path: root/man/io_uring_setup.2

.\" Copyright (C) 2019 Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk>
.\" Copyright (C) 2019 Jon Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
.\" 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_SETUP 2 2019-01-29 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.SH NAME
io_uring_setup \- setup a context for performing asynchronous I/O
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.BR "#include <linux/io_uring.h>"
.PP
.BI "int io_uring_setup(u32 " entries ", struct io_uring_params *" p );
.fi
.PP
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
The io_uring_setup() system call sets up a submission queue (SQ) and
completion queue (CQ) with at least
.I entries
entries, and returns a file descriptor which can be used to perform
subsequent operations on the io_uring instance.  The submission and
completion queues are shared between userspace and the kernel, which
eliminates the need to copy data when initiating and completing I/O.

.I params
is used by the application to pass options to the kernel, and by the
kernel to convey information about the ring buffers.
.PP
.in +4n
.EX
struct io_uring_params {
    __u32 sq_entries;
    __u32 cq_entries;
    __u32 flags;
    __u32 sq_thread_cpu;
    __u32 sq_thread_idle;
    __u32 resv[5];
    struct io_sqring_offsets sq_off;
    struct io_cqring_offsets cq_off;
};
.EE
.in
.PP
The
.IR flags ,
.IR sq_thread_cpu ,
and
.I sq_thread_idle
fields are used to configure the io_uring instance.
.I flags
is a bit mask of 0 or more of the following values ORed
together:
.TP
.B IORING_SETUP_IOPOLL
Perform busy-waiting for an I/O completion, as opposed to getting
notifications via an asynchronous IRQ (Interrupt Request).  The file
system (if any) and block device must support polling in order for
this to work.  Busy-waiting provides lower latency, but may consume
more CPU resources than interrupt driven I/O.  Currently, this feature
is usable only on a file descriptor opened using the
.B O_DIRECT
flag.  When a read or write is submitted to a polled context, the
application must poll for completions on the CQ ring by calling
.BR io_uring_enter (2).
It is illegal to mix and match polled and non-polled I/O on an io_uring
instance.

.TP
.B IORING_SETUP_SQPOLL
When this flag is specified, a kernel thread is created to perform
submission queue polling.  An io_uring instance configured in this way
enables an application to issue I/O without ever context switching
into the kernel.  By using the submission queue to fill in new
submission queue entries and watching for completions on the
completion queue, the application can submit and reap I/Os without
doing a single system call.

If the kernel thread is idle for more than
.I sq_thread_idle
microseconds, it will set the
.B IORING_SQ_NEED_WAKEUP
bit in the
.I flags
field of the
.IR "struct io_sq_ring" .
When this happens, the application must call
.BR io_uring_enter (2)
to wake the kernel thread.  If I/O is kept busy, the kernel thread
will never sleep.  An application making use of this feature will need
to guard the
.BR io_uring_enter (2)
call with the following code sequence:

.in +4n
.EX
/*
 * Ensure that the wakeup flag is read after the tail pointer has been
 * written.
 */
smp_mb();
if (*sq_ring->flags & IORING_SQ_NEED_WAKEUP)
    io_uring_enter(fd, 0, 0, IORING_ENTER_SQ_WAKEUP);
.EE
.in

where
.I sq_ring
is a submission queue ring setup using the
.I struct io_sqring_offsets
described below.
.TP
.BR
To successfully use this feature, the application must register a set of files
to be used for IO through
.BR io_uring_register (2)
using the
.B IORING_REGISTER_FILES
opcode. Failure to do so will result in submitted IO being errored with
.B EBADF.
.TP
.B IORING_SETUP_SQ_AFF
If this flag is specified, then the poll thread will be bound to the
cpu set in the
.I sq_thread_cpu
field of the
.IR "struct io_uring_params" .
This flag is only meaningful when
.B IORING_SETUP_SQPOLL
is specified.
.PP
If no flags are specified, the io_uring instance is setup for
interrupt driven I/O.  I/O may be submitted using
.BR io_uring_enter (2)
and can be reaped by polling the completion queue.

The
.I resv
array must be initialized to zero.

