:mod:`!fcntl` --- The ``fcntl`` and ``ioctl`` system calls
==========================================================
.. module:: fcntl
:platform: Unix
:synopsis: The fcntl() and ioctl() system calls.
.. sectionauthor:: Jaap Vermeulen
.. index::
pair: UNIX; file control
pair: UNIX; I/O control
----------------
This module performs file and I/O control on file descriptors. It is an
interface to the :c:func:`fcntl` and :c:func:`ioctl` Unix routines.
See the :manpage:`fcntl(2)` and :manpage:`ioctl(2)` Unix manual pages
for full details.
.. availability:: Unix, not WASI.
All functions in this module take a file descriptor *fd* as their first
argument. This can be an integer file descriptor, such as returned by
``sys.stdin.fileno()``, or an :class:`io.IOBase` object, such as ``sys.stdin``
itself, which provides a :meth:`~io.IOBase.fileno` that returns a genuine file
descriptor.
.. versionchanged:: 3.3
Operations in this module used to raise an :exc:`IOError` where they now
raise an :exc:`OSError`.
.. versionchanged:: 3.8
The :mod:`!fcntl` module now contains ``F_ADD_SEALS``, ``F_GET_SEALS``, and
``F_SEAL_*`` constants for sealing of :func:`os.memfd_create` file
descriptors.
.. versionchanged:: 3.9
On macOS, the :mod:`!fcntl` module exposes the ``F_GETPATH`` constant,
which obtains the path of a file from a file descriptor.
On Linux(>=3.15), the :mod:`!fcntl` module exposes the ``F_OFD_GETLK``,
``F_OFD_SETLK`` and ``F_OFD_SETLKW`` constants, which are used when working
with open file description locks.
.. versionchanged:: 3.10
On Linux >= 2.6.11, the :mod:`!fcntl` module exposes the ``F_GETPIPE_SZ`` and
``F_SETPIPE_SZ`` constants, which allow to check and modify a pipe's size
respectively.
.. versionchanged:: 3.11
On FreeBSD, the :mod:`!fcntl` module exposes the ``F_DUP2FD`` and
``F_DUP2FD_CLOEXEC`` constants, which allow to duplicate a file descriptor,
the latter setting ``FD_CLOEXEC`` flag in addition.
.. versionchanged:: 3.12
On Linux >= 4.5, the :mod:`fcntl` module exposes the ``FICLONE`` and
``FICLONERANGE`` constants, which allow to share some data of one file with
another file by reflinking on some filesystems (e.g., btrfs, OCFS2, and
XFS). This behavior is commonly referred to as "copy-on-write".
.. versionchanged:: 3.13
On Linux >= 2.6.32, the :mod:`!fcntl` module exposes the
``F_GETOWN_EX``, ``F_SETOWN_EX``, ``F_OWNER_TID``, ``F_OWNER_PID``, ``F_OWNER_PGRP`` constants, which allow to direct I/O availability signals
to a specific thread, process, or process group.
On Linux >= 4.13, the :mod:`!fcntl` module exposes the
``F_GET_RW_HINT``, ``F_SET_RW_HINT``, ``F_GET_FILE_RW_HINT``,
``F_SET_FILE_RW_HINT``, and ``RWH_WRITE_LIFE_*`` constants, which allow
to inform the kernel about the relative expected lifetime of writes on
a given inode or via a particular open file description.
On Linux >= 5.1 and NetBSD, the :mod:`!fcntl` module exposes the
``F_SEAL_FUTURE_WRITE`` constant for use with ``F_ADD_SEALS`` and
``F_GET_SEALS`` operations.
On FreeBSD, the :mod:`!fcntl` module exposes the ``F_READAHEAD``, ``F_ISUNIONSTACK``, and ``F_KINFO`` constants.
On macOS and FreeBSD, the :mod:`!fcntl` module exposes the ``F_RDAHEAD``
constant.
On NetBSD and AIX, the :mod:`!fcntl` module exposes the ``F_CLOSEM``
constant.
On NetBSD, the :mod:`!fcntl` module exposes the ``F_MAXFD`` constant.
On macOS and NetBSD, the :mod:`!fcntl` module exposes the ``F_GETNOSIGPIPE``
and ``F_SETNOSIGPIPE`` constant.
The module defines the following functions:
.. function:: fcntl(fd, cmd, arg=0)
Perform the operation *cmd* on file descriptor *fd* (file objects providing
a :meth:`~io.IOBase.fileno` method are accepted as well). The values used
for *cmd* are operating system dependent, and are available as constants
in the :mod:`fcntl` module, using the same names as used in the relevant C
header files. The argument *arg* can either be an integer value, or a
:class:`bytes` object. With an integer value, the return value of this
function is the integer return value of the C :c:func:`fcntl` call. When
the argument is bytes it represents a binary structure, e.g. created by
:func:`struct.pack`. The binary data is copied to a buffer whose address is
passed to the C :c:func:`fcntl` call. The return value after a successful
call is the contents of the buffer, converted to a :class:`bytes` object.
The length of the returned object will be the same as the length of the
*arg* argument. This is limited to 1024 bytes. If the information returned
in the buffer by the operating system is larger than 1024 bytes, this is
most likely to result in a segmentation violation or a more subtle data
corruption.
