From: Alan Stern <stern@rowland.harvard.edu>
To: "Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)" <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
Cc: linux-man@vger.kernel.org,
Kernel development list <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: Error (?) in man page for ppoll(2)
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2019 09:23:53 -0400 (EDT) [thread overview]
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44L0.1907290921180.20498-100000@netrider.rowland.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <4ce02b01-f174-99a1-ac34-21a2c6414df2@gmail.com>
On Mon, 29 Jul 2019, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) wrote:
> Hello Alan,
>
> On 7/21/19 5:32 PM, Alan Stern wrote:
> > Here are two extracts from the man page for ppoll(2) (from the
> > man-pages 4.16 package; the 5.01 version is the same):
> >
> > Specifying a negative value in timeout means an infinite timeout.
> >
> >
> > Other than the difference in the precision of the timeout argument, the
> > following ppoll() call:
> >
> > ready = ppoll(&fds, nfds, tmo_p, &sigmask);
> >
> > is equivalent to atomically executing the following calls:
> >
> > sigset_t origmask;
> > int timeout;
> >
> > timeout = (tmo_p == NULL) ? -1 :
> > (tmo_p->tv_sec * 1000 + tmo_p->tv_nsec / 1000000);
> > pthread_sigmask(SIG_SETMASK, &sigmask, &origmask);
> > ready = poll(&fds, nfds, timeout);
> > pthread_sigmask(SIG_SETMASK, &origmask, NULL);
> >
> > But if tmo_p->tv_sec is negative, the ppoll() call is not equivalent to
> > the corresponding poll() call. The kernel rejects negative values of
> > tv_sec with an EINVAL error; it does not interpret the value as meaning
> > an infinite timeout.
> >
> > (Yes, the kernel interprets tmo_p == NULL as an infinite timeout, but
> > the man page is still wrong for the case tmo_p->tv_sec < 0.)
> >
> > Suggested fix: Following the end of the second extract above, add:
> >
> > except that negative time values in tmo_p are not interpreted
> > as an infinite timeout.
> >
> > Also, in the ERRORS section, change the text for EINVAL to:
> >
> > EINVAL The nfds value exceeds the RLIMIT_NOFILE value or
> > *tmo_p contains an invalid (negative) time value.
>
> Thanks for the report, and the text change suggestions.
> I've applied the patch below.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Michael
>
> diff --git a/man2/poll.2 b/man2/poll.2
> index 0b023e0a5..3eacb88b7 100644
> --- a/man2/poll.2
> +++ b/man2/poll.2
> @@ -271,7 +271,7 @@ ready = ppoll(&fds, nfds, tmo_p, &sigmask);
> .EE
> .in
> .PP
> -is equivalent to
> +is nearly equivalent to
> .I atomically
> executing the following calls:
> .PP
> @@ -288,6 +288,17 @@ pthread_sigmask(SIG_SETMASK, &origmask, NULL);
> .EE
> .in
> .PP
> +The above code segment is described as
> +.I nearly
> +equivalent because whereas a negative
> +.I timeout
> +value for
> +.BR poll ()
> +is interpreted as an infinite timeout, a negative value expressed in
> +.IR *tmo_p
> +results in an error from
> +.BR ppoll ().
> +.PP
> See the description of
> .BR pselect (2)
> for an explanation of why
> @@ -354,6 +365,12 @@ value exceeds the
> .B RLIMIT_NOFILE
> value.
> .TP
> +.B EINVAL
> +.RB ( ppoll ())
> +The timeout value expressed in
> +.IR *ip
> +is invalid (nragtive).
----------------^^^
Typo. Otherwise, I approve of the patch.
Thank you,
Alan
> +.TP
> .B ENOMEM
> There was no space to allocate file descriptor tables.
> .SH VERSIONS
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2019-07-29 13:23 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2019-07-21 15:32 Error (?) in man page for ppoll(2) Alan Stern
2019-07-29 12:07 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
2019-07-29 13:23 ` Alan Stern [this message]
2019-07-29 18:56 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
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