DUP

NAME

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>

int dup(int oldfd);
int dup2(int oldfd, int newfd);

#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <unistd.h>

int dup3(int oldfd, int newfd, int flags);

DESCRIPTION

dup() uses the lowest-numbered unused descriptor for the new descriptor.

dup2() makes newfd be the copy of oldfd, closing newfd first if necessary, but note the following:

*

If oldfd is not a valid file descriptor, then the call fails, and newfd is not closed.

*

If oldfd is a valid file descriptor, and newfd has the same value as oldfd, then dup2() does nothing, and returns newfd.

After a successful return from one of these system calls, the old and new file descriptors may be used interchangeably. They refer to the same open file description (see open(2)) and thus share file offset and file status flags; for example, if the file offset is modified by using lseek(2) on one of the descriptors, the offset is also changed for the other.

The two descriptors do not share file descriptor flags (the close-on-exec flag). The close-on-exec flag (FD_CLOEXEC; see fcntl(2)) for the duplicate descriptor is off.

dup3() is the same as dup2(), except that:

*

The caller can force the close-on-exec flag to be set for the new file descriptor by specifying O_CLOEXEC in flags. See the description of the same flag in open(2) for reasons why this may be useful.

*

If oldfd equals newfd, then dup3() fails with the error EINVAL.

RETURN VALUE

ERRORS

EBADF

oldfd isn't an open file descriptor, or newfd is out of the allowed range for file descriptors.

EBUSY

(Linux only) This may be returned by dup2() or dup3() during a race condition with open(2) and dup().

EINTR

The dup2() or dup3() call was interrupted by a signal; see signal(7).

EINVAL

(dup3()) flags contain an invalid value. Or, oldfd was equal to newfd.

EMFILE

The process already has the maximum number of file descriptors open and tried to open a new one.

VERSIONS

CONFORMING TO

dup3() is Linux-specific.  

NOTES

If newfd was open, any errors that would have been reported at close(2) time are lost. A careful programmer will not use dup2() or dup3() without closing newfd first.  

SEE ALSO

COLOPHON