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NAME

       loop, loop-control - loop devices

SYNOPSIS

       #include <linux/loop.h>

DESCRIPTION

       The  loop device is a block device that maps its data blocks not to a physical device such
       as a hard disk or optical disk drive, but to the blocks of a regular file in a  filesystem
       or  to another block device.  This can be useful for example to provide a block device for
       a filesystem image stored in a file, so that it can be mounted with the mount(8)  command.
       You could do

           $ dd if=/dev/zero of=file.img bs=1MiB count=10
           $ sudo losetup /dev/loop4 file.img
           $ sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/loop4
           $ sudo mkdir /myloopdev
           $ sudo mount /dev/loop4 /myloopdev

       See losetup(8) for another example.

       A  transfer  function  can be specified for each loop device for encryption and decryption
       purposes.

       The following ioctl(2) operations are provided by the loop block device:

       LOOP_SET_FD
              Associate the loop device with the open file whose file descriptor is passed as the
              (third) ioctl(2) argument.

       LOOP_CLR_FD
              Disassociate the loop device from any file descriptor.

       LOOP_SET_STATUS
              Set  the  status  of  the  loop  device  using the (third) ioctl(2) argument.  This
              argument is a pointer to a loop_info structure, defined in <linux/loop.h> as:

                  struct loop_info {
                      int           lo_number;      /* ioctl r/o */
                      dev_t         lo_device;      /* ioctl r/o */
                      unsigned long lo_inode;       /* ioctl r/o */
                      dev_t         lo_rdevice;     /* ioctl r/o */
                      int           lo_offset;
                      int           lo_encrypt_type;
                      int           lo_encrypt_key_size;  /* ioctl w/o */
                      int           lo_flags;       /* ioctl r/w (r/o before
                                                       Linux 2.6.25) */
                      char          lo_name[LO_NAME_SIZE];
                      unsigned char lo_encrypt_key[LO_KEY_SIZE];
                                                    /* ioctl w/o */
                      unsigned long lo_init[2];
                      char          reserved[4];
                  };

              The encryption type (lo_encrypt_type) should be one of LO_CRYPT_NONE, LO_CRYPT_XOR,
              LO_CRYPT_DES,   LO_CRYPT_FISH2,   LO_CRYPT_BLOW,  LO_CRYPT_CAST128,  LO_CRYPT_IDEA,
              LO_CRYPT_DUMMY, LO_CRYPT_SKIPJACK, or (since Linux 2.6.0) LO_CRYPT_CRYPTOAPI.

              The lo_flags field is a bit mask that can include zero or more of the following:

              LO_FLAGS_READ_ONLY
                     The loopback device is read-only.

              LO_FLAGS_AUTOCLEAR (since Linux 2.6.25)
                     The loopback device will autodestruct on last close.

              LO_FLAGS_PARTSCAN (since Linux 3.2)
                     Allow automatic partition scanning.

              LO_FLAGS_DIRECT_IO (since Linux 4.10)
                     Use direct I/O mode to access the backing file.

              The only lo_flags that can be modified by  LOOP_SET_STATUS  are  LO_FLAGS_AUTOCLEAR
              and LO_FLAGS_PARTSCAN.

       LOOP_GET_STATUS
              Get the status of the loop device.  The (third) ioctl(2) argument must be a pointer
              to a struct loop_info.

       LOOP_CHANGE_FD (since Linux 2.6.5)
              Switch the backing store of the  loop  device  to  the  new  file  identified  file
              descriptor  specified  in the (third) ioctl(2) argument, which is an integer.  This
              operation is possible only if the loop device is  read-only  and  the  new  backing
              store is the same size and type as the old backing store.

       LOOP_SET_CAPACITY (since Linux 2.6.30)
              Resize a live loop device.  One can change the size of the underlying backing store
              and then use this operation so that the loop driver  learns  about  the  new  size.
              This operation takes no argument.

       LOOP_SET_DIRECT_IO (since Linux 4.10)
              Set  DIRECT  I/O  mode  on  the loop device, so that it can be used to open backing
              file.  The (third)  ioctl(2)  argument  is  an  unsigned  long  value.   A  nonzero
              represents direct I/O mode.

       LOOP_SET_BLOCK_SIZE (since Linux 4.14)
              Set  the  block  size  of  the  loop  device.   The (third) ioctl(2) argument is an
              unsigned  long  value.   This  value  must  be  a  power  of  two  in   the   range
              [512,pagesize]; otherwise, an EINVAL error results.

