KQUEUE(2)

NAME
kqueue, kqueue1, kevent, EV_SET - kernel event notification mechanism

LIBRARY
libc

SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/event.h>
#include <sys/time.h>
int
kqueue(void);
int
kqueue1(int flags);
int
kevent(int kq, const struct kevent *changelist, size_t nchanges, struct kevent *eventlist, size_t nevents, const struct timespec *timeout);
EV_SET(&kev, ident, filter, flags, fflags, data, udata);

DESCRIPTION
The kqueue() system call provides a generic method of notifying the user when an event happens or a condition holds, based on the results of small pieces of kernel code termed filters. A kevent is identified by the (ident, filter) pair; there may only be one unique kevent per kqueue.

The filter is executed upon the initial registration of a kevent in order to detect whether a preexisting condition is present, and is also executed whenever an event is passed to the filter for evaluation. If the filter determines that the condition should be reported, then the kevent is placed on the kqueue for the user to retrieve.

The filter is also run when the user attempts to retrieve the kevent from the kqueue. If the filter indicates that the condition that triggered the event no longer holds, the kevent is removed from the kqueue and is not returned.

Multiple events which trigger the filter do not result in multiple kevents being placed on the kqueue; instead, the filter will aggregate the events into a single struct kevent. Calling close(2) on a file descriptor will remove any kevents that reference the descriptor.

The kqueue() system call creates a new kernel event queue and returns a descriptor.

The kqueue1() system call also allows to set the following flags on the returned file descriptor:
O_CLOEXEC
Set the close on exec property.
O_NONBLOCK
Set non-blocking I/O.
O_NOSIGPIPE
Return EPIPE instead of raising SIGPIPE.

The queue is not inherited by a child created with fork(2).

The kevent() system call is used to register events with the queue, and return any pending events to the user. The changelist argument is a pointer to an array of kevent structures, as defined in <sys/event.h>. All changes contained in the changelist are applied before any pending events are read from the queue. The nchanges argument gives the size of changelist. The eventlist argument is a pointer to an array of kevent structures. The nevents argument determines the size of eventlist. When nevents is zero, kevent() will return immediately even if there is a timeout specified unlike select(2). If timeout is a non-NULL pointer, it specifies a maximum interval to wait for an event, which will be interpreted as a struct timespec. If timeout is a NULL pointer, kevent() waits indefinitely. To effect a poll, the timeout argument should be non-NULL, pointing to a zero-valued timespec(3) structure. The same array may be used for the changelist and eventlist.

The EV_SET() macro is provided for ease of initializing a kevent structure. This macro does not evaluate its parameters multiple times.

The kevent structure is defined as:

    struct kevent {
    	uintptr_t ident;	/* identifier for this event */
    	uint32_t  filter;	/* filter for event */
    	uint32_t  flags;	/* action flags for kqueue */
    	uint32_t  fflags;	/* filter flag value */
    	int64_t   data;		/* filter data value */
    	void     *udata;	/* opaque user data identifier */
    };

The fields of struct kevent are:

ident
    Value used to identify this event. The exact interpretation is determined by the attached filter, but often is a file descriptor.

filter
    Identifies the kernel filter used to process this event. There are pre-defined system filters (which are described below), and other filters may be added by kernel subsystems as necessary.

flags
    Actions to perform on the event.

fflags
    Filter-specific flags.

data
    Filter-specific data value.

udata
    Opaque user-defined value passed through the kernel unchanged.

The flags field can contain the following values:

EV_ADD
    Adds the event to the kqueue. Re-adding an existing event will modify the parameters of the original event, and not result in a duplicate entry. Adding an event automatically enables it, unless overridden by the EV_DISABLE flag.

EV_ENABLE
    Permit kevent() to return the event if it is triggered.

EV_DISABLE
    Disable the event so kevent() will not return it. The filter itself is not disabled.

EV_DISPATCH
    Disable the event source immediately after delivery of an event. See EV_DISABLE above.

EV_DELETE
    Removes the event from the kqueue. Events which are attached to file descriptors are automatically deleted on the last close of the descriptor.

EV_RECEIPT
    This flag is useful for making bulk changes to a kqueue without draining any pending events. When passed as input, it forces EV_ERROR to always be returned. When a filter is successfully added the data field will be zero. Note that if this flag is encountered and there is no remaining space in eventlist to hold the EV_ERROR event, then subsequent changes will not get processed.

EV_ONESHOT
    Causes the event to return only the first occurrence of the filter being triggered. After the user retrieves the event from the kqueue, it is deleted.

