NAME

     aio_read — asynchronous read from a file (REALTIME)

LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

     #include <aio.h>

     int
     aio_read(struct aiocb *iocb);

DESCRIPTION

     The aio_read() system call allows the calling process to read iocb->aio_nbytes from the
     descriptor iocb->aio_fildes beginning at the offset iocb->aio_offset into the buffer pointed
     to by iocb->aio_buf.  The call returns immediately after the read request has been enqueued
     to the descriptor; the read may or may not have completed at the time the call returns.

     If _POSIX_PRIORITIZED_IO is defined, and the descriptor supports it, then the enqueued
     operation is submitted at a priority equal to that of the calling process minus
     iocb->aio_reqprio.

     The iocb->aio_lio_opcode argument is ignored by the aio_read() system call.

     The iocb pointer may be subsequently used as an argument to aio_return() and aio_error() in
     order to determine return or error status for the enqueued operation while it is in
     progress.

     If the request could not be enqueued (generally due to invalid arguments), then the call
     returns without having enqueued the request.

     If the request is successfully enqueued, the value of iocb->aio_offset can be modified
     during the request as context, so this value must not be referenced after the request is
     enqueued.

     The iocb->aio_sigevent structure can be used to request notification of the operation's
     completion as described in aio(4).

RESTRICTIONS

     The Asynchronous I/O Control Block structure pointed to by iocb and the buffer that the
     iocb->aio_buf member of that structure references must remain valid until the operation has
     completed.

     The asynchronous I/O control buffer iocb should be zeroed before the aio_read() call to
     avoid passing bogus context information to the kernel.

     Modifications of the Asynchronous I/O Control Block structure or the buffer contents are not
     allowed while the request is queued.

     If the file offset in iocb->aio_offset is past the offset maximum for iocb->aio_fildes, no
     I/O will occur.

RETURN VALUES

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

DIAGNOSTICS

     None.

ERRORS

     The aio_read() system call will fail if:

     [EAGAIN]           The request was not queued because of system resource limitations.

     [EINVAL]           The asynchronous notification method in iocb->aio_sigevent.sigev_notify
                        is invalid or not supported.

     [EOPNOTSUPP]       Asynchronous read operations on the file descriptor iocb->aio_fildes are
                        unsafe and unsafe asynchronous I/O operations are disabled.

     The following conditions may be synchronously detected when the aio_read() system call is
     made, or asynchronously, at any time thereafter.  If they are detected at call time,
     aio_read() returns -1 and sets errno appropriately; otherwise the aio_return() system call
     must be called, and will return -1, and aio_error() must be called to determine the actual
     value that would have been returned in errno.

     [EBADF]            The iocb->aio_fildes argument is invalid.

     [EINVAL]           The offset iocb->aio_offset is not valid, the priority specified by
                        iocb->aio_reqprio is not a valid priority, or the number of bytes
                        specified by iocb->aio_nbytes is not valid.

     [EOVERFLOW]        The file is a regular file, iocb->aio_nbytes is greater than zero, the
                        starting offset in iocb->aio_offset is before the end of the file, but is
                        at or beyond the iocb->aio_fildes offset maximum.

     If the request is successfully enqueued, but subsequently cancelled or an error occurs, the
     value returned by the aio_return() system call is per the read(2) system call, and the value
     returned by the aio_error() system call is either one of the error returns from the read(2)
     system call, or one of:

     [EBADF]            The iocb->aio_fildes argument is invalid for reading.

     [ECANCELED]        The request was explicitly cancelled via a call to aio_cancel().

     [EINVAL]           The offset iocb->aio_offset would be invalid.

SEE ALSO

     aio_cancel(2), aio_error(2), aio_return(2), aio_suspend(2), aio_waitcomplete(2),
     aio_write(2), sigevent(3), siginfo(3), aio(4)

STANDARDS

     The aio_read() system call is expected to conform to the IEEE Std 1003.1 (“POSIX.1”)
     standard.

HISTORY

     The aio_read() system call first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0.

AUTHORS

     This manual page was written by Terry Lambert <terry@whistle.com>.

BUGS

     Invalid information in iocb->_aiocb_private may confuse the kernel.