open(2)open(2)NAMEopen() - open file for reading or writing
SYNOPSIS
Remarks
The ANSI C "" construct specifies a variable length argument list whose
optional member is given in the associated comment
DESCRIPTION
The system call opens a file descriptor for the named file and sets the
file status flags according to the value of oflag.
The path argument points to a path name naming a file, and must not
exceed bytes in length.
The oflag argument is a value that is the bitwise inclusive OR of flags
listed in "Read-Write Flags," "General Flags," "Synchronized I/O
Flags," and "Direct I/O Flags" below.
The optional mode argument is only effective when the flag is speci‐
fied.
The file pointer used to mark the current position within the file is
set to the beginning of the file.
The new file descriptor is set to remain open across system calls. See
fcntl(2).
Read-Write Flags
Exactly one of the or flags must be used in composing the value of
oflag. If none or more than one is used, the behavior is undefined.
Open for reading only.
Open for writing only.
Open for reading and writing.
General Flags
Several of the flags listed below can be changed with the system call
while the file is open. See fcntl(2) and fcntl(5) for details.
If set, the file offset is set to the end of the file prior
to each write.
If the file exists, this flag has no effect, except as
noted under below. Otherwise, the owner ID of
the file is set to the effective user ID of the
process, the group ID of the file is set to the
effective group ID of the process if the set-
group-ID bit of the parent directory is not set,
or to the group ID of the parent directory if the
set-group-ID bit of the parent directory is set.
The file access permission bits of the new file
mode are set to the value of mode, modified as
follows (see creat(2)):
· For each bit set in the file mode creation
mask of the process, the corresponding bit in
the new file mode is cleared (see umask(2)).
· The "save text image after execution" bit of
the new file mode is cleared. See chmod(2).
· On HFS file systems with access control lists,
three base ACL entries are created correspond‐
ing to the file access permissions (see
acl(5)).
· On JFS file systems that support access con‐
trol lists, optional ACL entries are created
corresponding to the parent directory's
default ACL entries (see aclv(5)).
If and are set and the file exists, fails.
This is a non-standard flag which may be used by
32-bit applications to access files larger than 2
GB. See creat64(2).
This flag might affect subsequent reads and writes.
See read(2) and write(2).
When opening a FIFO with or set:
If is set:
A read-only returns without delay.
A write-only returns an error if no process currently has
the file open for reading.
If is clear:
A read-only does not return until a process opens the
file for writing.
A write-only does not return until a process opens the
file for reading.
When opening a file associated with a communica‐
tion line:
If is set:
The returns without waiting for carrier.
If is clear:
The does not return until carrier is present.
If set, and path identifies a terminal device, does not cause
the terminal to become the controlling terminal
for the process.
If the last component of
path refers to a symbolic link, the will fail.
This is true regardless of whether the target of
the link exists or not.
NOTE: If the symbolic link in path is followed by
a trailing '/', the link will be traversed,
regardless of the setting of
Same effect as for open(2), but slightly different effect in
read(2) and write(2). If both and are specified,
takes precedence.
If the file exists, its length is truncated to 0
and the mode and owner are unchanged.
Synchronized I/O Flags
Together, the and flags constitute support for Synchronized I/O. These
flags are ignored for files other than ordinary files and block special
files on those systems that permit I/O to block special devices (see
pathconf(2)). If both the and flags are set, the effect is as if only
the flag was set. The flag is ignored if it is not set along with the
or flag.
If a file is opened with
or that flag is set with the option of writes to that
file by the process block until the data specified in the
write request and all file attributes required to
retrieve the data are written to the disk. File
attributes that are not necessary for data retrieval
(access time, modification time, status change time) are
not necessarily written to the disk prior to returning to
the calling process.
Identical to
with the addition that all file attributes changed by the
write operation (including access time, modification
time, and status change time) are also written to the
disk prior to returning to the calling process.
Identical to
for file system writes.
For file system reads, the calling process blocks until
the data being read and all file attributes required to
retrieve the data are the same as their image on disk.
Writes pending on the data to be read are executed prior
to returning to the calling process.
Identical to
for file system writes.
Identical to for file system reads, with the addition
that all file attributes changed by the read operation
(including access time, modification time, and status
change time) too are the same as their image on disk.
RETURN VALUE
returns the following values:
Successful completion.
n is a file descriptor for the opened file.
Failure.
is set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
If fails, is set to one of the following values.
[EACCES] oflag permission is denied for the named file.
[EACCES] A component of the path prefix denies search per‐
mission.
[EACCES] The file does not exist and the directory in
which the file is to be created does not permit
writing.
[EACCES] is specified and write permission is denied.
[EAGAIN] The file exists, enforcement mode file/record
locking is set (see chmod(2)), there are out‐
standing record locks on the file with the or
system calls, and is set.
[EDQUOT] User's disk quota block or inode limit has been
reached for this file system.
[EEXIST] and are set and the named file exists.
[EFAULT] path points outside the allocated address space
of the process.
[EINTR] A signal was caught during the system call, and
the system call was not restarted (see sig‐
nal(5)).
[EINVAL] oflag specifies both and
[EISDIR] The named file is a directory and oflag is write
or read/write.
[ELOOP] Too many symbolic links are encountered in trans‐
lating the path name.
[EMFILE] The maximum number of file descriptors allowed
are currently open.
[ENAMETOOLONG] The length of the specified path name exceeds
bytes, or the length of a component of the path
name exceeds bytes while is in effect.
[ENFILE] The system file table is full.
[ENODEV] The named file is a character special or block
special file, and the driver associated with this
special file has not been configured into the
kernel or the DLKM driver associated with this
special file failed to load.
[ENOENT] The named file does not exist (for example, path
is null or a component of path does not exist, or
the file itself does not exist and is not set).
[ENOTDIR] A component of the path prefix is not a direc‐
tory.
[ENOTSUP] The last component of path is a sybolic link and
was set.
[ENXIO] is set, the named file is a FIFO, is set, and no
process has the file open for reading.
[ENXIO] The named file is a character special or block
special file, and the device associated with this
special file does not exist.
[ENOSPC] is specified, the file does not already exist,
and the directory that would contain the file
cannot be extended.
[EOVERFLOW] The named file is a regular file and the size of
the file cannot be represented correctly in an
object of size
[EROFS] The named file resides on a read-only file system
and oflag is write or read/write.
[ETXTBSY] The file is open for execution and oflag is write
or read/write. Normal executable files are only
open for a short time when they start execution.
Other executable file types can be kept open for
a long time, or indefinitely under some circum‐
stances.
EXAMPLES
The following call to opens file for reading only and returns a file
descriptor for For an example of reading from file see the read(2) man‐
ual entry.
The following call to opens file for writing and returns a file
descriptor for For an example of preallocating disk space for see the
prealloc(2) manual entry. For an example of writing to see the
write(2) manual entry.
The following call opens file for synchronized I/O file integrity for
reads and writes.
AUTHOR
was developed by HP, AT&T, and the University of California, Berkeley.
SEE ALSOacl(2), chmod(2), close(2), creat(2), dup(2), fcntl(2), flock(2),
lockf(2), lseek(2), creat64(2), pathconf(2), read(2), select(2),
umask(2), write(2), setacl(2), acl(5), aclv(5), fcntl(5), privi‐
leges(5), signal(5), thread_safety(5), unistd(5).
STANDARDS CONFORMANCEopen(2)