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NAME

       mq_overview - overview of POSIX message queues

DESCRIPTION

       POSIX message queues allow processes to exchange data in the form of messages.  This API is distinct from
       that provided by System V message queues (msgget(2), msgsnd(2), msgrcv(2), etc.),  but  provides  similar
       functionality.

       Message  queues are created and opened using mq_open(3); this function returns a message queue descriptor
       (mqd_t), which is used to refer to the open  message  queue  in  later  calls.   Each  message  queue  is
       identified  by  a  name of the form /somename; that is, a null-terminated string of up to NAME_MAX (i.e.,
       255) characters consisting of an initial slash, followed by one or more characters,  none  of  which  are
       slashes.  Two processes can operate on the same queue by passing the same name to mq_open(3).

       Messages  are  transferred  to  and  from a queue using mq_send(3) and mq_receive(3).  When a process has
       finished using the queue, it closes it using mq_close(3), and when the queue is no  longer  required,  it
       can  be deleted using mq_unlink(3).  Queue attributes can be retrieved and (in some cases) modified using
       mq_getattr(3) and mq_setattr(3).  A process can request asynchronous notification of  the  arrival  of  a
       message on a previously empty queue using mq_notify(3).

       A  message  queue descriptor is a reference to an open message queue description (cf.  open(2)).  After a
       fork(2), a child inherits copies of its parent's message queue descriptors, and these  descriptors  refer
       to   the  same  open  message  queue  descriptions  as  the  corresponding  descriptors  in  the  parent.
       Corresponding descriptors in the two processes share the flags (mq_flags) that are  associated  with  the
       open message queue description.

       Each  message  has  an  associated  priority,  and messages are always delivered to the receiving process
       highest priority first.  Message priorities range from 0 (low)  to  sysconf(_SC_MQ_PRIO_MAX) - 1  (high).
       On  Linux,  sysconf(_SC_MQ_PRIO_MAX)  returns  32768,  but  POSIX.1  requires only that an implementation
       support at least priorities in the range 0 to 31; some implementations provide only this range.

       The remainder of this section describes some specific  details  of  the  Linux  implementation  of  POSIX
       message queues.

   Library interfaces and system calls
       In  most  cases  the  mq_*()  library interfaces listed above are implemented on top of underlying system
       calls of the same name.  Deviations from this scheme are indicated in the following table:

              Library interface    System call
              mq_close(3)          close(2)
              mq_getattr(3)        mq_getsetattr(2)
              mq_notify(3)         mq_notify(2)
              mq_open(3)           mq_open(2)
              mq_receive(3)        mq_timedreceive(2)
              mq_send(3)           mq_timedsend(2)
              mq_setattr(3)        mq_getsetattr(2)
              mq_timedreceive(3)   mq_timedreceive(2)
              mq_timedsend(3)      mq_timedsend(2)
              mq_unlink(3)         mq_unlink(2)

   Versions
       POSIX message queues have been supported on Linux since kernel 2.6.6.  Glibc support  has  been  provided
       since version 2.3.4.

   Kernel configuration
       Support for POSIX message queues is configurable via the CONFIG_POSIX_MQUEUE kernel configuration option.
       This option is enabled by default.

   Persistence
       POSIX message queues have kernel persistence: if not removed by mq_unlink(3), a message queue will  exist
       until the system is shut down.

   Linking
       Programs  using  the  POSIX message queue API must be compiled with cc -lrt to link against the real-time
       library, librt.

   /proc interfaces
       The following interfaces can be used to limit the amount of  kernel  memory  consumed  by  POSIX  message
       queues and to set the default attributes for new message queues:

       /proc/sys/fs/mqueue/msg_default (since Linux 3.5)
              This  file  defines  the  value used for a new queue's mq_maxmsg setting when the queue is created
              with a call to mq_open(3) where attr is specified as NULL.  The default value for this file is 10.
              The  minimum  and maximum are as for /proc/sys/fs/mqueue/msg_max.  A new queue's default mq_maxmsg
              value will be the smaller of  msg_default  and  msg_max.   Up  until  Linux  2.6.28,  the  default
              mq_maxmsg  was  10;  from  Linux  2.6.28  to  Linux 3.4, the default was the value defined for the
              msg_max limit.

       /proc/sys/fs/mqueue/msg_max
              This file can be used to view and change the ceiling value for the maximum number of messages in a
              queue.   This  value  acts  as a ceiling on the attr->mq_maxmsg argument given to mq_open(3).  The
              default value for msg_max is 10.  The minimum value is 1 (10 in kernels before 2.6.28).  The upper
              limit  is  HARD_MSGMAX.  The msg_max limit is ignored for privileged processes (CAP_SYS_RESOURCE),
              but the HARD_MSGMAX ceiling is nevertheless imposed.