       LOOP_CONFIGURE (since Linux 5.8)
              Setup  and  configure all loop device parameters in a single step using the (third)
              ioctl(2) argument.  This argument is a pointer to a loop_config structure,  defined
              in <linux/loop.h> as:

                  struct loop_config {
                      __u32               fd;
                      __u32               block_size;
                      struct loop_info64  info;
                      __u64               __reserved[8];
                  };

              In  addition  to doing what LOOP_SET_STATUS can do, LOOP_CONFIGURE can also be used
              to do the following:

              •  set the correct block size immediately by setting loop_config.block_size;

              •  explicitly  request  direct  I/O   mode   by   setting   LO_FLAGS_DIRECT_IO   in
                 loop_config.info.lo_flags; and

              •  explicitly   request   read-only   mode   by   setting   LO_FLAGS_READ_ONLY   in
                 loop_config.info.lo_flags.

       Since Linux 2.6, there are two new ioctl(2) operations:

       LOOP_SET_STATUS64
       LOOP_GET_STATUS64
              These are similar to LOOP_SET_STATUS and LOOP_GET_STATUS described  above  but  use
              the  loop_info64 structure, which has some additional fields and a larger range for
              some other fields:

                  struct loop_info64 {
                      uint64_t lo_device;           /* ioctl r/o */
                      uint64_t lo_inode;            /* ioctl r/o */
                      uint64_t lo_rdevice;          /* ioctl r/o */
                      uint64_t lo_offset;
                      uint64_t lo_sizelimit;  /* bytes, 0 == max available */
                      uint32_t lo_number;           /* ioctl r/o */
                      uint32_t lo_encrypt_type;
                      uint32_t lo_encrypt_key_size; /* ioctl w/o */
                      uint32_t lo_flags; i          /* ioctl r/w (r/o before
                                                       Linux 2.6.25) */
                      uint8_t  lo_file_name[LO_NAME_SIZE];
                      uint8_t  lo_crypt_name[LO_NAME_SIZE];
                      uint8_t  lo_encrypt_key[LO_KEY_SIZE]; /* ioctl w/o */
                      uint64_t lo_init[2];
                  };

   /dev/loop-control
       Since Linux 3.1, the kernel  provides  the  /dev/loop-control  device,  which  permits  an
       application to dynamically find a free device, and to add and remove loop devices from the
       system.  To perform these operations, one first opens /dev/loop-control and  then  employs
       one of the following ioctl(2) operations:

       LOOP_CTL_GET_FREE
              Allocate  or  find  a  free  loop device for use.  On success, the device number is
              returned as the result of the call.  This operation takes no argument.

       LOOP_CTL_ADD
              Add the new loop device whose device number is specified as a long integer  in  the
              third ioctl(2) argument.  On success, the device index is returned as the result of
              the call.  If the device is already  allocated,  the  call  fails  with  the  error
              EEXIST.

       LOOP_CTL_REMOVE
              Remove  the  loop  device whose device number is specified as a long integer in the
              third ioctl(2) argument.  On success, the device number is returned as  the  result
              of the call.  If the device is in use, the call fails with the error EBUSY.

FILES

       /dev/loop*
              The loop block special device files.

EXAMPLES

       The  program below uses the /dev/loop-control device to find a free loop device, opens the
       loop device, opens a file to be used as the underlying storage for the  device,  and  then
       associates  the  loop  device  with  the  backing  store.   The  following  shell  session
       demonstrates the use of the program:

           $ dd if=/dev/zero of=file.img bs=1MiB count=10
           10+0 records in
           10+0 records out
           10485760 bytes (10 MB) copied, 0.00609385 s, 1.7 GB/s
           $ sudo ./mnt_loop file.img
           loopname = /dev/loop5

   Program source

       #include <fcntl.h>
       #include <linux/loop.h>
       #include <sys/ioctl.h>
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <unistd.h>

       #define errExit(msg)    do { perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); \
                               } while (0)

       int
       main(int argc, char *argv[])
       {
           int loopctlfd, loopfd, backingfile;
           long devnr;
           char loopname[4096];

           if (argc != 2) {
               fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s backing-file\n", argv[0]);
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }

           loopctlfd = open("/dev/loop-control", O_RDWR);
           if (loopctlfd == -1)
               errExit("open: /dev/loop-control");

           devnr = ioctl(loopctlfd, LOOP_CTL_GET_FREE);
           if (devnr == -1)
               errExit("ioctl-LOOP_CTL_GET_FREE");

           sprintf(loopname, "/dev/loop%ld", devnr);
           printf("loopname = %s\n", loopname);

           loopfd = open(loopname, O_RDWR);
           if (loopfd == -1)
               errExit("open: loopname");

           backingfile = open(argv[1], O_RDWR);
           if (backingfile == -1)
               errExit("open: backing-file");

           if (ioctl(loopfd, LOOP_SET_FD, backingfile) == -1)
               errExit("ioctl-LOOP_SET_FD");

           exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
       }

SEE ALSO

       losetup(8), mount(8)