If the :c:func:`fcntl` call fails, an :exc:`OSError` is raised.
.. audit-event:: fcntl.fcntl fd,cmd,arg fcntl.fcntl
.. function:: ioctl(fd, request, arg=0, mutate_flag=True)
This function is identical to the :func:`~fcntl.fcntl` function, except
that the argument handling is even more complicated.
The *request* parameter is limited to values that can fit in 32-bits.
Additional constants of interest for use as the *request* argument can be
found in the :mod:`termios` module, under the same names as used in
the relevant C header files.
The parameter *arg* can be one of an integer, an object supporting the
read-only buffer interface (like :class:`bytes`) or an object supporting
the read-write buffer interface (like :class:`bytearray`).
In all but the last case, behaviour is as for the :func:`~fcntl.fcntl`
function.
If a mutable buffer is passed, then the behaviour is determined by the value of
the *mutate_flag* parameter.
If it is false, the buffer's mutability is ignored and behaviour is as for a
read-only buffer, except that the 1024 byte limit mentioned above is avoided --
so long as the buffer you pass is at least as long as what the operating system
wants to put there, things should work.
If *mutate_flag* is true (the default), then the buffer is (in effect) passed
to the underlying :func:`ioctl` system call, the latter's return code is
passed back to the calling Python, and the buffer's new contents reflect the
action of the :func:`ioctl`. This is a slight simplification, because if the
supplied buffer is less than 1024 bytes long it is first copied into a static
buffer 1024 bytes long which is then passed to :func:`ioctl` and copied back
into the supplied buffer.
If the :c:func:`ioctl` call fails, an :exc:`OSError` exception is raised.
An example::
>>> import array, fcntl, struct, termios, os
>>> os.getpgrp()
13341
>>> struct.unpack('h', fcntl.ioctl(0, termios.TIOCGPGRP, " "))[0]
13341
>>> buf = array.array('h', [0])
>>> fcntl.ioctl(0, termios.TIOCGPGRP, buf, 1)
0
>>> buf
array('h', [13341])
.. audit-event:: fcntl.ioctl fd,request,arg fcntl.ioctl
.. function:: flock(fd, operation)
Perform the lock operation *operation* on file descriptor *fd* (file objects providing
a :meth:`~io.IOBase.fileno` method are accepted as well). See the Unix manual
:manpage:`flock(2)` for details. (On some systems, this function is emulated
using :c:func:`fcntl`.)
If the :c:func:`flock` call fails, an :exc:`OSError` exception is raised.
.. audit-event:: fcntl.flock fd,operation fcntl.flock
.. function:: lockf(fd, cmd, len=0, start=0, whence=0)
This is essentially a wrapper around the :func:`~fcntl.fcntl` locking calls.
*fd* is the file descriptor (file objects providing a :meth:`~io.IOBase.fileno`
method are accepted as well) of the file to lock or unlock, and *cmd*
is one of the following values:
.. data:: LOCK_UN
Release an existing lock.
.. data:: LOCK_SH
Acquire a shared lock.
.. data:: LOCK_EX
Acquire an exclusive lock.
.. data:: LOCK_NB
Bitwise OR with any of the other three ``LOCK_*`` constants to make
the request non-blocking.
If :const:`!LOCK_NB` is used and the lock cannot be acquired, an
:exc:`OSError` will be raised and the exception will have an *errno*
attribute set to :const:`~errno.EACCES` or :const:`~errno.EAGAIN` (depending on the
operating system; for portability, check for both values). On at least some
systems, :const:`!LOCK_EX` can only be used if the file descriptor refers to a
file opened for writing.
*len* is the number of bytes to lock, *start* is the byte offset at
which the lock starts, relative to *whence*, and *whence* is as with
:func:`io.IOBase.seek`, specifically:
* ``0`` -- relative to the start of the file (:const:`os.SEEK_SET`)
* ``1`` -- relative to the current buffer position (:const:`os.SEEK_CUR`)
* ``2`` -- relative to the end of the file (:const:`os.SEEK_END`)
The default for *start* is 0, which means to start at the beginning of the file.
The default for *len* is 0 which means to lock to the end of the file. The
default for *whence* is also 0.
.. audit-event:: fcntl.lockf fd,cmd,len,start,whence fcntl.lockf
Examples (all on a SVR4 compliant system)::
import struct, fcntl, os
f = open(...)
rv = fcntl.fcntl(f, fcntl.F_SETFL, os.O_NDELAY)
lockdata = struct.pack('hhllhh', fcntl.F_WRLCK, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
rv = fcntl.fcntl(f, fcntl.F_SETLKW, lockdata)
Note that in the first example the return value variable *rv* will hold an
integer value; in the second example it will hold a :class:`bytes` object. The
structure lay-out for the *lockdata* variable is system dependent --- therefore
using the :func:`flock` call may be better.
.. seealso::
Module :mod:`os`
If the locking flags :const:`~os.O_SHLOCK` and :const:`~os.O_EXLOCK` are
present in the :mod:`os` module (on BSD only), the :func:`os.open`
function provides an alternative to the :func:`lockf` and :func:`flock`
functions.
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