Man Linux: Main Page and Category List

NAME

       ipcs - report XSI interprocess communication facilities status

SYNOPSIS

       ipcs [-qms][-a | -bcopt]

DESCRIPTION

       The  ipcs  utility  shall  write  information about active interprocess
       communication facilities.

       Without options, information shall  be  written  in  short  format  for
       message  queues,  shared  memory  segments, and semaphore sets that are
       currently active in the system.  Otherwise,  the  information  that  is
       displayed is controlled by the options specified.

OPTIONS

       The   ipcs   facility   supports   the   Base   Definitions  volume  of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.

       The ipcs utility accepts the following options:

       -q     Write information about active message queues.

       -m     Write information about active shared memory segments.

       -s     Write information about active semaphore sets.

       If -q, -m, or -s are specified, only information about those facilities
       shall  be  written.  If  none of these three are specified, information
       about all three shall be written subject to the following options:

       -a     Use all print options. (This is a shorthand notation for -b, -c,
              -o, -p, and -t.)

       -b     Write  information on maximum allowable size. (Maximum number of
              bytes in messages on queue for message queues, size of  segments
              for  shared  memory,  and  number  of semaphores in each set for
              semaphores.)

       -c     Write creator’s user name and group name; see below.

       -o     Write information on outstanding usage. (Number of  messages  on
              queue and total number of bytes in messages on queue for message
              queues, and  number  of  processes  attached  to  shared  memory
              segments.)

       -p     Write  process  number  information.  (Process  ID  of  the last
              process to send a message and process ID of the last process  to
              receive  a message on message queues, process ID of the creating
              process, and process ID of the last process to attach or  detach
              on shared memory segments.)

       -t     Write time information. (Time of the last control operation that
              changed the access permissions for all facilities, time  of  the
              last msgsnd() and msgrcv() operations on message queues, time of
              the last shmat() and shmdt() operations on  shared  memory,  and
              time of the last semop() operation on semaphores.)

OPERANDS

       None.

STDIN

       Not used.

INPUT FILES

        * The group database

        * The user database

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of ipcs:

       LANG   Provide a default value for the  internationalization  variables
              that  are  unset  or  null.  (See the Base Definitions volume of
              IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,    Section    8.2,    Internationalization
              Variables  for  the precedence of internationalization variables
              used to determine the values of locale categories.)

       LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values  of  all
              the other internationalization variables.

       LC_CTYPE
              Determine  the  locale  for  the  interpretation of sequences of
              bytes of text data as characters (for  example,  single-byte  as
              opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).

       LC_MESSAGES
              Determine  the  locale  that should be used to affect the format
              and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.

       NLSPATH
              Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
              LC_MESSAGES .

       TZ     Determine  the timezone for the date and time strings written by
              ipcs.  If TZ is unset or null, an unspecified  default  timezone
              shall be used.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

       Default.

STDOUT

       An introductory line shall be written with the format:

              "IPC status from %s as of %s\n", <source>, <date>

       where  <source>  indicates the source used to gather the statistics and
       <date> is the information that would be produced by  the  date  command
       when invoked in the POSIX locale.

       The  ipcs  utility then shall create up to three reports depending upon
       the -q, -m, and -s options.  The first report shall indicate the status
       of  message  queues,  the  second  report  shall indicate the status of
       shared memory segments, and the third report shall indicate the  status
       of semaphore sets.

       If  the  corresponding  facility  is not installed or has not been used
       since the last reboot, then the report shall  be  written  out  in  the
       format:

              "%s facility not in system.\n", <facility>

       where  <facility>  is  Message  Queue,  Shared Memory, or Semaphore, as
       appropriate. If the facility has been installed and has been used since
       the  last  reboot,  column headings separated by one or more spaces and
       followed by a <newline> shall be written as indicated below followed by
       the facility name written out using the format:

              "%s:\n", <facility>

       where  <facility>  is  Message Queues, Shared Memory, or Semaphores, as
       appropriate. On the second and third reports the column  headings  need
       not  be  written  if  the  last column headings written already provide
       column headings for all information in that report.

       The column headings provided in the first column below and the  meaning
       of  the information in those columns shall be given in order below; the
       letters in parentheses  indicate  the  options  that  shall  cause  the
       corresponding  column  to  appear;  "all"  means  that the column shall
       always appear. Each column is separated by one or more  <space>s.  Note
       that these options only determine what information is provided for each
       report; they do not determine which reports are written.

