NAME
vmsplice - splice user pages into a pipe
SYNOPSIS
#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <sys/uio.h>
ssize_t vmsplice(int fd, const struct iovec *iov,
unsigned long nr_segs, unsigned int flags);
DESCRIPTION
The vmsplice() system call maps nr_segs ranges of user memory described
by iov into a pipe. The file descriptor fd must refer to a pipe.
The pointer iov points to an array of iovec structures as defined in
<sys/uio.h>:
struct iovec {
void *iov_base; /* Starting address */
size_t iov_len; /* Number of bytes */
};
The flags argument is a bit mask that is composed by ORing together
zero or more of the following values:
SPLICE_F_MOVE Unused for vmsplice(); see splice(2).
SPLICE_F_NONBLOCK Do not block on I/O; see splice(2) for further
details.
SPLICE_F_MORE Currently has no effect for vmsplice(), but may be
implemented in the future; see splice(2).
SPLICE_F_GIFT The user pages are a gift to the kernel. The
application may not modify this memory ever, or page
cache and on-disk data may differ. Gifting pages to
the kernel means that a subsequent splice(2)
SPLICE_F_MOVE can successfully move the pages; if
this flag is not specified, then a subsequent
splice(2) SPLICE_F_MOVE must copy the pages. Data
must also be properly page aligned, both in memory
and length.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, vmsplice() returns the number of bytes
transferred to the pipe. On error, vmsplice() returns -1 and errno is
set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
EBADF fd either not valid, or doesn’t refer to a pipe.
EINVAL nr_segs is 0 or greater than IOV_MAX; or memory not aligned if
SPLICE_F_GIFT set.
ENOMEM Out of memory.
VERSIONS
The vmsplice() system call first appeared in Linux 2.6.17.
CONFORMING TO
This system call is Linux-specific.
NOTES
vmsplice() follows the other vectorized read/write type functions when
it comes to limitations on number of segments being passed in. This
limit is IOV_MAX as defined in <limits.h>. At the time of this
writing, that limit is 1024.
SEE ALSO
splice(2), tee(2), feature_test_macros(7)
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.24 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.