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+.\" This manpage is copyright (C) 2001 Paul Sheer.
+.\"
+.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: Linux-man-pages-copyleft
+.\"
+.\" very minor changes, aeb
+.\"
+.\" Modified 5 June 2002, Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
+.\" 2006-05-13, mtk, removed much material that is redundant with select.2
+.\" various other changes
+.\" 2008-01-26, mtk, substantial changes and rewrites
+.\"
+.TH SELECT_TUT 2 2023-02-05 "Linux man-pages 6.03"
+.SH NAME
+select, pselect \- synchronous I/O multiplexing
+.SH LIBRARY
+Standard C library
+.RI ( libc ", " \-lc )
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+See
+.BR select (2)
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+The
+.BR select ()
+and
+.BR pselect ()
+system calls are used to efficiently monitor multiple file descriptors,
+to see if any of them is, or becomes, "ready";
+that is, to see whether I/O becomes possible,
+or an "exceptional condition" has occurred on any of the file descriptors.
+.PP
+This page provides background and tutorial information
+on the use of these system calls.
+For details of the arguments and semantics of
+.BR select ()
+and
+.BR pselect (),
+see
+.BR select (2).
+.\"
+.SS Combining signal and data events
+.BR pselect ()
+is useful if you are waiting for a signal as well as
+for file descriptor(s) to become ready for I/O.
+Programs that receive signals
+normally use the signal handler only to raise a global flag.
+The global flag will indicate that the event must be processed
+in the main loop of the program.
+A signal will cause the
+.BR select ()
+(or
+.BR pselect ())
+call to return with \fIerrno\fP set to \fBEINTR\fP.
+This behavior is essential so that signals can be processed
+in the main loop of the program, otherwise
+.BR select ()
+would block indefinitely.
+.PP
+Now, somewhere
+in the main loop will be a conditional to check the global flag.
+So we must ask:
+what if a signal arrives after the conditional, but before the
+.BR select ()
+call?
+The answer is that
+.BR select ()
+would block indefinitely, even though an event is actually pending.
+This race condition is solved by the
+.BR pselect ()
+call.
+This call can be used to set the signal mask to a set of signals
+that are to be received only within the
+.BR pselect ()
+call.
+For instance, let us say that the event in question
+was the exit of a child process.
+Before the start of the main loop, we
+would block \fBSIGCHLD\fP using
+.BR sigprocmask (2).
+Our
+.BR pselect ()
+call would enable
+.B SIGCHLD
+by using an empty signal mask.
+Our program would look like:
+.PP
+.EX
+static volatile sig_atomic_t got_SIGCHLD = 0;
+
+static void
+child_sig_handler(int sig)
+{
+ got_SIGCHLD = 1;
+}
+
+int
+main(int argc, char *argv[])
+{
+ sigset_t sigmask, empty_mask;
+ struct sigaction sa;
+ fd_set readfds, writefds, exceptfds;
+ int r;
+
+ sigemptyset(&sigmask);
+ sigaddset(&sigmask, SIGCHLD);
+ if (sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, &sigmask, NULL) == \-1) {
+ perror("sigprocmask");
+ exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
+ }
+
+ sa.sa_flags = 0;
+ sa.sa_handler = child_sig_handler;
+ sigemptyset(&sa.sa_mask);
+ if (sigaction(SIGCHLD, &sa, NULL) == \-1) {
+ perror("sigaction");
+ exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
+ }
+
+ sigemptyset(&empty_mask);
+
+ for (;;) { /* main loop */
+ /* Initialize readfds, writefds, and exceptfds
+ before the pselect() call. (Code omitted.) */
+
+ r = pselect(nfds, &readfds, &writefds, &exceptfds,
+ NULL, &empty_mask);
+ if (r == \-1 && errno != EINTR) {
+ /* Handle error */
+ }
+
+ if (got_SIGCHLD) {
+ got_SIGCHLD = 0;
+
+ /* Handle signalled event here; e.g., wait() for all
+ terminated children. (Code omitted.) */
+ }
+
+ /* main body of program */
+ }
+}
+.EE
+.SS Practical
+So what is the point of
+.BR select ()?
+Can't I just read and write to my file descriptors whenever I want?
+The point of
+.BR select ()
+is that it watches
+multiple descriptors at the same time and properly puts the process to
+sleep if there is no activity.
+UNIX programmers often find
+themselves in a position where they have to handle I/O from more than one
+file descriptor where the data flow may be intermittent.
+If you were to merely create a sequence of
+.BR read (2)
+and
+.BR write (2)
+calls, you would
+find that one of your calls may block waiting for data from/to a file
+descriptor, while another file descriptor is unused though ready for I/O.
+.BR select ()
+efficiently copes with this situation.