       T (all)
              Type of facility:

       q
              Message queue.

       m
              Shared memory segment.

       s
              Semaphore.

       This field is a single character written using the format %c .

       ID (all)
              The identifier for the  facility  entry.  This  field  shall  be
              written using the format %d .

       KEY (all)
              The  key  used as an argument to msgget(), semget(), or shmget()
              to create the facility entry.

       Note:
              The key of a shared memory segment  is  changed  to  IPC_PRIVATE
              when  the  segment has been removed until all processes attached
              to the segment detach it.

       This field shall be written using the format 0x%x.

       MODE (all)
              The facility access modes and flags. The mode shall  consist  of
              11 characters that are interpreted as follows.

       The first character shall be:

       S
              If a process is waiting on a msgsnd() operation.

       -
              If the above is not true.

       The second character shall be:

       R
              If a process is waiting on a msgrcv() operation.

       C or -
              If  the  associated  shared memory segment is to be cleared when
              the first attach operation is executed.

       -
              If none of the above is true.

       The next nine characters shall be interpreted as three  sets  of  three
       bits each. The first set refers to the owner’s permissions; the next to
       permissions of others in the usergroup of the facility entry;  and  the
       last  to  all  others.  Within  each set, the first character indicates
       permission to read, the second character indicates permission to  write
       or  alter  the facility entry, and the last character is a minus sign (
       ’-’ ).

       The permissions shall be indicated as follows:

       r
              If read permission is granted.

       w
              If write permission is granted.

       a
              If alter permission is granted.

       -
              If the indicated permission is not granted.

       The first character following the permissions specifies if there is  an
       alternate  or  additional  access  control  method  associated with the
       facility. If there is no alternate or additional access control  method
       associated  with  the  facility,  a  single  <space>  shall be written;
       otherwise, another printable character is written.

       OWNER (all)
              The user name of the owner of the facility entry.  If  the  user
              name  of  the  owner is found in the user database, at least the
              first eight column positions of the name shall be written  using
              the  format  %s  .  Otherwise, the user ID of the owner shall be
              written using the format %d .

       GROUP (all)
              The group name of the owner of the facility entry. If the  group
              name  of  the owner is found in the group database, at least the
              first eight column positions of the name shall be written  using
              the  format  %s  . Otherwise, the group ID of the owner shall be
              written using the format %d .

       The following nine columns  shall  be  only  written  out  for  message
       queues:

       CREATOR (a,c)
              The  user name of the creator of the facility entry. If the user
              name of the creator is found in the user database, at least  the
              first  eight column positions of the name shall be written using
              the format %s . Otherwise, the user ID of the creator  shall  be
              written using the format %d .

       CGROUP (a,c)
              The  group  name  of  the  creator of the facility entry. If the
              group name of the creator is found in  the  group  database,  at
              least  the  first  eight  column  positions of the name shall be
              written using the format %s . Otherwise, the  group  ID  of  the
              creator shall be written using the format %d .

       CBYTES (a,o)
              The  number  of  bytes  in messages currently outstanding on the
              associated message queue. This field shall be written using  the
              format %d .

       QNUM (a,o)
              The  number  of messages currently outstanding on the associated
              message queue. This field shall be written using the format %d .

       QBYTES (a,b)
              The  maximum  number of bytes allowed in messages outstanding on
              the associated message queue. This field shall be written  using
              the format %d .

       LSPID (a,p)
              The  process  ID  of  the  last process to send a message to the
              associated queue. This field shall be written using the format:

              "%d", <pid>

       where <pid> is 0 if no message  has  been  sent  to  the  corresponding
       message  queue;  otherwise,  <pid>  shall be the process ID of the last
       process to send a message to the queue.

       LRPID (a,p)
              The process ID of the last process to receive a message from the
              associated queue. This field shall be written using the format:

              "%d", <pid>

       where <pid> is 0 if no message has been received from the corresponding
       message queue; otherwise, <pid> shall be the process  ID  of  the  last
       process to receive a message from the queue.

       STIME (a,t)
              The time the last message was sent to the associated queue. If a
              message has been sent to the corresponding  message  queue,  the
              hour,  minute, and second of the last time a message was sent to
              the queue shall be written using the format %d : %2.2d : %2.2d .
              Otherwise, the format " no-entry" shall be written.

