minix/man/man2/intro.2

.\" Copyright (c) 1980,1983,1986 Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.  The Berkeley software License Agreement
.\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
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.\"	@(#)intro.2	6.7 (Berkeley) 5/23/86
.\"
.TH INTRO 2 "June 30, 1986"
.UC 4
.de en
.HP
\\$1  \\$2  \\$3
.br
..
.SH NAME
intro, errno \- introduction to system calls and error numbers
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B "#include <errno.h>"
.SH DESCRIPTION
This section describes all of the system calls.  Most
of these calls have one or more error returns.
An error condition is indicated by an otherwise impossible return
value.  This is almost always \-1; the individual descriptions
specify the details.
Note that a number of system calls overload the meanings of these
error numbers, and that the meanings must be interpreted according
to the type and circumstances of the call.
.PP
As with normal arguments, all return codes and values from
functions are of type integer unless otherwise noted.
An error number is also made available in the external
variable \fBerrno\fP, which is not cleared
on successful calls.
Thus \fBerrno\fP should be tested only after an error has occurred.
.PP
The following is a complete list of the errors and their
names as given in
.RI < sys/errno.h >:
.en 0 OK "Error 0
Unused.  (The symbol "OK" is only used inside the kernel source.)
.en 1 EPERM "Not owner
Typically this error indicates
an attempt to modify a file in some way forbidden
except to its owner or super-user.
It is also returned for attempts
by ordinary users to do things
allowed only to the super-user.
.en 2 ENOENT "No such file or directory
This error occurs when a file name is specified
and the file should exist but doesn't, or when one
of the directories in a path name does not exist.
.en 3 ESRCH "No such process
The process or process group whose number was given
does not exist, or any such process is already dead.
.en 4 EINTR "Interrupted system call
An asynchronous signal (such as interrupt or quit)
that the user has elected to catch
occurred during a system call.
If execution is resumed
after processing the signal
and the system call is not restarted,
it will appear as if the interrupted system call
returned this error condition.
.en 5 EIO "I/O error
Some physical I/O error occurred during an I/O operation, usually
.B read
or
.BR write .
Operations on file descriptors that refer to devices that are forcefully
taken away or in a bad state will also provoke this error.
.en 6 ENXIO "No such device or address
I/O on a special file refers to a subdevice that does not
exist,
or beyond the limits of the device.
It may also occur when, for example, an illegal tape drive
unit number is selected 
or a disk pack is not loaded on a drive.
.en 7 E2BIG "Arg list too long
An argument list longer than ARG_MAX bytes is presented to
.BR execve .
ARG_MAX is set to 4096 bytes for 16-bit Minix, 16384 bytes for 32-bit
Minix, and unlimited for Minix-vmd as these systems are released.
.en 8 ENOEXEC "Exec format error
A request is made to execute a file
that, although it has the appropriate permissions,
does not start with a valid magic number, (see
.BR a.out (5)).
.en 9 EBADF "Bad file number
Either a file descriptor refers to no
open file,
or a read (resp. write) request is made to
a file that is open only for writing (resp. reading).
.en 10 ECHILD "No children
.B Wait
and the process has no
living or unwaited-for children.
.en 11 EAGAIN "Resource temporarily unavailable
In a
.B fork,
the system's process table is full or the user is not allowed to create
any more processes, otherwise an operation that would cause a process to
block was attempted on an object in non-blocking mode (see \fBfcntl\fP(2)).
.en 12 ENOMEM "Not enough core
During an
.B execve
or
.B brk,
a program asks for more (virtual) memory than the system is
able to supply,
or a process size limit would be exceeded.
The maximum size
of the data+stack segment is set by the
.BR chmem (1)
program.  For Minix-vmd a small data+stack size is increased to 3 megabytes
when a program is executed.
.en 13 EACCES "Permission denied
An attempt was made to access a file in a way forbidden
by the protection system.  Also an attempt to open a device for writing
that is physically write protected.
.en 14 EFAULT "Bad address
An argument of a system call is outside the address space allocated to a
process.
.en 15 ENOTBLK "Block device required
A plain file was mentioned where a block device was required,
e.g., in
.BR mount .
.en 16 EBUSY "Resource busy
An attempt to mount a device that was already mounted or
an attempt was made to dismount a device
on which there is an active file
(open file, current directory, mounted-on file, or active text segment).
A request was made to an exclusive access device that was already in use.
.en 17 EEXIST "File exists
An existing file was mentioned in an inappropriate context,
e.g.,
.BR link .
.en 18 EXDEV "Cross-device link
A hard link to a file on another device
was attempted.
.en 19 ENODEV "No such device
An attempt was made to access a device that is not configured by the system,
i.e., there is no driver for the device.
.en 20 ENOTDIR "Not a directory
A non-directory was specified where a directory
is required,
for example, in a path name or
as an argument to
.BR chdir .
.en 21 EISDIR "Is a directory
An attempt to write on a directory.
