Updated: 2022/Sep/29
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GETSOCKOPT(2) System Calls Manual GETSOCKOPT(2)
NAME
getsockopt, setsockopt, getsockopt2 - get and set options on sockets
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/socket.h>
int
getsockopt(int s, int level, int optname, void * restrict optval,
socklen_t * restrict optlen);
int
setsockopt(int s, int level, int optname, const void *optval,
socklen_t optlen);
int
getsockopt2(int s, int level, int optname, void * restrict optval,
socklen_t * restrict optlen);
DESCRIPTION
getsockopt(), setsockopt() and getsockopt2() manipulate the options
associated with a socket.
When manipulating socket options the level at which the option resides
and the name of the option must be specified. To manipulate options at
the socket level, level is specified as SOL_SOCKET. To manipulate
options at any other level the protocol number of the appropriate
protocol controlling the option is supplied. Options may exist at
multiple protocol levels. For example, to indicate that an option is to
be interpreted by the TCP protocol, level should be set to the protocol
number of TCP; see getprotoent(3).
The parameters optval and optlen are used to access option values for
setsockopt(). For getsockopt() and getsockopt2() they identify a buffer
in which the value for the requested option(s) are to be returned. For
getsockopt2() they are also used to provide an extra argument to select
which value to return. For getsockopt() and getsockopt2(), optlen is a
value-result parameter, initially containing the size of the buffer
pointed to by optval, and modified on return to indicate the actual size
of the value returned. If the size of the requested option value to be
stored in optval is greater than the size indicated in optlen then only
optlen bytes will be stored in optval and the result will be silently
truncated. If no option value is to be supplied or returned, optval may
be NULL.
optname and any specified options are passed uninterpreted to the
appropriate protocol module for interpretation. The include file
<sys/socket.h> contains definitions for socket level options, described
below. Options at other protocol levels vary in format and name; consult
the appropriate entries in section 4 of the manual, including: faith(4),
icmp6(4), ip(4), ip6(4), ipsec(4), multicast(4), pim(4), route(4),
tcp(4), and unix(4).
Most socket-level options use an int parameter for optval. For
setsockopt(), the parameter should be non-zero to enable a boolean
option, or zero if the option is to be disabled. SO_LINGER uses a struct
linger parameter, defined in <sys/socket.h>, which specifies the desired
state of the option and the linger interval (see below). SO_SNDTIMEO and
SO_RCVTIMEO use a struct timeval parameter, defined in <sys/time.h>.
The following options are recognized at the socket level. Except as
noted, each may be examined with getsockopt() or getsockopt2() and set
with setsockopt().
SO_DEBUG enables recording of debugging information
SO_REUSEADDR enables local address reuse
SO_REUSEPORT enables duplicate address and port bindings
SO_KEEPALIVE enables keep connections alive
SO_DONTROUTE enables routing bypass for outgoing messages
SO_LINGER linger on close if data present
SO_BROADCAST enables permission to transmit broadcast
messages
SO_OOBINLINE enables reception of out-of-band data in band
SO_SNDBUF set buffer size for output
SO_RCVBUF set buffer size for input
SO_SNDLOWAT set minimum count for output
SO_RCVLOWAT set minimum count for input
SO_SNDTIMEO set timeout value for output
SO_RCVTIMEO set timeout value for input
SO_TIMESTAMP enables reception of a timestamp with datagrams
SO_ACCEPTFILTER set accept filter on listening socket
SO_RERROR enables receive size error reporting
SO_NOSIGPIPE controls generation of SIGPIPE for the socket
SO_TYPE get the type of the socket (get only)
SO_ERROR get and clear error on the socket (get only)
SO_DEBUG enables debugging in the underlying protocol modules.
SO_REUSEADDR indicates that the rules used in validating addresses
supplied in a bind(2) call should allow reuse of local addresses.
SO_REUSEPORT allows completely duplicate bindings by multiple processes
if they all set SO_REUSEPORT before binding the port. This option
permits multiple instances of a program to each receive UDP/IP multicast
or broadcast datagrams destined for the bound port. SO_KEEPALIVE enables
the periodic transmission of messages on a connected socket. Should the
connected party fail to respond to these messages, the connection is
considered broken and processes using the socket are notified via a
SIGPIPE signal when attempting to send data. SO_DONTROUTE indicates that
outgoing messages should bypass the standard routing facilities.
Instead, messages are directed to the appropriate network interface
according to the network portion of the destination address. SO_RERROR
indicates that receive buffer overflows should be handled as errors.
Historically receive buffer overflows have been ignored and programs
could not tell if they missed messages or messages had been truncated
because of overflows. Since programs historically do not expect to get
receive overflow errors, this behavior is not the default, but the
default can be changed by setting the SO_RERROR flag using sysctl(8) and
kern.sooptions.
SO_LINGER controls the action taken when unsent messages are queued on
socket and a close(2) is performed. If the socket promises reliable
delivery of data and SO_LINGER is set, the system will block the process
on the close(2) attempt until it is able to transmit the data or until it
decides it is unable to deliver the information (a timeout period,
measured in seconds, termed the linger interval, is specified in the
setsockopt() call when SO_LINGER is requested). If SO_LINGER is disabled
and a close(2) is issued, the system will process the close in a manner
that allows the process to continue as quickly as possible.