              The definition of HARD_MSGMAX has changed across kernel versions:

              *  Up to Linux 2.6.32: 131072 / sizeof(void *)

              *  Linux 2.6.33 to 3.4: (32768 * sizeof(void *) / 4)

              *  Since Linux 3.5: 65,536

       /proc/sys/fs/mqueue/msgsize_default (since Linux 3.5)
              This file defines the value used for a new queue's mq_msgsize setting when the  queue  is  created
              with  a  call  to  mq_open(3) where attr is specified as NULL.  The default value for this file is
              8192  (bytes).   The  minimum  and  maximum  are  as  for   /proc/sys/fs/mqueue/msgsize_max.    If
              msgsize_default  exceeds  msgsize_max,  a  new  queue's  default mq_msgsize value is capped to the
              msgsize_max limit.  Up until Linux 2.6.28, the default mq_msgsize was 8192; from Linux  2.6.28  to
              Linux 3.4, the default was the value defined for the msgsize_max limit.

       /proc/sys/fs/mqueue/msgsize_max
              This file can be used to view and change the ceiling on the maximum message size.  This value acts
              as a ceiling on the  attr->mq_msgsize  argument  given  to  mq_open(3).   The  default  value  for
              msgsize_max  is  8192 bytes.  The minimum value is 128 (8192 in kernels before 2.6.28).  The upper
              limit for msgsize_max has varied across kernel versions:

              *  Before Linux 2.6.28, the upper limit is INT_MAX.

              *  From Linux 2.6.28 to 3.4, the limit is 1,048,576.

              *  Since Linux 3.5, the limit is 16,777,216 (HARD_MSGSIZEMAX).

              The msgsize_max limit is ignored for privileged process (CAP_SYS_RESOURCE), but, since Linux  3.5,
              the HARD_MSGSIZEMAX ceiling is enforced for privileged processes.

       /proc/sys/fs/mqueue/queues_max
              This  file  can  be  used to view and change the system-wide limit on the number of message queues
              that can be created.  The default value for queues_max is 256.   No  ceiling  is  imposed  on  the
              queues_max limit; privileged processes (CAP_SYS_RESOURCE) can exceed the limit (but see BUGS).

   Resource limit
       The  RLIMIT_MSGQUEUE  resource limit, which places a limit on the amount of space that can be consumed by
       all of the message queues belonging to a process's real user ID, is described in getrlimit(2).

   Mounting the message queue filesystem
       On Linux, message queues are created in a virtual filesystem.  (Other implementations  may  also  provide
       such a feature, but the details are likely to differ.)  This filesystem can be mounted (by the superuser)
       using the following commands:

           # mkdir /dev/mqueue
           # mount -t mqueue none /dev/mqueue

       The sticky bit is automatically enabled on the mount directory.

       After the filesystem has been mounted, the message queues on the system can  be  viewed  and  manipulated
       using the commands usually used for files (e.g., ls(1) and rm(1)).

       The  contents  of  each  file  in the directory consist of a single line containing information about the
       queue:

           $ cat /dev/mqueue/mymq
           QSIZE:129     NOTIFY:2    SIGNO:0    NOTIFY_PID:8260

       These fields are as follows:

       QSIZE  Number of bytes of data in all messages in the queue (but see BUGS).

       NOTIFY_PID
              If this is nonzero, then the  process  with  this  PID  has  used  mq_notify(3)  to  register  for
              asynchronous message notification, and the remaining fields describe how notification occurs.

       NOTIFY Notification method: 0 is SIGEV_SIGNAL; 1 is SIGEV_NONE; and 2 is SIGEV_THREAD.

       SIGNO  Signal number to be used for SIGEV_SIGNAL.

   Polling message queue descriptors
       On Linux, a message queue descriptor is actually a file descriptor, and can be monitored using select(2),
       poll(2), or epoll(7).  This is not portable.

   IPC namespaces
       For a discussion of the interaction of System V IPC objects and IPC namespaces, see namespaces(7).

NOTES

       System V message queues (msgget(2), msgsnd(2), msgrcv(2), etc.) are an older API for exchanging  messages
       between  processes.   POSIX  message  queues  provide  a  better designed interface than System V message
       queues; on the other hand POSIX message queues are less widely available (especially  on  older  systems)
       than System V message queues.

       Linux  does  not  currently  (2.6.26)  support  the  use of access control lists (ACLs) for POSIX message
       queues.

EXAMPLE

       An example of the use of various message queue functions is shown in mq_notify(3).

BUGS

       In Linux versions 3.5 to 3.14, the kernel imposed a ceiling of 1024  (HARD_QUEUESMAX)  on  the  value  to
       which  the  queues_max limit could be raised, and the ceiling was enforced even for privileged processes.
       This ceiling value was removed in Linux 3.14, and patches to stable kernels 3.5.x to 3.13.x also  removed
       the ceiling.

       As originally implemented (and documented), the QSIZE field displayed the total number of (user-supplied)
       bytes in all messages in the message  queue.   Some  changes  in  Linux  3.5  inadvertently  changed  the
       behavior, so that this field also included a count of kernel overhead bytes used to store the messages in
       the queue.  This behavioral regression was rectified in Linux 4.2 (and earlier stable kernel series),  so
       that the count once more included just the bytes of user data in messages in the queue.

SEE ALSO

       getrlimit(2), mq_getsetattr(2), poll(2), select(2), mq_close(3), mq_getattr(3), mq_notify(3), mq_open(3),
       mq_receive(3), mq_send(3), mq_unlink(3), epoll(7), namespaces(7)

COLOPHON

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