epoll
is a variant of
poll(2)
that can be used either as an edge-triggered or a level-triggered
interface and scales well to large numbers of watched file descriptors.
The following system calls are provided to
set up and control an
epoll
set:
epoll_create(2)
(or
epoll_create1(2)),
epoll_ctl(2),
epoll_wait(2).
An
epoll
set is connected to a file descriptor created by
epoll_create(2).
(The more recent
epoll_create1(2)
extends the functionality of
epoll_create(2).)
Interest for certain file descriptors is then registered via
epoll_ctl(2).
Finally, the actual wait is started by
epoll_wait(2).
Level-Triggered and Edge-Triggered
The
epoll
event distribution interface is able to behave both as edge-triggered
(ET) and level-triggered (LT).
The difference between the two mechanisms
can be described as follows.
Suppose that
this scenario happens:
1.
The file descriptor that represents the read side of a pipe
(rfd)
is added inside the
epoll
device.
2.
A pipe writer writes 2 kB of data on the write side of the pipe.
3.
A call to
epoll_wait(2)
is done that will return
rfd
as a ready file descriptor.
If the
rfd
file descriptor has been added to the
epoll
interface using the
EPOLLET
(edge-triggered)
flag, the call to
epoll_wait(2)
done in step
5
will probably hang despite the available data still present in the file
input buffer;
meanwhile the remote peer might be expecting a response based on the
data it already sent.
The reason for this is that edge-triggered mode only
delivers events when changes occur on the monitored file descriptor.
So, in step
5
the caller might end up waiting for some data that is already present inside
the input buffer.
In the above example, an event on
rfd
will be generated because of the write done in
2
and the event is consumed in
3.
Since the read operation done in
4
does not consume the whole buffer data, the call to
epoll_wait(2)
done in step
5
might block indefinitely.
An application that employs the
EPOLLET
flag should use non-blocking file descriptors to avoid having a blocking
read or write starve a task that is handling multiple file descriptors.
The suggested way to use
epoll
as an edge-triggered
(EPOLLET)
interface is as follows:
i
with non-blocking file descriptors; and
ii
by waiting for an event only after
read(2)
or
write(2)
return
EAGAIN.
By contrast, when used as a level-triggered interface
(the default, when
EPOLLET
is not specified),
epoll
is simply a faster
poll(2),
and can be used wherever the latter is used since it shares the
same semantics.
Since even with the edge-triggered
epoll
multiple events can be generated upon receipt of multiple chunks of data,
the caller has the option to specify the
EPOLLONESHOT
flag, to tell
epoll
to disable the associated file descriptor after the receipt of an event with
epoll_wait(2).
When the
EPOLLONESHOT
flag is specified,
it is the caller's responsibility to rearm the file descriptor using
epoll_ctl(2)
with
EPOLL_CTL_MOD.
Example for Suggested Usage
While the usage of
epoll
when employed as a level-triggered interface does have the same
semantics as
poll(2),
the edge-triggered usage requires more clarification to avoid stalls
in the application event loop.
In this example, listener is a
non-blocking socket on which
listen(2)
has been called.
The function
do_use_fd()
uses the new ready file descriptor until
EAGAIN
is returned by either
read(2)
or
write(2).
An event-driven state machine application should, after having received
EAGAIN,
record its current state so that at the next call to
do_use_fd()
it will continue to
read(2)
or
write(2)
from where it stopped before.
When used as an edge-triggered interface, for performance reasons, it is
possible to add the file descriptor inside the
epoll
interface
(EPOLL_CTL_ADD)
once by specifying
(EPOLLIN|EPOLLOUT).
This allows you to avoid
continuously switching between
EPOLLIN
and
EPOLLOUT
calling
epoll_ctl(2)
with
EPOLL_CTL_MOD.
Questions and Answers
Q0
What is the key used to distinguish the file descriptors in an
epoll
set?
A0
The key is the combination of the file descriptor number and
the open file description
(also known as an "open file handle",
the kernel's internal representation of an open file).
Q1
What happens if you add the same file descriptor to an
epoll
set twice?
A1
You will probably get
EEXIST.
However, it is possible to add a duplicate
(dup(2),
dup2(2),
fcntl(2)
F_DUPFD)
descriptor to the same
epoll
set.
This can be a useful technique for filtering events,
if the duplicate file descriptors are registered with different
events
masks.
Q2
Can two
epoll
sets wait for the same file descriptor?
If so, are events reported to both
epoll
file descriptors?
A2
Yes, and events would be reported to both.
However, careful programming may be needed to do this correctly.
