NAME

     msgctl — message control operations

LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

     #include <sys/types.h>
     #include <sys/ipc.h>
     #include <sys/msg.h>

     int
     msgctl(int msqid, int cmd, struct msqid_ds *buf);

DESCRIPTION

     The msgctl() system call performs some control operations on the message queue specified by
     msqid.

     Each message queue has a data structure associated with it, parts of which may be altered by
     msgctl() and parts of which determine the actions of msgctl().  The data structure is
     defined in <sys/msg.h> and contains (amongst others) the following members:

     struct msqid_ds {
             struct  ipc_perm msg_perm;      /* msg queue permission bits */
             struct  msg *msg_first; /* first message in the queue */
             struct  msg *msg_last;  /* last message in the queue */
             msglen_t msg_cbytes;    /* number of bytes in use on the queue */
             msgqnum_t msg_qnum;     /* number of msgs in the queue */
             msglen_t msg_qbytes;    /* max # of bytes on the queue */
             pid_t   msg_lspid;      /* pid of last msgsnd() */
             pid_t   msg_lrpid;      /* pid of last msgrcv() */
             time_t  msg_stime;      /* time of last msgsnd() */
             time_t  msg_rtime;      /* time of last msgrcv() */
             time_t  msg_ctime;      /* time of last msgctl() */
     };

     The ipc_perm structure used inside the msqid_ds structure is defined in <sys/ipc.h> and
     looks like this:

     struct ipc_perm {
             uid_t           cuid;   /* creator user id */
             gid_t           cgid;   /* creator group id */
             uid_t           uid;    /* user id */
             gid_t           gid;    /* group id */
             mode_t          mode;   /* r/w permission */
             unsigned short  seq;    /* sequence # (to generate unique ipcid) */
             key_t           key;    /* user specified msg/sem/shm key */
     };

     The operation to be performed by msgctl() is specified in cmd and is one of:

     IPC_STAT   Gather information about the message queue and place it in the structure pointed
                to by buf.

     IPC_SET    Set the value of the msg_perm.uid, msg_perm.gid, msg_perm.mode and msg_qbytes
                fields in the structure associated with msqid.  The values are taken from the
                corresponding fields in the structure pointed to by buf.  This operation can only
                be executed by the super-user, or a process that has an effective user id equal
                to either msg_perm.cuid or msg_perm.uid in the data structure associated with the
                message queue.  The value of msg_qbytes can only be increased by the super-user.
                Values for msg_qbytes that exceed the system limit (MSGMNB from <sys/msg.h>) are
                silently truncated to that limit.

     IPC_RMID   Remove the message queue specified by msqid and destroy the data associated with
                it.  Only the super-user or a process with an effective uid equal to the
                msg_perm.cuid or msg_perm.uid values in the data structure associated with the
                queue can do this.

     The permission to read from or write to a message queue (see msgsnd(2) and msgrcv(2)) is
     determined by the msg_perm.mode field in the same way as is done with files (see chmod(2)),
     but the effective uid can match either the msg_perm.cuid field or the msg_perm.uid field,
     and the effective gid can match either msg_perm.cgid or msg_perm.gid.

RETURN VALUES

     The msgctl() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the value -1 is returned
     and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

     The msgctl() function will fail if:

     [EPERM]            The cmd argument is equal to IPC_SET or IPC_RMID and the caller is not
                        the super-user, nor does the effective uid match either the msg_perm.uid
                        or msg_perm.cuid fields of the data structure associated with the message
                        queue.

                        An attempt is made to increase the value of msg_qbytes through IPC_SET
                        but the caller is not the super-user.

     [EACCES]           The command is IPC_STAT and the caller has no read permission for this
                        message queue.

     [EINVAL]           The msqid argument is not a valid message queue identifier.

                        cmd is not a valid command.

     [EFAULT]           The buf argument specifies an invalid address.

SEE ALSO

     msgget(2), msgrcv(2), msgsnd(2)

HISTORY

     Message queues appeared in the first release of AT&T System V UNIX.