.en 22 EINVAL "Invalid argument
Some invalid argument:
dismounting a non-mounted
device,
mentioning an unknown signal in
.B signal,
or some other argument inappropriate for the call.
Also set by math functions, (see 
.BR math (3)).
.en 23 ENFILE "File table overflow
The system's table of open files is full,
and temporarily no more
.I opens
can be accepted.
.en 24 EMFILE "Too many open files
The limit on the number of open files per process, OPEN_MAX, is reached.
As released, this limit is 20 for Minix, and 30 for Minix-vmd.
.en 25 ENOTTY "Not a typewriter
The file mentioned in an
.B ioctl
is not a terminal or one of the
devices to which this call applies.  (Often seen error from programs with
bugs in their error reporting code.)
.en 26 ETXTBSY "Text file busy
Attempt to execute a program that is open for writing.  Obsolete under Minix.
.en 27 EFBIG "File too large
The size of a file exceeded the maximum (little over 64 megabytes for
the V2 file system).
.en 28 ENOSPC "No space left on device
A
.B write
to an ordinary file, the creation of a
directory or symbolic link, or the creation of a directory
entry failed because no more disk blocks are available
on the file system, or the allocation of an inode for a newly
created file failed because no more inodes are available
on the file system.
.en 29 ESPIPE "Illegal seek
An
.B lseek
was issued to a pipe or TCP/IP channel.
This error may also be issued for
other non-seekable devices.
.en 30 EROFS "Read-only file system
An attempt to modify a file or directory
was made
on a device mounted read-only.
.en 31 EMLINK "Too many links
An attempt to make more than a certain number of hard links to a file.  The
advertized maximum, LINK_MAX, is 127, but Minix-vmd uses a much larger
maximum of 32767 for the V2 file system.
.en 32 EPIPE "Broken pipe
A write on a pipe or TCP/IP channel for which there is no process
to read the data.
This condition normally generates the signal SIGPIPE;
the error is returned if the signal is caught or ignored.
.en 33 EDOM "Math argument
The argument of a function in the math package
is out of the domain of the function.
.en 34 ERANGE "Result too large
The value of a function in the math package
is unrepresentable within machine precision.
.en 35 EDEADLK "Resource deadlock avoided
A process attempts to place a blocking lock on a file that is already
locked by another process and that process is waiting for the first
process to unlock a file that first process already has a lock on.
(The classic "lock A, lock B" by process 1, and "lock B, lock A" by
process 2.)
.en 36 ENAMETOOLONG "File name too long"
The path name exceeds PATH_MAX characters.  PATH_MAX equals 255 as
distributed.
.en 37 ENOLCK "No locks available
The system's table of active locks is full.
.en 38 ENOSYS "Function not implemented
The system call is not supported.  Either an old program uses an obsolete
call, or a program for a more capable system is run on a less capable
system.
.en 39 ENOTEMPTY "Directory not empty"
A directory with entries other than \*(lq.\*(rq and \*(lq..\*(rq
was supplied to a remove directory or rename call.
.en 40 ELOOP "Too many symbolic links"
A path name lookup involved more than SYMLOOP symbolic links.  SYMLOOP
equals 8 as distributed.
(Minix-vmd)
.en 50 EPACKSIZE "Invalid packet size
.en 51 EOUTOFBUFS "Not enough buffers left
.en 52 EBADIOCTL "Illegal ioctl for device
.en 53 EBADMODE "Bad mode in ioctl
.en 54 EWOULDBLOCK "Would block
.en 55 EBADDEST "Bad destination address
.en 56 EDSTNOTRCH "Destination not reachable
.en 57 EISCONN "Already connected
.en 58 EADDRINUSE "Address in use
.en 59 ECONNREFUSED "Connection refused
.en 60 ECONNRESET "Connection reset
.en 61 ETIMEDOUT "Connection timed out
.en 62 EURG "Urgent data present
.en 63 ENOURG "No urgent data present
.en 64 ENOTCONN "No connection
.en 65 ESHUTDOWN "Already shutdown
.en 66 ENOCONN "No such connection
.en 67 EINPROGRESS "Operation now in progress
.en 68 EALREADY "Operation already in progress
.ig
.en XXX EDQUOT "Disc quota exceeded"
A 
.B write
to an ordinary file, the creation of a
directory or symbolic link, or the creation of a directory
entry failed because the user's quota of disk blocks was
exhausted, or the allocation of an inode for a newly
created file failed because the user's quota of inodes
was exhausted.
.en XXX ESTALE "Stale NFS file handle"
A client referenced a an open file, when the file has been deleted.
.en XXX EREMOTE "Too many levels of remote in path"
An attempt was made to remotely mount a file system into a path which
already has a remotely mounted component.
..
.SH DEFINITIONS
.TP 5
Process ID
.br
Each active process in the system is uniquely identified by a positive
integer called a process ID.  The range of this ID is from 1 to 29999.
The special process with process ID 1 is
.BR init ,
the ancestor of all processes.
.TP 5
Parent process ID
.br
A new process is created by a currently active process; (see
.BR fork (2)).
