NAME

       msgctl — message control operations

LIBRARY

       Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <sys/ipc.h>
       #include <sys/msg.h>

       int
       msgctl(int msqid, int cmd, struct msqid_ds *buf);

DESCRIPTION

       The msgctl() system call performs some control operations on the message queue specified by msqid.

       Each message queue has a data structure associated with it, parts of which may be altered by msgctl() and
       parts  of  which  determine  the  actions  of msgctl().  The data structure is defined in <sys/msg.h> and
       contains (amongst others) the following members:

       struct msqid_ds {
               struct  ipc_perm msg_perm;      /* msg queue permission bits */
               msglen_t msg_cbytes;    /* number of bytes in use on the queue */
               msgqnum_t msg_qnum;     /* number of msgs in the queue */
               msglen_t msg_qbytes;    /* max # of bytes on the queue */
               pid_t   msg_lspid;      /* pid of last msgsnd() */
               pid_t   msg_lrpid;      /* pid of last msgrcv() */
               time_t  msg_stime;      /* time of last msgsnd() */
               time_t  msg_rtime;      /* time of last msgrcv() */
               time_t  msg_ctime;      /* time of last msgctl() */
       };

       The ipc_perm structure used inside the msqid_ds structure is defined in <sys/ipc.h> and looks like this:

       struct ipc_perm {
               uid_t           cuid;   /* creator user id */
               gid_t           cgid;   /* creator group id */
               uid_t           uid;    /* user id */
               gid_t           gid;    /* group id */
               mode_t          mode;   /* r/w permission */
               unsigned short  seq;    /* sequence # (to generate unique ipcid) */
               key_t           key;    /* user specified msg/sem/shm key */
       };

       The operation to be performed by msgctl() is specified in cmd and is one of:

       IPC_STAT   Gather information about the message queue and place it in the structure pointed to by buf.

       IPC_SET    Set the value of the msg_perm.uid, msg_perm.gid, msg_perm.mode and msg_qbytes  fields  in  the
                  structure  associated  with  msqid.  The values are taken from the corresponding fields in the
                  structure pointed to by buf.  This operation can only be executed  by  the  super-user,  or  a
                  process  that  has  an  effective user id equal to either msg_perm.cuid or msg_perm.uid in the
                  data structure associated with the message  queue.   The  value  of  msg_qbytes  can  only  be
                  increased  by the super-user.  Values for msg_qbytes that exceed the system limit (MSGMNB from
                  <sys/msg.h>) are silently truncated to that limit.

       IPC_RMID   Remove the message queue specified by msqid and destroy the data associated with it.  Only the
                  super-user or a process with an effective uid  equal  to  the  msg_perm.cuid  or  msg_perm.uid
                  values in the data structure associated with the queue can do this.

       The  permission  to  read from or write to a message queue (see msgsnd(2) and msgrcv(2)) is determined by
       the msg_perm.mode field in the same way as is done with files (see chmod(2)), but the effective  uid  can
       match  either  the  msg_perm.cuid field or the msg_perm.uid field, and the effective gid can match either
       msg_perm.cgid or msg_perm.gid.

RETURN VALUES

       The msgctl() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the  value  -1  is  returned  and  the
       global variable errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

       The msgctl() function will fail if:

       [EPERM]            The cmd argument is equal to IPC_SET or IPC_RMID and the caller is not the super-user,
                          nor  does  the  effective uid match either the msg_perm.uid or msg_perm.cuid fields of
                          the data structure associated with the message queue.

                          An attempt is made to increase the value of msg_qbytes through IPC_SET but the  caller
                          is not the super-user.

       [EACCES]           The command is IPC_STAT and the caller has no read permission for this message queue.

       [EINVAL]           The msqid argument is not a valid message queue identifier.

                          cmd is not a valid command.

       [EFAULT]           The buf argument specifies an invalid address.

SEE ALSO

       msgget(2), msgrcv(2), msgsnd(2)

HISTORY

       Message queues appeared in the first release of AT&T System V UNIX.

Debian                                            July 9, 2020                                         MSGCTL(2)