semctl(2)



SEMCTL(2)                  Linux Programmer's Manual                 SEMCTL(2)

NAME
       semctl - System V semaphore control operations

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <sys/ipc.h>
       #include <sys/sem.h>

       int semctl(int semid, int semnum, int cmd, ...);

DESCRIPTION
       semctl()  performs  the  control operation specified by cmd on the Sys-
       tem V semaphore set identified by semid, or on the semnum-th  semaphore
       of that set.  (The semaphores in a set are numbered starting at 0.)

       This  function  has  three  or  four arguments, depending on cmd.  When
       there are four, the fourth has the type union semun.  The calling  pro-
       gram must define this union as follows:

           union semun {
               int              val;    /* Value for SETVAL */
               struct semid_ds *buf;    /* Buffer for IPC_STAT, IPC_SET */
               unsigned short  *array;  /* Array for GETALL, SETALL */
               struct seminfo  *__buf;  /* Buffer for IPC_INFO
                                           (Linux-specific) */
           };

       The semid_ds data structure is defined in <sys/sem.h> as follows:

           struct semid_ds {
               struct ipc_perm sem_perm;  /* Ownership and permissions */
               time_t          sem_otime; /* Last semop time */
               time_t          sem_ctime; /* Creation time/time of last
                                             modification via semctl() */
               unsigned long   sem_nsems; /* No. of semaphores in set */
           };
       The fields of the semid_ds structure are as follows:

       sem_perm   This is an ipc_perm structure (see below) that specifies the
                  access permissions on the semaphore set.

       sem_otime  Time of last semop(2) system call.

       sem_ctime  Time of creation of semaphore set or time of  last  semctl()
                  IPCSET, SETVAL, or SETVALL operation.

       sem_nsems  Number  of semaphores in the set.  Each semaphore of the set
                  is referenced by a nonnegative integer  ranging  from  0  to
                  sem_nsems-1.

       The  ipc_perm  structure  is defined as follows (the highlighted fields
       are settable using IPC_SET):

           struct ipc_perm {
               key_t          __key; /* Key supplied to semget(2) */
               uid_t          uid;   /* Effective UID of owner */
               gid_t          gid;   /* Effective GID of owner */
               uid_t          cuid;  /* Effective UID of creator */
               gid_t          cgid;  /* Effective GID of creator */
               unsigned short mode;  /* Permissions */
               unsigned short __seq; /* Sequence number */
           };

       The least significant 9 bits of the mode field of the  ipc_perm  struc-
       ture  define the access permissions for the shared memory segment.  The
       permission bits are as follows:

       0400   Read by user
       0200   Write by user
       0040   Read by group
       0020   Write by group
       0004   Read by others
       0002   Write by others

       In effect, "write" means "alter" for a semaphore set.  Bits 0100, 0010,
       and 0001 (the execute bits) are unused by the system.

       Valid values for cmd are:

       IPC_STAT
              Copy  information from the kernel data structure associated with
              semid into the semid_ds structure pointed to  by  arg.buf.   The
              argument  semnum is ignored.  The calling process must have read
              permission on the semaphore set.

       IPC_SET
              Write the values of  some  members  of  the  semid_ds  structure
              pointed  to  by  arg.buf to the kernel data structure associated
              with this semaphore set, updating  also  its  sem_ctime  member.
              The   following   members   of   the   structure   are  updated:
              sem_perm.uid, sem_perm.gid, and (the least  significant  9  bits
              of)  sem_perm.mode.   The  effective  UID of the calling process
              must match the owner (sem_perm.uid) or  creator  (sem_perm.cuid)
              of the semaphore set, or the caller must be privileged.  The ar-
              gument semnum is ignored.

       IPC_RMID
              Immediately remove the semaphore set,  awakening  all  processes
              blocked  in  semop(2) calls on the set (with an error return and
              errno set to EIDRM).  The  effective  user  ID  of  the  calling
              process must match the creator or owner of the semaphore set, or
              the caller must be privileged.  The argument semnum is ignored.

       IPC_INFO (Linux-specific)
              Return information about system-wide semaphore limits and param-
              eters  in the structure pointed to by arg.__buf.  This structure
              is of type seminfo, defined in <sys/sem.h>  if  the  _GNU_SOURCE
              feature test macro is defined:

                  struct  seminfo {
                      int semmap;  /* Number of entries in semaphore
                                      map; unused within kernel */
                      int semmni;  /* Maximum number of semaphore sets */
                      int semmns;  /* Maximum number of semaphores in all
                                      semaphore sets */
                      int semmnu;  /* System-wide maximum number of undo
                                      structures; unused within kernel */
                      int semmsl;  /* Maximum number of semaphores in a
                                      set */
                      int semopm;  /* Maximum number of operations for
                                      semop(2) */
                      int semume;  /* Maximum number of undo entries per
                                      process; unused within kernel */
                      int semusz;  /* Size of struct sem_undo */
                      int semvmx;  /* Maximum semaphore value */
                      int semaem;  /* Max. value that can be recorded for
                                      semaphore adjustment (SEM_UNDO) */
                  };

              The  semmsl,  semmns, semopm, and semmni settings can be changed
              via /proc/sys/kernel/sem; see proc(5) for details.

       SEM_INFO (Linux-specific)
              Return a seminfo structure containing the  same  information  as
              for IPC_INFO, except that the following fields are returned with
              information about system resources consumed by  semaphores:  the
              semusz field returns the number of semaphore sets that currently
              exist on the system; and the semaem field returns the total num-
              ber of semaphores in all semaphore sets on the system.

       SEM_STAT (Linux-specific)
              Return a semid_ds structure as for IPC_STAT.  However, the semid
              argument is not a semaphore identifier,  but  instead  an  index
              into  the  kernel's  internal  array  that maintains information
              about all semaphore sets on the system.

       SEM_STAT_ANY (Linux-specific, since Linux 4.17)
              Return a seminfo structure containing the  same  information  as
              for  SEM_STAT.   However,  sem_perm.mode is not checked for read
              access for semid meaning that any user can employ this operation
              (just  as any user may read /proc/sysvipc/sem to obtain the same
              information).

       GETALL Return semval (i.e., the current value) for  all  semaphores  of
              the  set  into  arg.array.  The argument semnum is ignored.  The
              calling process must have read permission on the semaphore set.

       GETNCNT
              Return the semncnt value for the semnum-th semaphore of the  set
              (i.e., the number of processes waiting for the semaphore's value
              to increase).  The calling process must have read permission  on
              the semaphore set.

       GETPID Return  the sempid value for the semnum-th semaphore of the set.
              This is the PID of the process that last performed an  operation
              on  that  semaphore  (but  see NOTES).  The calling process must
              have read permission on the semaphore set.

       GETVAL Return semval (i.e., the semaphore value) for the semnum-th sem-
              aphore  of  the set.  The calling process must have read permis-
              sion on the semaphore set.

       GETZCNT
              Return the semzcnt value for the semnum-th semaphore of the  set
              (i.e.,  the  number of processes waiting for the semaphore value
              to become 0).  The calling process must have read permission  on
              the semaphore set.

       SETALL Set  the  semval  values  for  all  semaphores  of the set using
              arg.array, updating also the sem_ctime member  of  the  semid_ds
              structure  associated with the set.  Undo entries (see semop(2))
              are cleared for altered semaphores in  all  processes.   If  the
              changes  to semaphore values would permit blocked semop(2) calls
              in other processes to proceed, then those  processes  are  woken
              up.   The  argument semnum is ignored.  The calling process must
              have alter (write) permission on the semaphore set.

       SETVAL Set the semaphore value (semval) to arg.val  for  the  semnum-th
              semaphore  of the set, updating also the sem_ctime member of the
              semid_ds structure associated with the set.   Undo  entries  are
              cleared for altered semaphores in all processes.  If the changes
              to semaphore values would permit blocked semop(2) calls in other
              processes  to  proceed,  then those processes are woken up.  The
              calling process must have alter permission on the semaphore set.

RETURN VALUE
       On failure, semctl() returns -1 with errno indicating the error.

       Otherwise, the system call returns a nonnegative value depending on cmd
       as follows:

       GETNCNT
              the value of semncnt.

       GETPID the value of sempid.

       GETVAL the value of semval.

       GETZCNT
              the value of semzcnt.

       IPC_INFO
              the index of the highest used entry in the kernel's internal ar-
              ray recording information about all semaphore sets.   (This  in-
              formation can be used with repeated SEM_STAT or SEM_STAT_ANY op-
              erations to obtain information about all semaphore sets  on  the
              system.)

       SEM_INFO
              as for IPC_INFO.

       SEM_STAT
              the  identifier  of  the  semaphore set whose index was given in
              semid.

       SEM_STAT_ANY
              as for SEM_STAT.

       All other cmd values return 0 on success.

ERRORS
       On failure, errno will be set to one of the following:

       EACCES The argument cmd has one of the values GETALL,  GETPID,  GETVAL,
              GETNCNT,  GETZCNT,  IPC_STAT, SEM_STAT, SEM_STAT_ANY, SETALL, or
              SETVAL and the calling process does not have the  required  per-
              missions   on   the   semaphore   set  and  does  not  have  the
              CAP_IPC_OWNER capability in the user namespace that governs  its
              IPC namespace.

       EFAULT The address pointed to by arg.buf or arg.array isn't accessible.

       EIDRM  The semaphore set was removed.

       EINVAL Invalid  value  for cmd or semid.  Or: for a SEM_STAT operation,
              the index value specified in semid referred  to  an  array  slot
              that is currently unused.

       EPERM  The  argument  cmd has the value IPC_SET or IPC_RMID but the ef-
              fective user ID of the calling process is not  the  creator  (as
              found  in sem_perm.cuid) or the owner (as found in sem_perm.uid)
              of the  semaphore  set,  and  the  process  does  not  have  the
              CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability.

       ERANGE The argument cmd has the value SETALL or SETVAL and the value to
              which semval is to be set (for some semaphore  of  the  set)  is
              less than 0 or greater than the implementation limit SEMVMX.

CONFORMING TO
       POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, SVr4.

       POSIX.1 specifies the sem_nsems field of the semid_ds structure as hav-
       ing the type unsigned short, and the field is so defined on most  other
       systems.   It  was also so defined on Linux 2.2 and earlier, but, since
       Linux 2.4, the field has the type unsigned long.

NOTES
       The inclusion of <sys/types.h> and <sys/ipc.h> isn't required on  Linux
       or by any version of POSIX.  However, some old implementations required
       the inclusion of these header files, and the SVID also documented their
       inclusion.   Applications  intended  to be portable to such old systems
       may need to include these header files.

       The IPC_INFO, SEM_STAT and SEM_INFO operations are used by the  ipcs(1)
       program  to  provide information on allocated resources.  In the future
       these may modified or moved to a /proc filesystem interface.

       Various fields in a struct semid_ds were typed as short under Linux 2.2
       and have become long under Linux 2.4.  To take advantage of this, a re-
       compilation under glibc-2.1.91 or later should  suffice.   (The  kernel
       distinguishes old and new calls by an IPC_64 flag in cmd.)

       In  some  earlier  versions  of  glibc,  the semun union was defined in
       <sys/sem.h>, but POSIX.1 requires that the caller  define  this  union.
       On  versions  of  glibc  where  this  union  is  not defined, the macro
       _SEM_SEMUN_UNDEFINED is defined in <sys/sem.h>.

       The following system limit on semaphore sets affects a semctl() call:

       SEMVMX Maximum value for semval: implementation dependent (32767).

       For greater portability, it is best to always call semctl()  with  four
       arguments.

   The sempid value
       POSIX.1 defines sempid as the "process ID of [the] last operation" on a
       semaphore, and explicitly notes that this value is set by a  successful
       semop(2) call, with the implication that no other interface affects the
       sempid value.

       While  some  implementations  conform  to  the  behavior  specified  in
       POSIX.1,  others  do  not.   (The fault here probably lies with POSIX.1
       inasmuch as it likely failed to capture the full range of existing  im-
       plementation  behaviors.)   Various  other  implementations also update
       sempid for the other operations that update the value of  a  semaphore:
       the  SETVAL and SETALL operations, as well as the semaphore adjustments
       performed on process termination as a consequence of  the  use  of  the
       SEM_UNDO flag (see semop(2)).

       Linux  also  updates sempid for SETVAL operations and semaphore adjust-
       ments.  However, somewhat inconsistently, up  to  and  including  Linux
       4.5,  the kernel did not update sempid for SETALL operations.  This was
       rectified in Linux 4.6.

EXAMPLES
       See shmop(2).

SEE ALSO
       ipc(2),   semget(2),   semop(2),   capabilities(7),    sem_overview(7),
       sysvipc(7)

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 5.07 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, information about reporting bugs,  and  the
       latest     version     of     this    page,    can    be    found    at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux                             2020-04-11                         SEMCTL(2)

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