xref: /openbsd/lib/libc/sys/getsockopt.2 (revision 3d8817e4)
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31.\"     @(#)getsockopt.2	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
32.\"
33.Dd $Mdocdate: April 22 2011 $
34.Dt GETSOCKOPT 2
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm getsockopt ,
38.Nm setsockopt
39.Nd get and set options on sockets
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Fd #include <sys/types.h>
42.Fd #include <sys/socket.h>
43.Ft int
44.Fn getsockopt "int s" "int level" "int optname" "void *optval" "socklen_t *optlen"
45.Ft int
46.Fn setsockopt "int s" "int level" "int optname" "const void *optval" "socklen_t optlen"
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48.Fn getsockopt
49and
50.Fn setsockopt
51manipulate the
52.Em options
53associated with a socket.
54Options may exist at multiple protocol levels;
55they are always present at the uppermost
56.Dq socket
57level.
58.Pp
59When manipulating socket options the level at which the
60option resides and the name of the option must be specified.
61To manipulate options at the socket level,
62.Fa level
63is specified as
64.Dv SOL_SOCKET .
65To manipulate options at any other level the protocol number of the
66appropriate protocol controlling the option is supplied.
67For example, to indicate that an option is to be interpreted by the
68.Tn TCP
69protocol,
70.Fa level
71should be set to the protocol number of
72.Tn TCP ;
73see
74.Xr getprotoent 3 .
75.Pp
76The parameters
77.Fa optval
78and
79.Fa optlen
80are used to access option values for
81.Fn setsockopt .
82For
83.Fn getsockopt
84they identify a buffer in which the value for the
85requested option(s) are to be returned.
86For
87.Fn getsockopt ,
88.Fa optlen
89is a value-result parameter, initially containing the
90size of the buffer pointed to by
91.Fa optval ,
92and modified on return to indicate the actual size of the value returned.
93If no option value is to be supplied or returned,
94.Fa optval
95may be
96.Dv NULL .
97.Pp
98.Fa optname
99and any specified options are passed uninterpreted to the appropriate
100protocol module for interpretation.
101The include file
102.Aq Pa sys/socket.h
103contains definitions for socket level options, described below.
104Options at other protocol levels vary in format and name;
105consult the appropriate entries in section 4 of the manual.
106.Pp
107Most socket-level options utilize an
108.Li int
109parameter for
110.Fa optval .
111For
112.Fn setsockopt ,
113the parameter should be non-zero to enable a boolean option,
114or zero if the option is to be disabled.
115.Dv SO_LINGER
116uses a
117.Li struct linger
118parameter, defined in
119.Aq Pa sys/socket.h ,
120which specifies the desired state of the option and the
121linger interval (see below).
122.Dv SO_SNDTIMEO
123and
124.Dv SO_RCVTIMEO
125use a
126.Li struct timeval
127parameter, defined in
128.Aq Pa sys/time.h .
129.Pp
130The following options are recognized at the socket level.
131Except as noted, each may be examined with
132.Fn getsockopt
133and set with
134.Fn setsockopt .
135.Bl -column SO_OOBINLINE -offset indent
136.It Dv SO_DEBUG Ta "enables recording of debugging information"
137.It Dv SO_REUSEADDR Ta "enables local address reuse"
138.It Dv SO_REUSEPORT Ta "enables duplicate address and port bindings"
139.It Dv SO_KEEPALIVE Ta "enables keep connections alive"
140.It Dv SO_DONTROUTE Ta "enables routing bypass for outgoing messages"
141.It Dv SO_LINGER Ta "linger on close if data present"
142.It Dv SO_BROADCAST Ta "enables permission to transmit broadcast messages"
143.It Dv SO_OOBINLINE Ta "enables reception of out-of-band data in band"
144.It Dv SO_BINDANY Ta "enables binding to any address"
145.It Dv SO_SNDBUF Ta "set buffer size for output"
146.It Dv SO_RCVBUF Ta "set buffer size for input"
147.It Dv SO_SNDLOWAT Ta "set minimum count for output"
148.It Dv SO_RCVLOWAT Ta "set minimum count for input"
149.It Dv SO_SNDTIMEO Ta "set timeout value for output"
150.It Dv SO_RCVTIMEO Ta "set timeout value for input"
151.It Dv SO_TIMESTAMP Ta "enables reception of a timestamp with datagrams"
152.It Dv SO_PEERCRED Ta "get the credentials from other side of connection"
153.It Dv SO_SPLICE Ta "splice two sockets together or get data length"
154.It Dv SO_TYPE Ta "get the type of the socket (get only)"
155.It Dv SO_ERROR Ta "get and clear error on the socket (get only)"
156.El
157.Pp
158.Dv SO_DEBUG
159enables debugging in the underlying protocol modules.