       RTIME (a,t)
              The  time  the  last  message  was  received from the associated
              queue.  If a message has been received  from  the  corresponding
              message  queue,  the hour, minute, and second of the last time a
              message was received from the queue shall be written  using  the
              format  %d  :  %2.2d : %2.2d . Otherwise, the format " no-entry"
              shall be written.

       The following eight columns shall be only written out for shared memory
       segments.

       CREATOR (a,c)
              The  user of the creator of the facility entry. If the user name
              of the creator is found in the user database, at least the first
              eight  column  positions  of the name shall be written using the
              format %s . Otherwise, the user  ID  of  the  creator  shall  be
              written using the format %d .

       CGROUP (a,c)
              The  group  name  of  the  creator of the facility entry. If the
              group name of the creator is found in  the  group  database,  at
              least  the  first  eight  column  positions of the name shall be
              written using the format %s . Otherwise, the  group  ID  of  the
              creator shall be written using the format %d .

       NATTCH (a,o)
              The number of processes attached to the associated shared memory
              segment.  This field shall be written using the format %d .

       SEGSZ (a,b)
              The size of the associated shared  memory  segment.  This  field
              shall be written using the format %d .

       CPID (a,p)
              The  process  ID of the creator of the shared memory entry. This
              field shall be written using the format %d .

       LPID (a,p)
              The process ID of the last  process  to  attach  or  detach  the
              shared  memory  segment.  This  field shall be written using the
              format:

              "%d", <pid>

       where <pid> is 0 if no process has attached  the  corresponding  shared
       memory  segment;  otherwise,  <pid> shall be the process ID of the last
       process to attach or detach the segment.

       ATIME (a,t)
              The time the last attach on the associated shared memory segment
              was  completed.  If  the corresponding shared memory segment has
              ever been attached, the hour, minute, and  second  of  the  last
              time  the segment was attached shall be written using the format
              %d : %2.2d : %2.2d . Otherwise, the format " no-entry" shall  be
              written.

       DTIME (a,t)
              The time the last detach on the associated shared memory segment
              was completed. If the corresponding shared  memory  segment  has
              ever  been  detached,  the  hour, minute, and second of the last
              time the segment was detached shall be written using the  format
              %d  : %2.2d : %2.2d . Otherwise, the format " no-entry" shall be
              written.

       The following four columns shall be  only  written  out  for  semaphore
       sets:

       CREATOR (a,c)
              The  user of the creator of the facility entry. If the user name
              of the creator is found in the user database, at least the first
              eight  column  positions  of the name shall be written using the
              format %s . Otherwise, the user  ID  of  the  creator  shall  be
              written using the format %d .

       CGROUP (a,c)
              The  group  name  of  the  creator of the facility entry. If the
              group name of the creator is found in  the  group  database,  at
              least  the  first  eight  column  positions of the name shall be
              written using the format %s . Otherwise, the  group  ID  of  the
              creator shall be written using the format %d .

       NSEMS (a,b)
              The  number  of  semaphores  in  the  set  associated  with  the
              semaphore entry. This field shall be written using the format %d
              .

       OTIME (a,t)
              The time the last semaphore operation on the set associated with
              the semaphore entry was completed. If a semaphore operation  has
              ever  been  performed  on  the  corresponding semaphore set, the
              hour, minute, and second of the last semaphore operation on  the
              semaphore  set  shall  be  written using the format %d : %2.2d :
              %2.2d . Otherwise, the format " no-entry" shall be written.

       The following column shall be written for all three reports when it  is
       requested:

       CTIME (a,t)
              The  time the associated entry was created or changed. The hour,
              minute, and second of the time when  the  associated  entry  was
              created shall be written using the format %d : %2.2d : %2.2d .

STDERR

       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES

       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

       None.

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values shall be returned:

        0     Successful completion.

       >0     An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE

       Things  can  change  while ipcs is running; the information it gives is
       guaranteed to be accurate only when it was retrieved.

EXAMPLES

       None.

RATIONALE

       None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       None.

SEE ALSO

       The  System  Interfaces  volume  of   IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,   msgrcv(),
       msgsnd(), semget(), semop(), shmat(), shmdt(), shmget()

COPYRIGHT

       Portions  of  this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       --  Portable  Operating  System  Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
       Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003  by  the  Institute  of
       Electrical  and  Electronics  Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
       The  Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
       is the referee document. The original Standard can be  obtained  online
       at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .