NAME

       msync - synchronize a file with a memory map

SYNOPSIS

       #include <sys/mman.h>

       int msync(void *addr, size_t length, int flags);

DESCRIPTION

       msync()  flushes  changes  made  to the in-core copy of a file that was mapped into memory
       using mmap(2) back to disk.  Without use of this call there is no guarantee  that  changes
       are  written  back  before  munmap(2) is called.  To be more precise, the part of the file
       that corresponds to the memory area starting at addr and having length length is updated.

       The flags argument may have the bits MS_ASYNC, MS_SYNC, and  MS_INVALIDATE  set,  but  not
       both  MS_ASYNC  and MS_SYNC.  MS_ASYNC specifies that an update be scheduled, but the call
       returns  immediately.   MS_SYNC  asks  for  an  update  and  waits  for  it  to  complete.
       MS_INVALIDATE  asks  to  invalidate  other  mappings of the same file (so that they can be
       updated with the fresh values just written).

RETURN VALUE

       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS

       EBUSY  MS_INVALIDATE was specified in flags, and a memory lock exists  for  the  specified
              address range.

       EINVAL addr  is not a multiple of PAGESIZE; or any bit other than MS_ASYNC | MS_INVALIDATE
              | MS_SYNC is set in flags; or both MS_SYNC and MS_ASYNC are set in flags.

       ENOMEM The indicated memory (or part of it) was not mapped.

CONFORMING TO

       POSIX.1-2001.

       This call was introduced in Linux 1.3.21, and then used  EFAULT  instead  of  ENOMEM.   In
       Linux 2.4.19 this was changed to the POSIX value ENOMEM.

AVAILABILITY

       On   POSIX   systems   on   which  msync()  is  available,  both  _POSIX_MAPPED_FILES  and
       _POSIX_SYNCHRONIZED_IO are defined in <unistd.h> to a value greater  than  0.   (See  also
       sysconf(3).)

SEE ALSO

       mmap(2)

       B.O. Gallmeister, POSIX.4, O'Reilly, pp. 128-129 and 389-391.

COLOPHON

       This  page  is  part of release 3.54 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the
       project,    and    information    about    reporting    bugs,    can    be    found     at
       http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.