160.Dv SO_REUSEADDR
161indicates that the rules used in validating addresses supplied in a
162.Xr bind 2
163call should allow reuse of local addresses.
164.Dv SO_REUSEPORT
165allows completely duplicate bindings by multiple processes if they all set
166.Dv SO_REUSEPORT
167before binding the port.
168This option permits multiple instances of a program to each
169receive UDP/IP multicast or broadcast datagrams destined for the bound port.
170.Dv SO_KEEPALIVE
171enables the periodic transmission of messages on a connected socket.
172Should the connected party fail to respond to these messages, the connection
173is considered broken and processes using the socket are notified via a
174.Dv SIGPIPE
175signal when attempting to send data.
176.Dv SO_DONTROUTE
177indicates that outgoing messages should
178bypass the standard routing facilities.
179Instead, messages are directed to the appropriate network interface
180according to the network portion of the destination address.
181.Pp
182.Dv SO_LINGER
183controls the action taken when unsent messages
184are queued on socket and a
185.Xr close 2
186is performed.
187If the socket promises reliable delivery of data and
188.Dv SO_LINGER
189is set, the system will block the process on the
190.Xr close 2
191attempt until it is able to transmit the data or until it decides it
192is unable to deliver the information (a timeout period measured in seconds,
193termed the linger interval, is specified in the
194.Fn setsockopt
195call when
196.Dv SO_LINGER
197is requested).
198If
199.Dv SO_LINGER
200is disabled and a
201.Xr close 2
202is issued, the system will process the close in a manner that allows
203the process to continue as quickly as possible.
204.Pp
205The option
206.Dv SO_BROADCAST
207requests permission to send broadcast datagrams
208on the socket.
209Broadcast was a privileged operation in earlier versions of the system.
210With protocols that support out-of-band data, the
211.Dv SO_OOBINLINE
212option requests that out-of-band data be placed in the normal data input
213queue as received; it will then be accessible with
214.Xr recv 2
215or
216.Xr read 2
217calls without the
218.Dv MSG_OOB
219flag.
220Some protocols always behave as if this option is set.
221.Pp
222.Dv SO_BINDANY
223allows the socket to be bound to addresses
224which are not local to the machine, so it
225can be used to make a transparent proxy.
226Note that this option is limited to the super-user.
227In order to receive packets for these addresses,
228.Dv SO_BINDANY
229needs to be combined with matching outgoing
230.Xr pf 4
231divert rules.
232For example, with the following rule the socket receives packets
233for 192.168.0.10 even if it is not a local address:
234.Pp
235.Dl pass out inet from 192.168.0.10 divert-reply
236.Pp
237.Dv SO_SNDBUF
238and
239.Dv SO_RCVBUF
240are options to adjust the normal
241buffer sizes allocated for output and input buffers, respectively.
242The buffer size may be increased for high-volume connections,
243or may be decreased to limit the possible backlog of incoming data.
244The system places an absolute limit on these values.
245.Pp
246.Dv SO_SNDLOWAT
247is an option to set the minimum count for output operations.
248Most output operations process all of the data supplied
249by the call, delivering data to the protocol for transmission
250and blocking as necessary for flow control.
251Nonblocking output operations will process as much data as permitted
252subject to flow control without blocking, but will process no data
253if flow control does not allow the smaller of the low water mark value
254or the entire request to be processed.
255A
256.Xr select 2
257or
258.Xr poll 2
259operation testing the ability to write to a socket will return true
260only if the low water mark amount could be processed.
261The default value for
262.Dv SO_SNDLOWAT
263is set to a convenient size for network efficiency, often 1024.
264.Dv SO_RCVLOWAT
265is an option to set the minimum count for input operations.
266In general, receive calls will block until any (non-zero) amount of data
267is received, then return with the smaller of the amount available or the amount
268requested.
269The default value for
270.Dv SO_RCVLOWAT
271is 1.
272If
273.Dv SO_RCVLOWAT
274is set to a larger value, blocking receive calls normally
275wait until they have received the smaller of the low water mark value
276or the requested amount.
277Receive calls may still return less than the low water mark if an error
278occurs, a signal is caught, or the type of data next in the receive queue
279is different than that returned.
280.Pp
281.Dv SO_SNDTIMEO
282is an option to set a timeout value for output operations.
283It accepts a
284.Li struct timeval
285parameter with the number of seconds and microseconds
286used to limit waits for output operations to complete.
287If a send operation has blocked for this much time,
288it returns with a partial count or with the error
289.Er EWOULDBLOCK
290if no data was sent.
291In the current implementation, this timer is restarted each time additional
292data are delivered to the protocol,
293implying that the limit applies to output portions ranging in size
294from the low water mark to the high water mark for output.