EV_CLEAR
    After the event is retrieved by the user, its state is reset. This is useful for filters which report state transitions instead of the current state. Note that some filters may automatically set this flag internally.

EV_EOF
    Filters may set this flag to indicate filter-specific EOF condition.

EV_ERROR
    See RETURN VALUES below.

  Filters
Filters are identified by a number. There are two types of filters; pre-defined filters which are described below, and third-party filters that may be added with kfilter_register(9) by kernel sub-systems, third-party device drivers, or loadable kernel modules.

As a third-party filter is referenced by a well-known name instead of a statically assigned number, two ioctl(2)s are supported on the file descriptor returned by kqueue() to map a filter name to a filter number, and vice-versa (passing arguments in a structure described below):

KFILTER_BYFILTER
    Map filter to name, which is of size len.

KFILTER_BYNAME
    Map name to filter. len is ignored.

The following structure is used to pass arguments in and out of the ioctl(2):

    struct kfilter_mapping {
    	char	 *name;		/* name to lookup or return */
    	size_t	 len;		/* length of name */
    	uint32_t filter;	/* filter to lookup or return */
    };

The predefined system filters are listed below. Arguments may be passed to and from the filter via the fflags and data fields in the kevent structure.

The predefined system filters are:

EVFILT_READ
    Takes a descriptor as the identifier, and returns whenever there is data available to read. The behavior of the filter is slightly different depending on the descriptor type.

    Sockets
        Sockets which have previously been passed to listen(2) return when there is an incoming connection pending. data contains the size of the listen backlog (i.e., the number of connections ready to be accepted with accept(2).)

        Other socket descriptors return when there is data to be read, subject to the SO_RCVLOWAT value of the socket buffer. This may be overridden with a per-filter low water mark at the time the filter is added by setting the NOTE_LOWAT flag in fflags, and specifying the new low water mark in data. On return, data contains the number of bytes in the socket buffer.

        If the read direction of the socket has shutdown, then the filter also sets EV_EOF in flags, and returns the socket error (if any) in fflags. It is possible for EOF to be returned (indicating the connection is gone) while there is still data pending in the socket buffer.

    Vnodes
        Returns when the file pointer is not at the end of file. data contains the offset from current position to end of file, and may be negative.

    Fifos, Pipes
        Returns when there is data to read; data contains the number of bytes available.

        When the last writer disconnects, the filter will set EV_EOF in flags. This may be cleared by passing in EV_CLEAR, at which point the filter will resume waiting for data to become available before returning.

    BPF devices
        Returns when the BPF buffer is full, the BPF timeout has expired, or when the BPF has “immediate mode” enabled and there is any data to read; data contains the number of bytes available.

EVFILT_WRITE
    Takes a descriptor as the identifier, and returns whenever it is possible to write to the descriptor. For sockets, pipes, fifos, and ttys, data will contain the amount of space remaining in the write buffer. The filter will set EV_EOF when the reader disconnects, and for the fifo case, this may be cleared by use of EV_CLEAR. Note that this filter is not supported for vnodes.

    For sockets, the low water mark and socket error handling is identical to the EVFILT_READ case.

EVFILT_EMPTY
    Takes a descriptor as the identifier, and returns whenever there is no remaining data in the write buffer. This is currently implemented only for sockets. It's primary purpose is to provide visibility to an application that all previously written data has been acknowledged by the receiver at the TCP layer.

EVFILT_AIO
    This is not implemented in NetBSD.

EVFILT_VNODE
    Takes a file descriptor as the identifier and the events to watch for in fflags, and returns when one or more of the requested events occurs on the descriptor. The events to monitor are:

    NOTE_ATTRIB
        The file referenced by the descriptor had its attributes changed.

    NOTE_CLOSE
        A file descriptor without write access referencing the file was closed.

    NOTE_CLOSE_WRITE
        A file descriptor with write access referencing the file was closed.

    NOTE_DELETE
        unlink(2) was called on the file referenced by the descriptor.

    NOTE_EXTEND
        The file referenced by the descriptor was extended.

    NOTE_LINK
        The link count on the file changed.

    NOTE_OPEN
        The file referenced by the descriptor was opened.

    NOTE_READ
        A read occurred on the file referenced by the descriptor.

    NOTE_RENAME
        The file referenced by the descriptor was renamed.

    NOTE_REVOKE
        Access to the file was revoked via revoke(2) or the underlying file system was unmounted.

    NOTE_WRITE
        A write occurred on the file referenced by the descriptor.

    On return, fflags contains the events which triggered the filter.

