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32.\" @(#)read.2 8.4 (Berkeley) 2/26/94
33.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/sys/read.2,v 1.9.2.6 2001/12/14 18:34:01 ru Exp $
34.\"
35.Dd February 26, 1994
36.Dt READ 2
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm read ,
40.Nm readv ,
41.Nm pread
42.Nd read input
43.Sh LIBRARY
44.Lb libc
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.In sys/types.h
47.In sys/uio.h
48.In unistd.h
49.Ft ssize_t
50.Fn read "int d" "void *buf" "size_t nbytes"
51.Ft ssize_t
52.Fn readv "int d" "const struct iovec *iov" "int iovcnt"
53.Ft ssize_t
54.Fn pread "int d" "void *buf" "size_t nbytes" "off_t offset"
55.Sh DESCRIPTION
56.Fn Read
57attempts to read
58.Fa nbytes
59of data from the object referenced by the descriptor
60.Fa d
61into the buffer pointed to by
62.Fa buf .
63.Fn Readv
64performs the same action, but scatters the input data
65into the
66.Fa iovcnt
67buffers specified by the members of the
68.Fa iov
69array: iov[0], iov[1], ..., iov[iovcnt\|\-\|1].
70.Fn Pread
71performs the same function, but reads from the specified position in
72the file without modifying the file pointer.
73.Pp
74For
75.Fn readv ,
76the
77.Fa iovec
78structure is defined as:
79.Pp
80.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
81struct iovec {
82 char *iov_base; /* Base address. */
83 size_t iov_len; /* Length. */
84};
85.Ed
86.Pp
87Each
88.Fa iovec
89entry specifies the base address and length of an area
90in memory where data should be placed.
91.Fn Readv
92will always fill an area completely before proceeding
93to the next.
94.Pp
95On objects capable of seeking, the
96.Fn read
97starts at a position
98given by the pointer associated with
99.Fa d
100(see
101.Xr lseek 2 ) .
102Upon return from
103.Fn read ,
104the pointer is incremented by the number of bytes actually read.
105.Pp
106Objects that are not capable of seeking always read from the current
107position. The value of the pointer associated with such an
108object is undefined.
109.Pp
110Upon successful completion,
111.Fn read ,
112.Fn readv ,
113and
114.Fn pread
115return the number of bytes actually read and placed in the buffer.
116The system guarantees to read the number of bytes requested if
117the descriptor references a normal file that has that many bytes left
118before the end-of-file, but in no other case.
119.Sh RETURN VALUES
120If successful, the
121number of bytes actually read is returned.
122Upon reading end-of-file,
123zero is returned.
124Otherwise, a -1 is returned and the global variable
125.Va errno
126is set to indicate the error.
127.Sh ERRORS
128.Fn Read ,
129.Fn readv ,
130and
131.Fn pread
132will succeed unless:
133.Bl -tag -width Er
134.It Bq Er EBADF
135.Fa D
136is not a valid file or socket descriptor open for reading.
137.It Bq Er EFAULT
138.Fa Buf
139points outside the allocated address space.
140.It Bq Er EIO
141An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system.
142.It Bq Er EINTR
143A read from a slow device was interrupted before
144any data arrived by the delivery of a signal.
145.It Bq Er EINVAL
146The pointer associated with
147.Fa d
148was negative.
149.It Bq Er EAGAIN
150The file was marked for non-blocking I/O,
151and no data were ready to be read.
152.El
153.Pp
154In addition,
155.Fn readv
156may return one of the following errors:
157.Bl -tag -width Er
158.It Bq Er EINVAL
159.Fa Iovcnt
160was less than or equal to 0, or greater than 16.
161.It Bq Er EINVAL
162One of the
163.Fa iov_len
164values in the
165.Fa iov
166array was negative.
167.It Bq Er EINVAL
168The sum of the
169.Fa iov_len
170values in the
171.Fa iov
172array overflowed a 32-bit integer.
173.It Bq Er EFAULT
174Part of the
175.Fa iov
176points outside the process's allocated address space.
177.El
178.Pp
179The
180.Fn pread
181call may also return the following errors:
182.Bl -tag -width Er
183.It Bq Er EINVAL
184The specified file offset is invalid.
185.It Bq Er ESPIPE
186The file descriptor is associated with a pipe, socket, or FIFO.
187.El
188.Sh SEE ALSO
189.Xr dup 2 ,
190.Xr fcntl 2 ,
191.Xr open 2 ,
192.Xr pipe 2 ,
193.Xr select 2 ,
194.Xr socket 2 ,
195.Xr socketpair 2
196.Sh STANDARDS
197The
198.Fn read
199function call is expected to conform to
200.St -p1003.1-90 .
201The
202.Fn readv
203and
204.Fn pread
205functions are expected to conform to
206.St -xpg4.2 .
207.Sh HISTORY
208The
209.Fn pread
210function call
211appeared in
212.At V.4 .
213The
214.Fn readv
215function call
216appeared in
217.Bx 4.2 .
218A
219.Fn read
220function call appeared in
221.At v6 .