295.Dv SO_RCVTIMEO
296is an option to set a timeout value for input operations.
297It accepts a
298.Li struct timeval
299parameter with the number of seconds and microseconds
300used to limit waits for input operations to complete.
301In the current implementation, this timer is restarted each time additional
302data are received by the protocol,
303and thus the limit is in effect an inactivity timer.
304If a receive operation has been blocked for this much time without
305receiving additional data, it returns with a short count
306or with the error
307.Er EWOULDBLOCK
308if no data were received.
309.Pp
310If the
311.Dv SO_TIMESTAMP
312option is enabled on a
313.Dv SOCK_DGRAM
314socket, the
315.Xr recvmsg 2
316call will return a timestamp corresponding to when the datagram was
317received.
318The msg_control field in the msghdr structure points to a buffer
319that contains a cmsghdr structure followed by a struct timeval.
320The cmsghdr fields have the following values:
321.Bd -literal -offset indent
322cmsg_len = CMSG_LEN(sizeof(struct timeval))
323cmsg_level = SOL_SOCKET
324cmsg_type = SCM_TIMESTAMP
325.Ed
326.Pp
327.Dv SO_PEERCRED
328fetches the
329.Va struct sockpeercred
330credentials from the other side of the connection
331(currently only possible on
332.Dv AF_UNIX
333sockets).
334These credentials are from the time that
335.Xr bind 2
336or
337.Xr connect 2
338were called.
339.Pp
340.Dv SO_SPLICE
341can splice together two connected TCP sockets for zero-copy data
342transfers.
343In the first form,
344.Fn setsockopt
345is called with the source socket
346.Fa s
347and the drain socket's
348.Vt int
349file descriptor as
350.Fa optval .
351In the second form,
352.Fa optval
353is a
354.Vt struct splice
355with the drain socket in
356.Va sp_fd
357and a positive maximum number of bytes or 0 in
358.Va sp_max .
359If \-1 is given as drain socket, the source socket
360.Fa s
361gets unspliced.
362Otherwise the spliced data transfer continues within the kernel
363until the optional maximum is reached, one of the connections
364terminates or an error occurs.
365A successful
366.Xr select 2 ,
367.Xr poll 2 ,
368or
369.Xr kqueue 2
370operation testing the ability to read from the source socket indicates
371that the splicing has terminated.
372After reaching the maximum, it becomes readable only when more data
373is available.
374The error status can be examined with
375.Dv SO_ERROR
376at the source socket.
377Note that if a maximum is given, it is only guaranteed that no more
378bytes are transferred.
379A short splice can happen but then a second call to splice will
380transfer the remaining data immediately.
381Also the readability check will not indicate that the maximum has
382been reached but that data after the maximum is available.
383The
384.Dv SO_SPLICE
385option with
386.Fn getsockopt
387and an
388.Vt off_t
389value as
390.Fa optval
391can be used to retrieve the number of bytes transferred so far from the
392source socket
393.Fa s .
394A successful new splice resets this number.
395.Pp
396Finally,
397.Dv SO_TYPE
398and
399.Dv SO_ERROR
400are options used only with
401.Fn getsockopt .
402.Dv SO_TYPE
403returns the type of the socket, such as
404.Dv SOCK_STREAM ;
405it is useful for servers that inherit sockets on startup.
406.Dv SO_ERROR
407returns any pending error on the socket and clears the error status.
408It may be used to check for asynchronous errors on connected
409datagram sockets or for other asynchronous errors.
410.Sh RETURN VALUES
411A 0 is returned if the call succeeds, \-1 if it fails.
412.Sh ERRORS
413The call succeeds unless:
414.Bl -tag -width Er
415.It Bq Er EBADF
416The argument
417.Fa s
418is not a valid descriptor.
419.It Bq Er ENOTSOCK
420The argument
421.Fa s
422is a file, not a socket.
423.It Bq Er ENOPROTOOPT
424The option is unknown at the level indicated.
425.It Bq Er EFAULT
426The address pointed to by
427.Fa optval
428is not in a valid part of the process address space.
429For
430.Fn getsockopt ,
431this error may also be returned if
432.Fa optlen
433is not in a valid part of the process address space.
434.El
435.Sh SEE ALSO
436.Xr connect 2 ,
437.Xr ioctl 2 ,
438.Xr poll 2 ,
439.Xr select 2 ,
440.Xr socket 2 ,
441.Xr getprotoent 3 ,
442.Xr pf.conf 5 ,
443.Xr protocols 5 ,
444.Xr sosplice 9
445.Sh HISTORY
446The
447.Fn getsockopt
448system call appeared in
449.Bx 4.2 .
450.Sh BUGS
451Several of the socket options should be handled at lower levels of the system.
452