Provided by: freebsd-manpages_9.2+1-1_all 
NAME
namei, NDINIT, NDFREE, NDHASGIANT — pathname translation and lookup operations
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/param.h>
#include <sys/fcntl.h>
#include <sys/namei.h>
int
namei(struct nameidata *ndp);
void
NDINIT(struct nameidata *ndp, u_long op, u_long flags, enum uio_seg segflg, const char *namep,
struct thread *td);
void
NDFREE(struct nameidata *ndp, const uint flags);
int
NDHASGIANT(struct nameidata *ndp);
DESCRIPTION
The namei facility allows the client to perform pathname translation and lookup operations. The namei
functions will increment the reference count for the vnode in question. The reference count has to be
decremented after use of the vnode, by using either vrele(9) or vput(9), depending on whether the
LOCKLEAF flag was specified or not. If the Giant lock is required, namei will acquire it if the caller
indicates it is MPSAFE, in which case the caller must later release Giant based on the results of
NDHASGIANT().
The NDINIT() function is used to initialize namei components. It takes the following arguments:
ndp The struct nameidata to initialize.
op The operation which namei() will perform. The following operations are valid: LOOKUP, CREATE,
DELETE, and RENAME. The latter three are just setup for those effects; just calling namei() will
not result in VOP_RENAME() being called.
flags Operation flags. Several of these can be effective at the same time.
segflg UIO segment indicator. This indicates if the name of the object is in userspace (UIO_USERSPACE)
or in the kernel address space (UIO_SYSSPACE).
namep Pointer to the component's pathname buffer (the file or directory name that will be looked up).
td The thread context to use for namei operations and locks.
NAMEI OPERATION FLAGS
The namei() function takes the following set of “operation flags” that influence its operation:
LOCKLEAF Lock vnode on return. This is a full lock of the vnode; the VOP_UNLOCK(9) should be used to
release the lock (or vput(9) which is equivalent to calling VOP_UNLOCK(9) followed by
vrele(9), all in one).
LOCKPARENT This flag lets the namei() function return the parent (directory) vnode, ni_dvp in locked
state, unless it is identical to ni_vp, in which case ni_dvp is not locked per se (but may be
locked due to LOCKLEAF). If a lock is enforced, it should be released using vput(9) or
VOP_UNLOCK(9) and vrele(9).
WANTPARENT This flag allows the namei() function to return the parent (directory) vnode in an unlocked
state. The parent vnode must be released separately by using vrele(9).
MPSAFE With this flag set, namei() will conditionally acquire Giant if it is required by a traversed
file system. MPSAFE callers should pass the results of NDHASGIANT() to VFS_UNLOCK_GIANT in
order to conditionally release Giant if necessary.
NOCACHE Avoid namei() creating this entry in the namecache if it is not already present. Normally,
namei() will add entries to the name cache if they are not already there.
FOLLOW With this flag, namei() will follow the symbolic link if the last part of the path supplied
is a symbolic link (i.e., it will return a vnode for whatever the link points at, instead for
the link itself).
NOOBJ Do not call vfs_object_create() for the returned vnode, even though it meets required
criteria for VM support.
NOFOLLOW Do not follow symbolic links (pseudo). This flag is not looked for by the actual code, which
looks for FOLLOW. NOFOLLOW is used to indicate to the source code reader that symlinks are
intentionally not followed.
SAVENAME Do not free the pathname buffer at the end of the namei() invocation; instead, free it later
in NDFREE() so that the caller may access the pathname buffer. See below for details.
SAVESTART Retain an additional reference to the parent directory; do not free the pathname buffer. See
below for details.
ALLOCATED ELEMENTS
The nameidata structure is composed of the following fields:
ni_startdir In the normal case, this is either the current directory or the root. It is the current
directory if the name passed in does not start with ‘/’ and we have not gone through any
symlinks with an absolute path, and the root otherwise.
In this case, it is only used by lookup(), and should not be considered valid after a
call to namei(). If SAVESTART is set, this is set to the same as ni_dvp, with an extra
vref(9). To block NDFREE() from releasing ni_startdir, the NDF_NO_STARTDIR_RELE can be
set.
ni_dvp Vnode pointer to directory of the object on which lookup is performed. This is
available on successful return if LOCKPARENT or WANTPARENT is set. It is locked if
LOCKPARENT is set. Freeing this in NDFREE() can be inhibited by NDF_NO_DVP_RELE,
NDF_NO_DVP_PUT, or NDF_NO_DVP_UNLOCK (with the obvious effects).
ni_vp Vnode pointer to the resulting object, NULL otherwise. The v_usecount field of this
vnode is incremented. If LOCKLEAF is set, it is also locked.
Freeing this in NDFREE() can be inhibited by NDF_NO_VP_RELE, NDF_NO_VP_PUT, or
NDF_NO_VP_UNLOCK (with the obvious effects).
ni_cnd.cn_pnbuf The pathname buffer contains the location of the file or directory that will be used by
the namei operations. It is managed by the uma(9) zone allocation interface. If the
SAVESTART or SAVENAME flag is set, then the pathname buffer is available after calling
the namei() function.
To only deallocate resources used by the pathname buffer, ni_cnd.cn_pnbuf, then
NDF_ONLY_PNBUF flag can be passed to the NDFREE() function. To keep the pathname buffer
intact, the NDF_NO_FREE_PNBUF flag can be passed to the NDFREE() function.
RETURN VALUES
If successful, namei() will return 0, otherwise it will return an error.
FILES
src/sys/kern/vfs_lookup.c
ERRORS
Errors which namei() may return:
[ENOTDIR] A component of the specified pathname is not a directory when a directory is expected.
[ENAMETOOLONG] A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an entire pathname exceeded 1023
characters.
[ENOENT] A component of the specified pathname does not exist, or the pathname is an empty
string.
[EACCES] An attempt is made to access a file in a way forbidden by its file access permissions.
[ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
[EISDIR] An attempt is made to open a directory with write mode specified.
[EINVAL] The last component of the pathname specified for a DELETE or RENAME operation is ‘.’.
[EROFS] An attempt is made to modify a file or directory on a read-only file system.
SEE ALSO
uio(9), uma(9), VFS(9), VFS_UNLOCK_GIANT(9), vnode(9), vput(9), vref(9)
AUTHORS
This manual page was written by Eivind Eklund <eivind@FreeBSD.org> and later significantly revised by
Hiten M. Pandya <hmp@FreeBSD.org>.
BUGS
The LOCKPARENT flag does not always result in the parent vnode being locked. This results in
complications when the LOCKPARENT is used. In order to solve this for the cases where both LOCKPARENT
and LOCKLEAF are used, it is necessary to resort to recursive locking.
Non-MPSAFE file systems exist, requiring callers to conditionally unlock Giant.
Debian March 1, 2012 NAMEI(9)