1FTOK(3P)                   POSIX Programmer's Manual                  FTOK(3P)
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PROLOG

6       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux
7       implementation of this interface may differ (consult the  corresponding
8       Linux  manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
9       not be implemented on Linux.
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NAME

13       ftok — generate an IPC key
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SYNOPSIS

16       #include <sys/ipc.h>
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18       key_t ftok(const char *path, int id);
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DESCRIPTION

21       The ftok() function shall return a key based on path  and  id  that  is
22       usable  in  subsequent  calls to msgget(), semget(), and shmget().  The
23       application shall ensure that the path argument is the pathname  of  an
24       existing  file  that  the process is able to stat(), with the exception
25       that if stat() would fail with [EOVERFLOW] due  to  file  size,  ftok()
26       shall still succeed.
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28       The  ftok() function shall return the same key value for all paths that
29       name the same file, when called with the  same  id  value,  and  should
30       return  different  key  values  when called with different id values or
31       with paths that name different files existing on the same  file  system
32       at  the  same  time.  It is unspecified whether ftok() shall return the
33       same key value when called again  after  the  file  named  by  path  is
34       removed and recreated with the same name.
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36       Only the low-order 8-bits of id are significant. The behavior of ftok()
37       is unspecified if these bits are 0.
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RETURN VALUE

40       Upon successful completion,  ftok()  shall  return  a  key.  Otherwise,
41       ftok() shall return (key_t)−1 and set errno to indicate the error.
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ERRORS

44       The ftok() function shall fail if:
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46       EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.
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48       EIO    An error occurred while reading from the file system.
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50       ELOOP  A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution of
51              the path argument.
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53       ENAMETOOLONG
54              The  length  of  a  component  of  a  pathname  is  longer  than
55              {NAME_MAX}.
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57       ENOENT A component of path does not name an existing file or path is an
58              empty string.
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60       ENOTDIR
61              A component of the path prefix names an existing  file  that  is
62              neither  a  directory nor a symbolic link to a directory, or the
63              path argument contains at least one  non-<slash>  character  and
64              ends  with  one or more trailing <slash> characters and the last
65              pathname component names an existing  file  that  is  neither  a
66              directory nor a symbolic link to a directory.
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68       The ftok() function may fail if:
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70       ELOOP  More  than  {SYMLOOP_MAX} symbolic links were encountered during
71              resolution of the path argument.
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73       ENAMETOOLONG
74              The length of a pathname exceeds {PATH_MAX}, or pathname resolu‐
75              tion  of  a symbolic link produced an intermediate result with a
76              length that exceeds {PATH_MAX}.
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78       The following sections are informative.
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EXAMPLES

81   Getting an IPC Key
82       The following example gets a key based on the pathname /tmp and the  ID
83       value  a.  It also assigns the value of the resulting key to the semkey
84       variable so that it will be available to  a  later  call  to  semget(),
85       msgget(), or shmget().
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87           #include <sys/ipc.h>
88           ...
89           key_t semkey;
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91           if ((semkey = ftok("/tmp", 'a')) == (key_t) -1) {
92               perror("IPC error: ftok"); exit(1);
93           }
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APPLICATION USAGE

96       For maximum portability, id should be a single-byte character.
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98       Applications should not assume that the resulting key value is unique.
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RATIONALE

101       None.
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FUTURE DIRECTIONS

104       Future  versions  of  this  standard  may add new interfaces to provide
105       unique keys.
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SEE ALSO

108       msgget(), semget(), shmget()
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110       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, <sys_ipc.h>
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113       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in  electronic  form
114       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
115       -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX),  The  Open  Group  Base
116       Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
117       cal and Electronics Engineers,  Inc  and  The  Open  Group.   (This  is
118       POSIX.1-2008  with  the  2013  Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
119       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
120       The  Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
121       is the referee document. The original Standard can be  obtained  online
122       at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
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124       Any  typographical  or  formatting  errors that appear in this page are
125       most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
126       files  to  man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.ker
127       nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
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131IEEE/The Open Group                  2013                             FTOK(3P)
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