EVFILT_PROC
    Takes the process ID to monitor as the identifier and the events to watch for in fflags, and returns when the process performs one or more of the requested events. If a process can normally see another process, it can attach an event to it. The events to monitor are:

    NOTE_EXIT
        The process has exited. The exit code of the process is stored in data.

    NOTE_FORK
        The process has called fork(2).

    NOTE_EXEC
        The process has executed a new process via execve(2) or similar call.

    NOTE_TRACK
        Follow a process across fork(2) calls. The parent process will return with NOTE_TRACK set in the fflags field, while the child process will return with NOTE_CHILD set in fflags and the parent PID in data.

    NOTE_TRACKERR
        This flag is returned if the system was unable to attach an event to the child process, usually due to resource limitations.

    On return, fflags contains the events which triggered the filter.

EVFILT_SIGNAL
    Takes the signal number to monitor as the identifier and returns when the given signal is delivered to the current process. This coexists with the signal(3) and sigaction(2) facilities, and has a lower precedence. The filter will record all attempts to deliver a signal to a process, even if the signal has been marked as SIG_IGN. Event notification happens after normal signal delivery processing. data returns the number of times the signal has occurred since the last call to kevent(). This filter automatically sets the EV_CLEAR flag internally.

EVFILT_TIMER
    Establishes an arbitrary timer identified by ident. When adding a timer, data specifies the timeout period in units described below, or, if NOTE_ABSTIME is set in fflags, specifies the absolute time at which the timer should fire. The timer will repeat unless EV_ONESHOT is set in flags or NOTE_ABSTIME is set in fflags. On return, data contains the number of times the timeout has expired since the last call to kevent(). This filter automatically sets EV_CLEAR in for periodic timers. Timers created with NOTE_ABSTIME remain activated on the kqueue once the absolute time has passed unless EV_CLEAR or EV_ONESHOT are also specified. CLOCK_REALTIME is the reference clock for timers created with NOTE_ABSTIME.

    The filter accepts the following flags in the fflags argument:

    NOTE_SECONDS
        The timer value in data is expressed in seconds.

    NOTE_MSECONDS
        The timer value in data is expressed in milliseconds.

    NOTE_USECONDS
        The timer value in data is expressed in microseconds.

    NOTE_NSECONDS
        The timer value in data is expressed in nanoseconds.

    NOTE_ABSTIME
        The timer value is an absolute time; see discussion above.

    Note that NOTE_SECONDS, NOTE_MSECONDS, NOTE_USECONDS, and NOTE_NSECONDS are mutually exclusive; behavior is undefined if more than one are specified. If a timer value unit is not specified, the default is NOTE_MSECONDS.

EVFILT_FS
    Establishes a file system monitor. Currently it only monitors file system mount and unmount actions.

EVFILT_USER
    Establishes a user event identified by ident which is not associated with any kernel mechanism but is triggered by user level code. The lower 24 bits of the fflags may be used for user defined flags and manipulated using the following:

    NOTE_FFNOP
        Ignore the input fflags.

    NOTE_FFAND
        Bitwise AND fflags.

    NOTE_FFOR
        Bitwise OR fflags.

    NOTE_FFCOPY
        Copy fflags.

    NOTE_FFCTRLMASK
        Control mask for fflags.

    NOTE_FFLAGSMASK
        User defined flag mask for fflags.

    A user event is triggered for output with the following:

    NOTE_TRIGGER
        Cause the event to be triggered.

    On return, fflags contains the users defined flags in the lower 24 bits.

CANCELLATION BEHAVIOUR
If nevents is non-zero, i.e., the function is potentially blocking, the call is a cancellation point. Otherwise, i.e., if nevents is zero, the call is not cancellable. Cancellation can only occur before any changes are made to the kqueue, or when the call was blocked and no changes to the queue were requested.

RETURN VALUES
The kqueue() system call creates a new kernel event queue and returns a file descriptor. If there was an error creating the kernel event queue, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set.

The kevent() system call returns the number of events placed in the eventlist, up to the value given by nevents. If an error occurs while processing an element of the changelist and there is enough room in the eventlist, then the event will be placed in the eventlist with EV_ERROR set in flags and the system error in data. Otherwise, -1 will be returned, and errno will be set to indicate the error condition. If the time limit expires, then kevent() returns 0.

