.\" This man page is Copyright (C) 1999 Andi Kleen <ak@muc.de>.
.\"
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.\" $Id: cmsg.3,v 1.8 2000/12/20 18:10:31 ak Exp $
.TH CMSG 3 2008-11-20 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.SH NAME
CMSG_ALIGN, CMSG_SPACE, CMSG_NXTHDR, CMSG_FIRSTHDR \- access ancillary data
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B #include <sys/socket.h>
.sp
.BI "struct cmsghdr *CMSG_FIRSTHDR(struct msghdr *" msgh );
.br
.BI "struct cmsghdr *CMSG_NXTHDR(struct msghdr *" msgh ", struct cmsghdr *" cmsg );
.br
.BI "size_t CMSG_ALIGN(size_t " length );
.br
.BI "size_t CMSG_SPACE(size_t " length );
.br
.BI "size_t CMSG_LEN(size_t " length );
.br
.BI "unsigned char *CMSG_DATA(struct cmsghdr *" cmsg );
.sp
.nf
struct cmsghdr {
    socklen_t cmsg_len;    /* data byte count, including header */
    int       cmsg_level;  /* originating protocol */
    int       cmsg_type;   /* protocol-specific type */
    /* followed by unsigned char cmsg_data[]; */
};
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
These macros are used to create and access control messages (also called
ancillary data) that are not a part of the socket payload.
This control information may
include the interface the packet was received on, various rarely used header
fields, an extended error description, a set of file descriptors or UNIX
credentials.
For instance, control messages can be used to send
additional header fields such as IP options.
Ancillary data is sent by calling
.BR sendmsg (2)
and received by calling
.BR recvmsg (2).
See their manual pages for more information.
.PP
Ancillary data is a sequence of
.I struct cmsghdr
structures with appended data.
This sequence should be accessed
using only the macros described in this manual page and never directly.
See the specific protocol man pages for the available control message types.
The maximum ancillary buffer size allowed per socket can be set using
.IR /proc/sys/net/core/optmem_max ;
see
.BR socket (7).
.PP
.BR CMSG_FIRSTHDR ()
returns a pointer to the first
.I cmsghdr
in the ancillary
data buffer associated with the passed
.IR msghdr .
.PP
.BR CMSG_NXTHDR ()
returns the next valid
.I cmsghdr
after the passed
.IR cmsghdr .
It returns NULL when there isn't enough space left in the buffer.
.PP
.BR CMSG_ALIGN (),
given a length, returns it including the required alignment.
This is a
constant expression.
.PP
.BR CMSG_SPACE ()
returns the number of bytes an ancillary element with payload of the
passed data length occupies.
This is a constant expression.
.PP
.BR CMSG_DATA ()
returns a pointer to the data portion of a
.IR cmsghdr .
.PP
.BR CMSG_LEN ()
returns the value to store in the
.I cmsg_len
member of the
.I cmsghdr
structure, taking into account any necessary
alignment.
It takes the data length as an argument.
This is a constant
expression.
.PP
To create ancillary data, first initialize the
.I msg_controllen
member of the
.I msghdr
with the length of the control message buffer.
Use
.BR CMSG_FIRSTHDR ()
on the
.I msghdr
to get the first control message and
.BR CMSG_NXTHDR ()
to get all subsequent ones.
In each control message, initialize
.I cmsg_len
(with
.BR CMSG_LEN ()),
the other
.I cmsghdr
header fields, and the data portion using
.BR CMSG_DATA ().
Finally, the
.I msg_controllen
field of the
.I msghdr
should be set to the sum of the
.BR CMSG_SPACE ()
of the length of
all control messages in the buffer.
For more information on the
.IR msghdr ,
see
.BR recvmsg (2).
.PP
When the control message buffer is too short to store all messages, the
.B MSG_CTRUNC
flag is set in the
.I msg_flags
member of the
.IR msghdr .
.SH CONFORMING TO
This ancillary data model conforms to the POSIX.1g draft, 4.4BSD-Lite,
the IPv6 advanced API described in RFC\ 2292 and SUSv2.
.BR CMSG_ALIGN ()
is a Linux extension.
.SH NOTES
For portability, ancillary data should be accessed using only the macros
described here.
.BR CMSG_ALIGN ()
is a Linux extension and should not be used in portable programs.
.PP
In Linux,
.BR CMSG_LEN (),
.BR CMSG_DATA (),
and
.BR CMSG_ALIGN ()
are constant expressions (assuming their argument is constant);
this could be used to declare the size of global
variables.
This may not be portable, however.
.SH EXAMPLE
This code looks for the
.B IP_TTL
option in a received ancillary buffer:
.PP
.in +4n
.nf
struct msghdr msgh;
struct cmsghdr *cmsg;
int *ttlptr;
int received_ttl;

/* Receive auxiliary data in msgh */
for (cmsg = CMSG_FIRSTHDR(&msgh); cmsg != NULL;
        cmsg = CMSG_NXTHDR(&msgh,cmsg)) {
    if (cmsg\->cmsg_level == IPPROTO_IP
            && cmsg\->cmsg_type == IP_TTL) {
        ttlptr = (int *) CMSG_DATA(cmsg);
        received_ttl = *ttlptr;
        break;
    }
}
if (cmsg == NULL) {
    /*
     * Error: IP_TTL not enabled or small buffer
     * or I/O error.
     */
}
.fi
.in
.PP
The code below passes an array of file descriptors over a
UNIX domain socket using
.BR SCM_RIGHTS :
.PP
.in +4n
.nf
struct msghdr msg = {0};
struct cmsghdr *cmsg;
int myfds[NUM_FD]; /* Contains the file descriptors to pass. */
char buf[CMSG_SPACE(sizeof myfds)];  /* ancillary data buffer */
int *fdptr;

msg.msg_control = buf;
msg.msg_controllen = sizeof buf;
cmsg = CMSG_FIRSTHDR(&msg);
cmsg\->cmsg_level = SOL_SOCKET;
cmsg\->cmsg_type = SCM_RIGHTS;
cmsg\->cmsg_len = CMSG_LEN(sizeof(int) * NUM_FD);
/* Initialize the payload: */
fdptr = (int *) CMSG_DATA(cmsg);
memcpy(fdptr, myfds, NUM_FD * sizeof(int));
/* Sum of the length of all control messages in the buffer: */
msg.msg_controllen = cmsg\->cmsg_len;
.fi
.in
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR recvmsg (2),
.BR sendmsg (2)
.PP
RFC\ 2292
.SH COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.74 of the Linux
.I man-pages
project.
A description of the project,
information about reporting bugs,
and the latest version of this page,
can be found at
\%http://www.kernel.org/doc/man\-pages/.