+.SS Select law
+Many people who try to use
+.BR select ()
+come across behavior that is
+difficult to understand and produces nonportable or borderline results.
+For instance, the above program is carefully written not to
+block at any point, even though it does not set its file descriptors to
+nonblocking mode.
+It is easy to introduce
+subtle errors that will remove the advantage of using
+.BR select (),
+so here is a list of essentials to watch for when using
+.BR select ().
+.TP 4
+1.
+You should always try to use
+.BR select ()
+without a timeout.
+Your program
+should have nothing to do if there is no data available.
+Code that
+depends on timeouts is not usually portable and is difficult to debug.
+.TP
+2.
+The value \fInfds\fP must be properly calculated for efficiency as
+explained above.
+.TP
+3.
+No file descriptor must be added to any set if you do not intend
+to check its result after the
+.BR select ()
+call, and respond appropriately.
+See next rule.
+.TP
+4.
+After
+.BR select ()
+returns, all file descriptors in all sets
+should be checked to see if they are ready.
+.TP
+5.
+The functions
+.BR read (2),
+.BR recv (2),
+.BR write (2),
+and
+.BR send (2)
+do \fInot\fP necessarily read/write the full amount of data
+that you have requested.
+If they do read/write the full amount, it's
+because you have a low traffic load and a fast stream.
+This is not always going to be the case.
+You should cope with the case of your
+functions managing to send or receive only a single byte.
+.TP
+6.
+Never read/write only in single bytes at a time unless you are really
+sure that you have a small amount of data to process.
+It is extremely
+inefficient not to read/write as much data as you can buffer each time.
+The buffers in the example below are 1024 bytes although they could
+easily be made larger.
+.TP
+7.
+Calls to
+.BR read (2),
+.BR recv (2),
+.BR write (2),
+.BR send (2),
+and
+.BR select ()
+can fail with the error
+\fBEINTR\fP,
+and calls to
+.BR read (2),
+.BR recv (2),
+.BR write (2),
+and
+.BR send (2)
+can fail with
+.I errno
+set to \fBEAGAIN\fP (\fBEWOULDBLOCK\fP).
+These results must be properly managed (not done properly above).
+If your program is not going to receive any signals, then
+it is unlikely you will get \fBEINTR\fP.
+If your program does not set nonblocking I/O,
+you will not get \fBEAGAIN\fP.
+.\" Nonetheless, you should still cope with these errors for completeness.
+.TP
+8.
+Never call
+.BR read (2),
+.BR recv (2),
+.BR write (2),
+or
+.BR send (2)
+with a buffer length of zero.
+.TP
+9.
+If the functions
+.BR read (2),
+.BR recv (2),
+.BR write (2),
+and
+.BR send (2)
+fail with errors other than those listed in \fB7.\fP,
+or one of the input functions returns 0, indicating end of file,
+then you should \fInot\fP pass that file descriptor to
+.BR select ()
+again.
+In the example below,
+I close the file descriptor immediately, and then set it to \-1
+to prevent it being included in a set.
+.TP
+10.
+The timeout value must be initialized with each new call to
+.BR select (),
+since some operating systems modify the structure.
+.BR pselect ()
+however does not modify its timeout structure.
+.TP
+11.
+Since
+.BR select ()
+modifies its file descriptor sets,
+if the call is being used in a loop,
+then the sets must be reinitialized before each call.
+.\" "I have heard" does not fill me with confidence, and doesn't
+.\" belong in a man page, so I've commented this point out.
+.\" .TP
+.\" 11.
+.\" I have heard that the Windows socket layer does not cope with OOB data
+.\" properly.
+.\" It also does not cope with
+.\" .BR select ()
+.\" calls when no file descriptors are set at all.
+.\" Having no file descriptors set is a useful
+.\" way to sleep the process with subsecond precision by using the timeout.
+.\" (See further on.)
+.SH RETURN VALUE
+See
+.BR select (2).
+.SH NOTES
+Generally speaking,
+all operating systems that support sockets also support
+.BR select ().
+.BR select ()
+can be used to solve
+many problems in a portable and efficient way that naive programmers try
+to solve in a more complicated manner using
+threads, forking, IPCs, signals, memory sharing, and so on.
+.PP
+The
+.BR poll (2)
+system call has the same functionality as
+.BR select (),
+and is somewhat more efficient when monitoring sparse
+file descriptor sets.
+It is nowadays widely available, but historically was less portable than
+.BR select ().
+.PP
+The Linux-specific
+.BR epoll (7)
+API provides an interface that is more efficient than
+.BR select (2)
+and
+.BR poll (2)
+when monitoring large numbers of file descriptors.
+.SH EXAMPLES
+Here is an example that better demonstrates the true utility of
+.BR select ().