The rest of the fields in the
.I struct io_uring_params
are filled in by the kernel, and provide the information necessary to
memory map the submission queue, completion queue, and the array of
submission queue entries.
.I sq_entries
specifies the number of submission queue entries allocated.
.I sq_off
describes the offsets of various ring buffer fields:
.PP
.in +4n
.EX
struct io_sqring_offsets {
    __u32 head;
    __u32 tail;
    __u32 ring_mask;
    __u32 ring_entries;
    __u32 flags;
    __u32 dropped;
    __u32 array;
    __u32 resv[3];
};
.EE
.in
.PP
Taken together,
.I sq_entries
and
.I sq_off
provide all of the information necessary for accessing the submission
queue ring buffer and the submission queue entry array.  The
submission queue can be mapped with a call like:
.PP
.in +4n
.EX
ptr = mmap(0, sq_off.array + sq_entries * sizeof(__u32),
           PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED|MAP_POPULATE,
           ring_fd, IORING_OFF_SQ_RING);
.EE
.in
.PP
where
.I sq_off
is the
.I io_sqring_offsets
structure, and
.I ring_fd
is the file descriptor returned from
.BR io_uring_setup (2).
The addition of
.I sq_off.array
to the length of the region accounts for the fact that the ring
located at the end of the data structure.  As an example, the ring
buffer head pointer can be accessed by adding
.I sq_off.head
to the address returned from
.BR mmap (2):
.PP
.in +4n
.EX
head = ptr + sq_off.head;
.EE
.in

The
.I flags
field is used by the kernel to communicate state information to the
application.  Currently, it is used to inform the application when a
call to
.BR io_uring_enter (2)
is necessary.  See the documentation for the
.B IORING_SETUP_SQPOLL
flag above.
The
.I dropped
member is incremented for each invalid submission queue entry
encountered in the ring buffer.

The head and tail track the ring buffer state.  The tail is
incremented by the application when submitting new I/O, and the head
is incremented by the kernel when the I/O has been successfully
submitted.  Determining the index of the head or tail into the ring is
accomplished by applying a mask:
.PP
.in +4n
.EX
index = tail & ring_mask;
.EE
.in
.PP
The array of submission queue entries is mapped with:
.PP
.in +4n
.EX
sqentries = mmap(0, sq_entries * sizeof(struct io_uring_sqe),
                 PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED|MAP_POPULATE,
                 ring_fd, IORING_OFF_SQES);
.EE
.in
.PP
The completion queue is described by
.I cq_entries
and
.I cq_off
shown here:
.PP
.in +4n
.EX
struct io_cqring_offsets {
    __u32 head;
    __u32 tail;
    __u32 ring_mask;
    __u32 ring_entries;
    __u32 overflow;
    __u32 cqes;
    __u32 resv[4];
};
.EE
.in
.PP
The completion queue is simpler, since the entries are not separated
from the queue itself, and can be mapped with:
.PP
.in +4n
.EX
ptr = mmap(0, cq_off.cqes + cq_entries * sizeof(struct io_uring_cqe),
           PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED|MAP_POPULATE, ring_fd,
           IORING_OFF_CQ_RING);
.EE
.in
.PP
Closing the file descriptor returned by
.BR io_uring_setup (2)
will free all resources associated with the io_uring context.
.PP
.SH RETURN VALUE
.BR io_uring_setup (2)
returns a new file descriptor on success.  The application may then
provide the file descriptor in a subsequent
.BR mmap (2)
call to map the submission and completion queues, or to the
.BR io_uring_register (2)
or
.BR io_uring_enter (2)
system calls.

On error, -1 is returned and
.I errno
is set appropriately.
.PP
.SH ERRORS
.TP
.B EFAULT
params is outside your accessible address space.
.TP
.B EINVAL
The resv array contains non-zero data, p.flags contains an unsupported
flag,
.I entries
is out of bounds, or
.B IORING_SETUP_SQ_AFF
was specified, but
.B IORING_SETUP_SQPOLL
was not.
.TP
.B EMFILE
The per-process limit on the number of open file descriptors has been
reached (see the description of
.B RLIMIT_NOFILE
in
.BR getrlimit (2)).
.TP
.B ENFILE
The system-wide limit on the total number of open files has been
reached.
.TP
.B ENOMEM
Insufficient kernel resources are available.
.TP
.B EPERM
.B IORING_SETUP_SQPOLL
was specified, but the effective user ID of the caller did not have sufficient
privileges.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR io_uring_register (2),
.BR io_uring_enter (2)