The parent process ID of a process is the process ID of its creator,
unless the creator dies, then
.B init
becomes the parent of the orphaned process.
.TP 5
Process Group ID
.br
Each active process is a member of a process group that is identified by
a positive integer called the process group ID.  This is the process
ID of the group leader.  This grouping permits the signaling of related
processes (see
.BR kill (2)).
.TP 5
Real User ID and Real Group ID
.br
Each user on the system is identified by a positive integer
termed the real user ID.
.IP
Each user is also a member of one or more groups.
One of these groups is distinguished from others and
used in implementing accounting facilities.  The positive
integer corresponding to this distinguished group is termed 
the real group ID.
(Under standard Minix this is the only group a process can be a member of.)
.IP
All processes have a real user ID and real group ID.
These are initialized from the equivalent attributes
of the process that created it.
.TP 5
Effective User Id, Effective Group Id, and Access Groups
.br
Access to system resources is governed by three values:
the effective user ID, the effective group ID, and the
group access list.
.IP
The effective user ID and effective group ID are initially the
process's real user ID and real group ID respectively.  Either
may be modified through execution of a set-user-ID or set-group-ID
file (possibly by one its ancestors) (see
.BR execve (2)).
.IP
The group access list is an additional set of group ID's
used only in determining resource accessibility.  Access checks
are performed as described below in ``File Access Permissions''.
The maximum number of additional group ID's is NGROUPS_MAX.
For Minix this is 0, but Minix-vmd supports a list of up to 16
additional group ID's.  (Also known as ``supplemental'' group ID's.)
.TP 5
Super-user
.br
A process is recognized as a
.I super-user
process and is granted special privileges if its effective user ID is 0.
.TP 5
Descriptor
.br
An integer assigned by the system when a file or device is referenced
by
.BR open (2),
.BR dup (2)
or
.BR fcntl (2)
which uniquely identifies an access path to that file or device from
a given process or any of its children.
.TP 5
File Descriptor
Older, and often used name for a descriptor.
.TP 5
File Name
.br
Names consisting of up to NAME_MAX characters may be used to name
an ordinary file, special file, or directory.  NAME_MAX is the maximum
of the maximum file name lengths of the supported file systems.
Excess characters are ignored when too long file names are used for
files in a given file system.
The maximum file name length of the V1 and V2 file systems
is 14 characters.  The Minix-vmd "flex" variants of V1 and V2 have a
60 character maximum.
.IP
The characters in a file name may assume any value representable in
eight bits excluding 0 (null) and the ASCII code for / (slash).
.IP
Note that it is generally unwise to use one of \e'"<>();~$^&*|{}[]?
as part of file names because of the special meaning attached to these
characters by the shell.
.TP 5
Path Name
.br
A path name is a null-terminated character string starting with an
optional slash (/), followed by zero or more directory names separated
by slashes, optionally followed by a file name.
The total length of a path name must be less than PATH_MAX characters
(255 as distributed.)
.IP
If a path name begins with a slash, the path search begins at the
.I root
directory.
Otherwise, the search begins from the current working directory.
A slash by itself names the root directory.  A null pathname is
illegal, use "." to refer to the current working directory.
.TP 5
Directory
.br
A directory is a special type of file that contains entries
that are references to other files.
Directory entries are called links.  By convention, a directory
contains at least two links, . and .., referred to as
.I dot
and
.I dot-dot
respectively.  Dot refers to the directory itself and
dot-dot refers to its parent directory.
.TP 5
Root Directory and Current Working Directory
.br
Each process has associated with it a concept of a root directory
and a current working directory for the purpose of resolving path
name searches.  A process's root directory need not be the root
directory of the root file system.
.TP 5
File Access Permissions
.br
Every file in the file system has a set of access permissions.
These permissions are used in determining whether a process
may perform a requested operation on the file (such as opening
a file for writing).  Access permissions are established at the
time a file is created.  They may be changed at some later time
through the 
.BR chmod (2)
call. 
.IP
File access is broken down according to whether a file may be: read,
written, or executed.  Directory files use the execute
permission to control if the directory may be searched. 
.IP
File access permissions are interpreted by the system as
they apply to three different classes of users: the owner
of the file, those users in the file's group, anyone else.
Every file has an independent set of access permissions for
each of these classes.  When an access check is made, the system
decides if permission should be granted by checking the access
information applicable to the caller.
.IP
Read, write, and execute/search permissions on
a file are granted to a process if:
.IP
The process's effective user ID is that of the super-user.
.IP
The process's effective user ID matches the user ID of the owner
of the file and the owner permissions allow the access.
.IP
The process's effective user ID does not match the user ID of the
owner of the file, and either the process's effective
group ID matches the group ID
of the file, or the group ID of the file is in
the process's group access list,
and the group permissions allow the access.
.IP
Neither the effective user ID nor effective group ID
and group access list of the process
match the corresponding user ID and group ID of the file,
but the permissions for ``other users'' allow access.
.IP
Otherwise, permission is denied.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR intro (3),
.BR strerror (3).