+The listing below is a TCP forwarding program that forwards
+from one TCP port to another.
+.PP
+.\" SRC BEGIN (select.c)
+.EX
+#include <arpa/inet.h>
+#include <errno.h>
+#include <netinet/in.h>
+#include <signal.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+#include <string.h>
+#include <sys/select.h>
+#include <sys/socket.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+
+static int forward_port;
+
+#undef max
+#define max(x, y) ((x) > (y) ? (x) : (y))
+
+static int
+listen_socket(int listen_port)
+{
+ int lfd;
+ int yes;
+ struct sockaddr_in addr;
+
+ lfd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
+ if (lfd == \-1) {
+ perror("socket");
+ return \-1;
+ }
+
+ yes = 1;
+ if (setsockopt(lfd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR,
+ &yes, sizeof(yes)) == \-1)
+ {
+ perror("setsockopt");
+ close(lfd);
+ return \-1;
+ }
+
+ memset(&addr, 0, sizeof(addr));
+ addr.sin_port = htons(listen_port);
+ addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
+ if (bind(lfd, (struct sockaddr *) &addr, sizeof(addr)) == \-1) {
+ perror("bind");
+ close(lfd);
+ return \-1;
+ }
+
+ printf("accepting connections on port %d\en", listen_port);
+ listen(lfd, 10);
+ return lfd;
+}
+
+static int
+connect_socket(int connect_port, char *address)
+{
+ int cfd;
+ struct sockaddr_in addr;
+
+ cfd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
+ if (cfd == \-1) {
+ perror("socket");
+ return \-1;
+ }
+
+ memset(&addr, 0, sizeof(addr));
+ addr.sin_port = htons(connect_port);
+ addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
+
+ if (!inet_aton(address, (struct in_addr *) &addr.sin_addr.s_addr)) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "inet_aton(): bad IP address format\en");
+ close(cfd);
+ return \-1;
+ }
+
+ if (connect(cfd, (struct sockaddr *) &addr, sizeof(addr)) == \-1) {
+ perror("connect()");
+ shutdown(cfd, SHUT_RDWR);
+ close(cfd);
+ return \-1;
+ }
+ return cfd;
+}
+
+#define SHUT_FD1 do { \e
+ if (fd1 >= 0) { \e
+ shutdown(fd1, SHUT_RDWR); \e
+ close(fd1); \e
+ fd1 = \-1; \e
+ } \e
+ } while (0)
+
+#define SHUT_FD2 do { \e
+ if (fd2 >= 0) { \e
+ shutdown(fd2, SHUT_RDWR); \e
+ close(fd2); \e
+ fd2 = \-1; \e
+ } \e
+ } while (0)
+
+#define BUF_SIZE 1024
+
+int
+main(int argc, char *argv[])
+{
+ int h;
+ int ready, nfds;
+ int fd1 = \-1, fd2 = \-1;
+ int buf1_avail = 0, buf1_written = 0;
+ int buf2_avail = 0, buf2_written = 0;
+ char buf1[BUF_SIZE], buf2[BUF_SIZE];
+ fd_set readfds, writefds, exceptfds;
+ ssize_t nbytes;
+
+ if (argc != 4) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "Usage\en\etfwd <listen\-port> "
+ "<forward\-to\-port> <forward\-to\-ip\-address>\en");
+ exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
+ }
+
+ signal(SIGPIPE, SIG_IGN);
+
+ forward_port = atoi(argv[2]);
+
+ h = listen_socket(atoi(argv[1]));
+ if (h == \-1)
+ exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
+
+ for (;;) {
+ nfds = 0;
+
+ FD_ZERO(&readfds);
+ FD_ZERO(&writefds);
+ FD_ZERO(&exceptfds);
+ FD_SET(h, &readfds);
+ nfds = max(nfds, h);
+
+ if (fd1 > 0 && buf1_avail < BUF_SIZE)
+ FD_SET(fd1, &readfds);
+ /* Note: nfds is updated below, when fd1 is added to
+ exceptfds. */
+ if (fd2 > 0 && buf2_avail < BUF_SIZE)
+ FD_SET(fd2, &readfds);
+
+ if (fd1 > 0 && buf2_avail \- buf2_written > 0)
+ FD_SET(fd1, &writefds);
+ if (fd2 > 0 && buf1_avail \- buf1_written > 0)
+ FD_SET(fd2, &writefds);
+
+ if (fd1 > 0) {
+ FD_SET(fd1, &exceptfds);
+ nfds = max(nfds, fd1);
+ }
+ if (fd2 > 0) {
+ FD_SET(fd2, &exceptfds);
