libstddjb
libskarnet
skalibs
Software
skarnet.org

The allreadwrite library interface

The following functions are declared in the skalibs/allreadwrite.h header, and implemented in the libskarnet.a or libskarnet.so library.

General information

allreadwrite is a set of IO function helpers. It's the basis for safe reading and writing, either in blocking or in non-blocking mode. The buffer interface relies heavily on allreadwrite.

Unless the IO you need is very simple, you generally should not be using the allreadwrite functions directly; you should use higher-level APIs such as buffer and bufalloc.

Function types

typedef ssize_t iofunc_t (int fd, char *buf, size_t len)
This is the simplified type of IO functions such as read() and write().

typedef size_t alliofunc_t (int fd, char *buf, size_t len)
This is the type of an IO operation that expects all of its len bytes to be sent or received, and that will loop around a lower-level IO function until either len bytes have been transmitted or an error has occurred. The return value is the actual number of transmitted bytes; if this value is lesser than len, it means that an error has occurred and errno is set.

Functions

ssize_t sanitize_read (ssize_t r)
Reading functions such as read() and fd_read return a positive number when they succeed, -1 when they fail, and 0 when they read an EOF. No data available on the descriptor when reading in non-blocking mode is treated as a failure: -1 EWOULDBLOCK. But sometimes (namely, in asynchronous IO loops) it's preferrable to handle EOF as an exception condition and EWOULDBLOCK as a normal condition. sanitize_read(), when applied to the result of a basic reading function, returns 0 if r is -1 and errno is EWOULDBLOCK (or EAGAIN). If r is zero, it returns -1 EPIPE. Else it returns r.

(No system reading function can ever set errno to EPIPE, and the semantics are appropriate, so EPIPE is a good candidate to signal EOF on reading.)

size_t allreadwrite (iofunc_t *f, int fd, char *s, size_t len)
*f must be a basic reading or writing function such as fd_read or fd_write. allreadwrite() performs *f on fd, s and len until len bytes have been read or written, or until an error occurs. It returns the total number of handled bytes, and sets errno if this number is not len. allreadwrite may block if fd is in blocking mode; if fd is in non-blocking mode, it might set errno to EWOULDBLOCK or EAGAIN.

ssize_t fd_read (int fd, char *s, size_t len)
Safe wrapper around the read() function.

ssize_t fd_write (int fd, char const *s, size_t len)
Safe wrapper around the write() function.

ssize_t fd_recv (int fd, char *s, size_t len, unsigned int flags)
Safe wrapper around the recv() function.

ssize_t fd_send (int fd, char const *s, size_t len, unsigned int flags)
Safe wrapper around the send() function.

size_t allread (int fd, char *s, size_t len)
Equivalent to allreadwrite(&fd_read, fd, s, len) : attempts to read len bytes from fd into s, looping around fd_read() if necessary, until either len bytes are read or an error occurs. EOF is reported as EPIPE.

size_t allwrite (int fd, char const *s, size_t len)
Equivalent to allreadwrite((iofunc_t *)&fd_write, fd, s, len) : attempts to write len bytes from s to fd, looping around fd_write() if necessary, until either len bytes are written or an error occurs.