EXAMPLES
The following example program monitors a file (provided to it as the first argument) and prints information about some common events it receives notifications for:

    #include <sys/types.h>
    #include <sys/event.h>
    #include <sys/time.h>
    #include <stdio.h>
    #include <unistd.h>
    #include <stdlib.h>
    #include <fcntl.h>
    #include <err.h>
    int
    main(int argc, char *argv[])
    {
            int fd, kq, nev;
            struct kevent ev;
            static const struct timespec tout = { 1, 0 };
            if ((fd = open(argv[1], O_RDONLY)) == -1)
                    err(1, "Cannot open `%s'", argv[1]);
            if ((kq = kqueue()) == -1)
                    err(1, "Cannot create kqueue");
            EV_SET(&ev, fd, EVFILT_VNODE, EV_ADD | EV_ENABLE | EV_CLEAR,
                NOTE_DELETE|NOTE_WRITE|NOTE_EXTEND|NOTE_ATTRIB|NOTE_LINK|
                NOTE_RENAME|NOTE_REVOKE, 0, 0);
            if (kevent(kq, &ev, 1, NULL, 0, &tout) == -1)
                    err(1, "kevent");
            for (;;) {
                    nev = kevent(kq, NULL, 0, &ev, 1, &tout);
                    if (nev == -1)
                            err(1, "kevent");
                    if (nev == 0)
                            continue;
                    if (ev.fflags & NOTE_DELETE) {
                            printf("deleted ");
                            ev.fflags &= ~NOTE_DELETE;
                    }
                    if (ev.fflags & NOTE_WRITE) {
                            printf("written ");
                            ev.fflags &= ~NOTE_WRITE;
                    }
                    if (ev.fflags & NOTE_EXTEND) {
                            printf("extended ");
                            ev.fflags &= ~NOTE_EXTEND;
                    }
                    if (ev.fflags & NOTE_ATTRIB) {
                            printf("chmod/chown/utimes ");
                            ev.fflags &= ~NOTE_ATTRIB;
                    }
                    if (ev.fflags & NOTE_LINK) {
                            printf("hardlinked ");
                            ev.fflags &= ~NOTE_LINK;
                    }
                    if (ev.fflags & NOTE_RENAME) {
                            printf("renamed ");
                            ev.fflags &= ~NOTE_RENAME;
                    }
                    if (ev.fflags & NOTE_REVOKE) {
                            printf("revoked ");
                            ev.fflags &= ~NOTE_REVOKE;
                    }
                    printf("\n");
                    if (ev.fflags)
                            warnx("unknown event 0x%x\n", ev.fflags);
            }
    }

ERRORS
The kqueue() function fails if:

[EMFILE]
    The per-process descriptor table is full.

[ENFILE]
    The system file table is full.

[ENOMEM]
    The kernel failed to allocate enough memory for the kernel queue.

The kevent() function fails if:

[EACCES]
    The process does not have permission to register a filter.

[EBADF]
    The specified descriptor is invalid.

[EFAULT]
    There was an error reading or writing the kevent structure.

[EINTR]
    A signal was delivered before the timeout expired and before any events were placed on the kqueue for return. All changes contained in the changelist are applied before returning this error.

[EINVAL]
    The specified time limit or filter is invalid.

[ENOENT]
    The event could not be found to be modified or deleted.

[ENOMEM]
    No memory was available to register the event.

[EOPNOTSUPP]
    This type of file descriptor is not supported for kevent() operations.

[ESRCH]
    The specified process to attach to does not exist.

SEE ALSO
fork(2), ioctl(2), listen(2), poll(2), read(2), select(2), sigaction(2), unlink(2), write(2), signal(3), timespec(3), kfilter_register(9), knote(9) Jonathan Lemon, Kqueue: A Generic and Scalable Event Notification Facility, USENIX Association, Proceedings of the FREENIX Track: 2001 USENIX Annual Technical Conference, June 25-30, 2001, http://www.usenix.org/event/usenix01/freenix01/full_papers/lemon/lemon.pdf.

HISTORY
The kqueue() and kevent() functions first appeared in FreeBSD 4.1, and then in NetBSD 2.0. The kqueue1() function first appeared in NetBSD 6.0.

The EV_SET() macro was protected from evaluating multiple times the first argument in NetBSD 8.0.

The udata type was changed from intptr_t to void * in NetBSD 10.0.

Support for NOTE_SECONDS, NOTE_MSECONDS, NOTE_USECONDS, NOTE_NSECONDS, and NOTE_ABSTIME filter flags for EVFILT_TIMER was added in NetBSD 10.0.

Support for NOTE_OPEN, NOTE_CLOSE, NOTE_CLOSE_WRITE, and NOTE_READ filter flags for EVFILT_VNODE was added in NetBSD 10.0.

Support for EVFILT_EMPTY was added in NetBSD 10.0.