+ nfds = max(nfds, fd2);
+ }
+
+ ready = select(nfds + 1, &readfds, &writefds, &exceptfds, NULL);
+
+ if (ready == \-1 && errno == EINTR)
+ continue;
+
+ if (ready == \-1) {
+ perror("select()");
+ exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
+ }
+
+ if (FD_ISSET(h, &readfds)) {
+ socklen_t addrlen;
+ struct sockaddr_in client_addr;
+ int fd;
+
+ addrlen = sizeof(client_addr);
+ memset(&client_addr, 0, addrlen);
+ fd = accept(h, (struct sockaddr *) &client_addr, &addrlen);
+ if (fd == \-1) {
+ perror("accept()");
+ } else {
+ SHUT_FD1;
+ SHUT_FD2;
+ buf1_avail = buf1_written = 0;
+ buf2_avail = buf2_written = 0;
+ fd1 = fd;
+ fd2 = connect_socket(forward_port, argv[3]);
+ if (fd2 == \-1)
+ SHUT_FD1;
+ else
+ printf("connect from %s\en",
+ inet_ntoa(client_addr.sin_addr));
+
+ /* Skip any events on the old, closed file
+ descriptors. */
+
+ continue;
+ }
+ }
+
+ /* NB: read OOB data before normal reads. */
+
+ if (fd1 > 0 && FD_ISSET(fd1, &exceptfds)) {
+ char c;
+
+ nbytes = recv(fd1, &c, 1, MSG_OOB);
+ if (nbytes < 1)
+ SHUT_FD1;
+ else
+ send(fd2, &c, 1, MSG_OOB);
+ }
+ if (fd2 > 0 && FD_ISSET(fd2, &exceptfds)) {
+ char c;
+
+ nbytes = recv(fd2, &c, 1, MSG_OOB);
+ if (nbytes < 1)
+ SHUT_FD2;
+ else
+ send(fd1, &c, 1, MSG_OOB);
+ }
+ if (fd1 > 0 && FD_ISSET(fd1, &readfds)) {
+ nbytes = read(fd1, buf1 + buf1_avail,
+ BUF_SIZE \- buf1_avail);
+ if (nbytes < 1)
+ SHUT_FD1;
+ else
+ buf1_avail += nbytes;
+ }
+ if (fd2 > 0 && FD_ISSET(fd2, &readfds)) {
+ nbytes = read(fd2, buf2 + buf2_avail,
+ BUF_SIZE \- buf2_avail);
+ if (nbytes < 1)
+ SHUT_FD2;
+ else
+ buf2_avail += nbytes;
+ }
+ if (fd1 > 0 && FD_ISSET(fd1, &writefds) && buf2_avail > 0) {
+ nbytes = write(fd1, buf2 + buf2_written,
+ buf2_avail \- buf2_written);
+ if (nbytes < 1)
+ SHUT_FD1;
+ else
+ buf2_written += nbytes;
+ }
+ if (fd2 > 0 && FD_ISSET(fd2, &writefds) && buf1_avail > 0) {
+ nbytes = write(fd2, buf1 + buf1_written,
+ buf1_avail \- buf1_written);
+ if (nbytes < 1)
+ SHUT_FD2;
+ else
+ buf1_written += nbytes;
+ }
+
+ /* Check if write data has caught read data. */
+
+ if (buf1_written == buf1_avail)
+ buf1_written = buf1_avail = 0;
+ if (buf2_written == buf2_avail)
+ buf2_written = buf2_avail = 0;
+
+ /* One side has closed the connection, keep
+ writing to the other side until empty. */
+
+ if (fd1 < 0 && buf1_avail \- buf1_written == 0)
+ SHUT_FD2;
+ if (fd2 < 0 && buf2_avail \- buf2_written == 0)
+ SHUT_FD1;
+ }
+ exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
+}
+.EE
+.\" SRC END
+.PP
+The above program properly forwards most kinds of TCP connections
+including OOB signal data transmitted by \fBtelnet\fP servers.
+It handles the tricky problem of having data flow in both directions
+simultaneously.
+You might think it more efficient to use a
+.BR fork (2)
+call and devote a thread to each stream.
+This becomes more tricky than you might suspect.
+Another idea is to set nonblocking I/O using
+.BR fcntl (2).
+This also has its problems because you end up using
+inefficient timeouts.
+.PP
+The program does not handle more than one simultaneous connection at a
+time, although it could easily be extended to do this with a linked list
+of buffers\[em]one for each connection.
+At the moment, new
+connections cause the current connection to be dropped.
+.SH SEE ALSO
+.BR accept (2),
+.BR connect (2),
+.BR poll (2),
+.BR read (2),
+.BR recv (2),
+.BR select (2),
+.BR send (2),
+.BR sigprocmask (2),
+.BR write (2),
+.BR epoll (7)
+.\" .SH AUTHORS
+.\" This man page was written by Paul Sheer.