MLOCK

Section: POSIX Programmer's Manual (3P)
Updated: 2003
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PROLOG

This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.  

NAME

mlock, munlock - lock or unlock a range of process address space (REALTIME)  

SYNOPSIS

#include <sys/mman.h>

int mlock(const void *addr, size_t len);
int munlock(const void *addr, size_t len);
 

DESCRIPTION

The mlock() function shall cause those whole pages containing any part of the address space of the process starting at address addr and continuing for len bytes to be memory-resident until unlocked or until the process exits or execs another process image. The implementation may require that addr be a multiple of {PAGESIZE}.

The munlock() function shall unlock those whole pages containing any part of the address space of the process starting at address addr and continuing for len bytes, regardless of how many times mlock() has been called by the process for any of the pages in the specified range. The implementation may require that addr be a multiple of {PAGESIZE}.

If any of the pages in the range specified to a call to munlock() are also mapped into the address spaces of other processes, any locks established on those pages by another process are unaffected by the call of this process to munlock(). If any of the pages in the range specified by a call to munlock() are also mapped into other portions of the address space of the calling process outside the range specified, any locks established on those pages via the other mappings are also unaffected by this call.

Upon successful return from mlock(), pages in the specified range shall be locked and memory-resident. Upon successful return from munlock(), pages in the specified range shall be unlocked with respect to the address space of the process. Memory residency of unlocked pages is unspecified.

The appropriate privilege is required to lock process memory with mlock().  

RETURN VALUE

Upon successful completion, the mlock() and munlock() functions shall return a value of zero. Otherwise, no change is made to any locks in the address space of the process, and the function shall return a value of -1 and set errno to indicate the error.  

ERRORS

The mlock() and munlock() functions shall fail if:

ENOMEM
Some or all of the address range specified by the addr and len arguments does not correspond to valid mapped pages in the address space of the process.

The mlock() function shall fail if:

EAGAIN
Some or all of the memory identified by the operation could not be locked when the call was made.

The mlock() and munlock() functions may fail if:

EINVAL
The addr argument is not a multiple of {PAGESIZE}.

The mlock() function may fail if:

ENOMEM
Locking the pages mapped by the specified range would exceed an implementation-defined limit on the amount of memory that the process may lock.
EPERM
The calling process does not have the appropriate privilege to perform the requested operation.

The following sections are informative.  

EXAMPLES

None.  

APPLICATION USAGE

None.  

RATIONALE

None.  

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

None.  

SEE ALSO

exec(), exit(), fork(), mlockall(), munmap(), the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <sys/mman.h>  

COPYRIGHT

Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .