) { fprintf(stderr, "Cannot open /etc/ptmp. Try again later.\n"); exit(1); } ... Example 3 Open a file for writing. The following example opens a file for writing, creating the file if it does not already exist. If the file does exist, the system truncates the file to zero bytes.#include
#include
#include
#define LOCKFILE "/etc/ptmp"
... int pfd;char filename[PATH_MAX+1];
...if ((pfd = open(filename, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_TRUNC,
S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH)) == -1)
{ perror("Cannot open output file\n"); exit(1); } ...USAGE
The open() function has a transitional interface for 64-bit
file offsets. See lf64(5). Note that using open64() isequivalent to using open() with O_LARGEFILE set in oflag.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:SunOS 5.11 Last change: 2 Mar 2010 12
System Calls open(2)_____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|______________________________|
| Interface Stability | Committed ||_____________________________|______________________________|
| MT-Level | Async-Signal-Safe |
|_____________________________|______________________________|
| Standard | For open(), see standards(5).||_____________________________|______________________________|
SEE ALSO
Intro(2), chmod(2), close(2), creat(2), dup(2), exec(2), fcntl(2), getmsg(2), getrlimit(2), lseek(2), putmsg(2), read(2), stat(2), umask(2), write(2), attropen(3C), fcntl.h(3HEAD), stat.h(3HEAD), unlockpt(3C), attributes(5), lf64(5), privileges(5), standards(5), connld(7M), streamio(7I) NOTESHierarchical Storage Management (HSM) file systems can some-
times cause long delays when opening a file, since HSM files must be recalled from secondary storage.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 2 Mar 2010 13