path: root/man/io_uring_register.2

.\" Copyright (C) 2019 Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk>
.\" Copyright (C) 2019 Red Hat, Inc.
.\"
.\" %%%LICENSE_START(LGPL_V2.1)
.\" This file is distributed according to the GNU Lesser General Public License.
.\" %%%LICENSE_END
.\"
.TH IO_URING_REGISTER 2 2019-01-17 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.SH NAME
io_uring_register \- register files or user buffers for asynchronous I/O 
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.BR "#include <linux/io_uring.h>"
.PP
.BI "int io_uring_register(unsigned int " fd ", unsigned int " opcode ,
.BI "                      void *" arg ", unsigned int " nr_args );
.fi
.PP
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP

The
.BR io_uring_register ()
system call registers user buffers or files for use in an
.BR io_uring (7)
instance referenced by
.IR fd .
Registering files or user buffers allows the kernel to take long term
references to internal data structures or create long term mappings of
application memory, greatly reducing per-I/O overhead.

.I fd
is the file descriptor returned by a call to
.BR io_uring_setup (2).
.I opcode
can be one of:

.TP
.B IORING_REGISTER_BUFFERS
.I arg
points to a
.I struct iovec
array of
.I nr_args
entries.  The buffers associated with the iovecs will be locked in
memory and charged against the user's
.B RLIMIT_MEMLOCK
resource limit.  See
.BR getrlimit (2)
for more information.  Additionally, there is a size limit of 1GiB per
buffer.  Currently, the buffers must be anonymous, non-file-backed
memory, such as that returned by
.BR malloc (3)
or
.BR mmap (2)
with the
.B MAP_ANONYMOUS
flag set.  It is expected that this limitation will be lifted in the
future. Huge pages are supported as well. Note that the entire huge
page will be pinned in the kernel, even if only a portion of it is
used.

After a successful call, the supplied buffers are mapped into the
kernel and eligible for I/O.  To make use of them, the application
must specify the
.B IORING_OP_READ_FIXED
or
.B IORING_OP_WRITE_FIXED
opcodes in the submission queue entry (see the
.I struct io_uring_sqe
definition in
.BR io_uring_enter (2)),
and set the
.I buf_index
field to the desired buffer index.  The memory range described by the
submission queue entry's
.I addr
and
.I len
fields must fall within the indexed buffer.

It is perfectly valid to setup a large buffer and then only use part
of it for an I/O, as long as the range is within the originally mapped
region.

An application can increase or decrease the size or number of
registered buffers by first unregistering the existing buffers, and
then issuing a new call to
.BR io_uring_register ()
with the new buffers.

An application need not unregister buffers explicitly before shutting
down the io_uring instance.
.TP
.B IORING_UNREGISTER_BUFFERS
This operation takes no argument, and
.I arg
must be passed as NULL.  All previously registered buffers associated
with the io_uring instance will be released.

.TP
.B IORING_REGISTER_FILES
Register files for I/O.
.I arg
contains a pointer to an array of
.I nr_args
file descriptors (signed 32 bit integers).

To make use of the registered files, the
.B IOSQE_FIXED_FILE
flag must be set in the
.I flags
member of the
.IR "struct io_uring_sqe" ,
and the
.I fd
member is set to the index of the file in the file descriptor array.

Files are automatically unregistered when the io_uring instance is
torn down. An application need only unregister if it wishes to
register a new set of fds.
.TP
.B IORING_UNREGISTER_FILES
This operation requires no argument, and
.I arg
must be passed as NULL.  All previously registered files associated
with the io_uring instance will be unregistered.

.SH RETURN VALUE

On success,
.BR io_uring_register ()
returns 0.  On error, -1 is returned, and
.I errno
is set accordingly.

.SH ERRORS
.TP
.B EBADF
One or more fds in the
.I fd
array are invalid.
.TP
.B EBUSY
.B IORING_REGISTER_BUFFERS
or
.B IORING_REGISTER_FILES
was specified, but there were already buffers or files registered.
.TP
.B EFAULT
buffer is outside of the process' accessible address space, or
.I iov_len
is greater than 1GiB.
.TP
.B EINVAL
.B IORING_REGISTER_BUFFERS
or
.B IORING_REGISTER_FILES
was specified, but
.I nr_args
is 0.
.TP
.B EINVAL
.B IORING_REGISTER_BUFFERS
was specified, but
.I nr_args
exceeds
.B UIO_MAXIOV
.TP
.B EINVAL
.B IORING_UNREGISTER_BUFFERS
or
.B IORING_UNREGISTER_FILES
was specified, and
.I nr_args
is non-zero or
.I arg
is non-NULL.
.TP
.B EMFILE
.B IORING_REGISTER_FILES
was specified and
.I nr_args
exceeds the maximum allowed number of files in a fixed file set.
.TP
.B EMFILE
.B IORING_REGISTER_FILES
was specified and adding
.I nr_args
file references would exceed the maximum allowed number of files the user
is allowed to have according to the
.B
RLIMIT_NOFILE
resource limit and the caller does not have
.B CAP_SYS_RESOURCE
capability. Note that this is a per user limit, not per process.
.TP
.B ENOMEM
Insufficient kernel resources are available, or the caller had a
non-zero
.B RLIMIT_MEMLOCK
soft resource limit, but tried to lock more memory than the limit
permitted.  This limit is not enforced if the process is privileged
.RB ( CAP_IPC_LOCK ).
.TP
.B ENXIO
.B IORING_UNREGISTER_BUFFERS
or
.B IORING_UNREGISTER_FILES
was specified, but there were no buffers or files registered.
.TP
.B ENXIO
Attempt to register files or buffers on an io_uring instance that is already
undergoing file or buffer registration, or is being torn down.
.TP
.B EOPNOTSUPP
User buffers point to file-backed memory.