The option SO_BROADCAST requests permission to send broadcast datagrams
on the socket. Broadcast was a privileged operation in earlier versions
of the system. With protocols that support out-of-band data, the
SO_OOBINLINE option requests that out-of-band data be placed in the
normal data input queue as received; it will then be accessible with
recv(2) or read(2) calls without the MSG_OOB flag. Some protocols always
behave as if this option is set. SO_SNDBUF and SO_RCVBUF are options to
adjust the normal buffer sizes allocated for output and input buffers,
respectively. The buffer size may be increased for high-volume
connections, or may be decreased to limit the possible backlog of
incoming data. The system places an absolute limit on these values.
SO_SNDLOWAT is an option to set the minimum count for output operations.
Most output operations process all of the data supplied by the call,
delivering data to the protocol for transmission and blocking as
necessary for flow control. Nonblocking output operations will process
as much data as permitted subject to flow control without blocking, but
will process no data if flow control does not allow the smaller of the
low water mark value or the entire request to be processed. A select(2)
or poll(2) operation testing the ability to write to a socket will return
true only if the low water mark amount could be processed. The default
value for SO_SNDLOWAT is set to a convenient size for network efficiency,
often 1024. SO_RCVLOWAT is an option to set the minimum count for input
operations. In general, receive calls will block until any (non-zero)
amount of data is received, then return with the smaller of the amount
available or the amount requested. The default value for SO_RCVLOWAT is
1. If SO_RCVLOWAT is set to a larger value, blocking receive calls
normally wait until they have received the smaller of the low water mark
value or the requested amount. Receive calls may still return less than
the low water mark if an error occurs, a signal is caught, or the type of
data next in the receive queue is different than that returned.
SO_SNDTIMEO is an option to set a timeout value for output operations.
It accepts a struct timeval parameter with the number of seconds and
microseconds used to limit waits for output operations to complete. If a
send operation has blocked for this much time, it returns with a partial
count or with the error EAGAIN if no data were sent. In the current
implementation, this timer is restarted each time additional data are
delivered to the protocol, implying that the limit applies to output
portions ranging in size from the low water mark to the high water mark
for output. SO_RCVTIMEO is an option to set a timeout value for input
operations. It accepts a struct timeval parameter with the number of
seconds and microseconds used to limit waits for input operations to
complete. In the current implementation, this timer is restarted each
time additional data are received by the protocol, and thus the limit is
in effect an inactivity timer. If a receive operation has been blocked
for this much time without receiving additional data, it returns with a
short count or with the error EAGAIN if no data were received.
If the SO_TIMESTAMP option is enabled on a SOCK_DGRAM socket, the
recvmsg(2) call will return a timestamp corresponding to when the
datagram was received. The msg_control field in the msghdr structure
points to a buffer that contains a cmsghdr structure followed by a struct
timeval. The cmsghdr fields have the following values:
cmsg_len = sizeof(struct timeval)
cmsg_level = SOL_SOCKET
cmsg_type = SCM_TIMESTAMP
SO_ACCEPTFILTER places an accept_filter(9) on the socket, which will
filter incoming connections on a listening socket before being presented
for accept(2). The setsockopt() system call will fail if the socket
already has a filter set, and listen(2) must be called on the socket
before trying to install a filter. The optval argument should point to a
struct accept_filter_arg that will select and configure the
accept_filter(9), defined as follows:
struct accept_filter_arg {
char af_name[16];
char af_arg[256-16];
};
The af_name argument should be filled with the name of the accept filter
that the application wishes to place on the listening socket. The
optional argument af_arg can be passed to the accept filter specified by
af_name to provide additional configuration options at attach time.
Passing in an optval of NULL will remove the filter.
Finally, SO_TYPE and SO_ERROR are options used only with getsockopt() or
getsockopt2(). SO_TYPE returns the type of the socket, such as
SOCK_STREAM; it is useful for servers that inherit sockets on startup.
SO_ERROR returns any pending error on the socket and clears the error
status. It may be used to check for asynchronous errors on connected
datagram sockets or for other asynchronous errors.
RETURN VALUES
A 0 is returned if the call succeeds, -1 if it fails.
ERRORS
The call succeeds unless:
[EBADF] The argument s is not a valid descriptor.
[EFAULT] The address pointed to by optval is not in a valid
part of the process address space. For getsockopt(),
this error may also be returned if optlen is not in a
valid part of the process address space.
[EINVAL] The socket s was not suitable for installing an
accept_filter(9).
[ENOPROTOOPT] The option is unknown at the level indicated.
[ENOTSOCK] The argument s is a file, not a socket.
SEE ALSO
ioctl(2), poll(2), select(2), socket(2), getprotoent(3), faith(4),
icmp6(4), ip(4), ip6(4), ipsec(4), multicast(4), pim(4), route(4),
tcp(4), unix(4), protocols(5), accept_filter(9)
HISTORY
The getsockopt() system call appeared in 4.2BSD.
The getsockopt2() system call appeared in NetBSD 9.0.
BUGS
Several of the socket options should be handled at lower levels of the
system.
NetBSD 10.99 August 7, 2021 NetBSD 10.99