Q3
Is the
epoll
file descriptor itself poll/epoll/selectable?
A3
Yes.
If an
epoll
file descriptor has events waiting then it will
indicate as being readable.
Q4
What happens if the
epoll
file descriptor is put into its own file descriptor set?
A4
The
epoll_ctl(2)
call will fail
(EINVAL).
However, you can add an
epoll
file descriptor inside another
epoll
file descriptor set.
Q5
Can I send an
epoll
file descriptor over a Unix domain socket to another process?
A5
Yes, but it does not make sense to do this, since the receiving process
would not have copies of the file descriptors in the
epoll
set.
Q6
Will closing a file descriptor cause it to be removed from all
epoll
sets automatically?
A6
Yes, but be aware of the following point.
A file descriptor is a reference to an open file description (see
open(2)).
Whenever a descriptor is duplicated via
dup(2),
dup2(2),
fcntl(2)
F_DUPFD,
or
fork(2),
a new file descriptor referring to the same open file description is
created.
An open file description continues to exist until all
file descriptors referring to it have been closed.
A file descriptor is removed from an
epoll
set only after all the file descriptors referring to the underlying
open file description have been closed
(or before if the descriptor is explicitly removed using
epoll_ctl()
EPOLL_CTL_DEL).
This means that even after a file descriptor that is part of an
epoll
set has been closed,
events may be reported for that file descriptor if other file
descriptors referring to the same underlying file description remain open.
Q7
If more than one event occurs between
epoll_wait(2)
calls, are they combined or reported separately?
A7
They will be combined.
Q8
Does an operation on a file descriptor affect the
already collected but not yet reported events?
A8
You can do two operations on an existing file descriptor.
Remove would be meaningless for
this case.
Modify will re-read available I/O.
Q9
Do I need to continuously read/write a file descriptor
until
EAGAIN
when using the
EPOLLET
flag (edge-triggered behavior) ?
A9
Receiving an event from
epoll_wait(2)
should suggest to you that such
file descriptor is ready for the requested I/O operation.
You must consider it ready until the next (non-blocking)
read/write yields
EAGAIN.
When and how you will use the file descriptor is entirely up to you.
For packet/token-oriented files (e.g., datagram socket,
terminal in canonical mode),
the only way to detect the end of the read/write I/O space
is to continue to read/write until
EAGAIN.
For stream-oriented files (e.g., pipe, FIFO, stream socket), the
condition that the read/write I/O space is exhausted can also be detected by
checking the amount of data read from / written to the target file
descriptor.
For example, if you call
read(2)
by asking to read a certain amount of data and
read(2)
returns a lower number of bytes, you
can be sure of having exhausted the read I/O space for the file
descriptor.
The same is true when writing using
write(2).
(Avoid this latter technique if you cannot guarantee that
the monitored file descriptor always refers to a stream-oriented file.)
Possible Pitfalls and Ways to Avoid Them
o Starvation (edge-triggered)
If there is a large amount of I/O space,
it is possible that by trying to drain
it the other files will not get processed causing starvation.
(This problem is not specific to
epoll.)
The solution is to maintain a ready list
and mark the file descriptor as ready
in its associated data structure, thereby allowing the application to
remember which files need to be processed but still round robin amongst
all the ready files.
This also supports ignoring subsequent events you
receive for file descriptors that are already ready.
o If using an event cache...
If you use an event cache or store all the file descriptors returned from
epoll_wait(2),
then make sure to provide a way to mark
its closure dynamically (i.e., caused by
a previous event's processing).
Suppose you receive 100 events from
epoll_wait(2),
and in event #47 a condition causes event #13 to be closed.
If you remove the structure and
close(2)
the file descriptor for event #13, then your
event cache might still say there are events waiting for that
file descriptor causing confusion.
One solution for this is to call, during the processing of event 47,
epoll_ctl(EPOLL_CTL_DEL)
to delete file descriptor 13 and
close(2),
then mark its associated
data structure as removed and link it to a cleanup list.
If you find another
event for file descriptor 13 in your batch processing,
you will discover the file descriptor had been
previously removed and there will be no confusion.
VERSIONS
The
epoll
API was introduced in Linux kernel 2.5.44.
Its interface should be finalized in Linux kernel 2.5.66.
Support was added to glibc in version 2.3.2.
CONFORMING TO
The
epoll
API is Linux-specific.
Some other systems provide similar
mechanisms, for example, FreeBSD has
kqueue,
and Solaris has
/dev/poll.
This page is part of release 3.14 of the Linux
man-pages
project.
A description of the project,
and information about reporting bugs,
can be found at
http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.