V8/usr/man/man2/intro.2

.TH INTRO 2 
.de en
.HP
\\$1  \\$2  \\$3
.br
..
.SH NAME
intro, errno \- introduction to system calls and error numbers
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B #include <errno.h>
.SH DESCRIPTION
Section 2 of this manual
describes all the entries into the system kernel.
.PP
Calls that deal with the file system refer to directory entries by name.
In order to 
.I read
or
.IR write (2)
data on a file, the file must be opened 
.RI ( open,
.I pipe,
.IR creat (2));
an open file is known by a conventional integer value called a
`file descriptor'.
Certain open files admit control operations that alter their behavior;
see in particular
.I ioctl, stream,
and
.IR ttyld (4).
.PP
Most system calls have an error return.
An error condition is indicated by an otherwise
impossible returned value.
Almost always this is \(mi1;
the individual sections specify the details.
An error number is also made available
in the external variable
.IR errno .
.I Errno
is not cleared on successful calls, so it should be tested only
after an error has occurred.
.PP
There is a table of messages
associated with each error, and a routine for printing the
message;
see
.IR perror (3).
The possible error numbers
are not recited with each writeup in section 2, since many
errors are possible for most of the calls.
Here is a list of the error numbers,
their names as defined in <errno.h>,
and the messages available using
.IR perror .
.en 0 \h'\w'EIO'u' "Error 0
Unused.
.en 1 EPERM "Not owner
Typically this error indicates
an attempt to modify a file in some way forbidden
except to its owner or super-user.
It is also returned for attempts
by ordinary users to do things
allowed only to the super-user.
.en 2 ENOENT "No such file or directory
This error occurs when a file name is specified
and the file should exist but doesn't, or when one
of the directories in a path name does not exist.
.en 3 ESRCH "No such process
The process whose number was given to
.I kill
does not exist, or is already dead.
.en 4 EINTR "Interrupted system call
An asynchronous signal (such as interrupt or quit),
which the user has elected to catch,
occurred during a system call.
If execution is resumed
after processing the signal,
it will appear as if the interrupted system call
returned this error condition.
.en 5 EIO "I/O error
Some physical I/O error occurred during a
.I read
or
.IR write .
This error may in some cases occur
on a call following the one to which it actually applies.
.en 6 ENXIO "No such device or address
I/O on a special file refers to a subdevice which does not
exist,
or beyond the limits of the device.
It may also occur when, for example, a tape drive
is not dialed in or no disk pack is loaded on a drive.
.en 7 E2BIG "Arg list too long
An argument list longer than 10240 bytes
is presented to
.IR exec .
.en 8 ENOEXEC "Exec format error
A request is made to execute a file
which, although it has the appropriate permissions,
does not start with a valid magic number, see
.IR a.out (5).
.en 9 EBADF "Bad file number
Either a file descriptor refers to no
open file,
or a read (resp. write) request is made to
a file which is open only for writing (resp. reading).
.en 10 ECHILD "No children
.I Wait
and the process has no
living or unwaited-for children.
.en 11 EAGAIN "No more processes
In a
.I fork,
the system's process table is full
or the user is not allowed to create any more
processes.
.en 12 ENOMEM "Not enough core
During an
.I exec
or
.I break,
a program asks for more core than the system is able to supply.
This is not a temporary condition; the maximum core size
is a system parameter.
The error may also occur if the arrangement
of text, data, and stack segments
requires too many segmentation registers.
.en 13 EACCES "Permission denied
An attempt was made to access a file in a way forbidden
by the protection system.
.en 14 EFAULT "Bad address
The system encountered a hardware fault in attempting to
access the arguments of a system call.
.en 15 ENOTBLK "Block device required
A plain file was mentioned where a block device was required,
e.g. in
.IR mount .
.en 16 EBUSY "Mount device busy
An attempt to mount a device that was already mounted or
an attempt was made to dismount a device
on which there is an active file
directory
(open file, current directory, mounted-on file, active text segment).
.en 17 EEXIST "File exists
An existing file was mentioned in an inappropriate context,
e.g.
.IR link .
.en 18 EXDEV "Cross-device link
A link to a file on another device
was attempted.
.en 19 ENODEV "No such device
An attempt was made to apply an inappropriate
system call to a device;
e.g. read a write-only device.
.en 20 ENOTDIR "Not a directory
A non-directory was specified where a directory
is required,
for example in a path name or
as an argument to
.IR chdir .
.en 21 EISDIR "Is a directory
An attempt to write on a directory.
.en 22 EINVAL "Invalid argument
Some invalid argument:
dismounting a non-mounted
device,
mentioning an unknown signal in
.I signal,
reading or writing a file for which
.I seek
has generated a negative pointer.
Also set by math functions, see 
.IR intro (3).
.en 23 ENFILE "File table overflow
The system's table of open files is full,
and temporarily no more
.I opens
can be accepted.
.en 24 EMFILE "Too many open files
The limit is 128 per process.
.en 25 ENOTTY "Not a typewriter
The file mentioned in
.I ioctl
is not a terminal or one of the other
devices to which these calls apply.
.en 26 ETXTBSY "Text file busy
An attempt to execute a pure-procedure
program which is currently open.
Also an attempt to open for writing a pure-procedure
program that is being executed.
.en 27 EFBIG "File too large
The size of a file exceeded the maximum (about
.if t 10\u\s-29\s+2\d
.if n 1.0E9
bytes).
.en 28 ENOSPC "No space left on device
During a
.I write
to an ordinary file,
there is no free space left on the device.
.en 29 ESPIPE "Illegal seek
An
.I lseek
was issued to a pipe or
other non-seekable device.
.en 30 EROFS "Read-only file system
An attempt to modify a file or directory
was made
on a device mounted read-only.
.en 31 EMLINK "Too many links
An attempt to make more than 32767 links to a file.
.en 32 EPIPE "Broken pipe
A write on a pipe for which there is no process
to read the data.
This condition normally generates a signal;
the error is returned if the signal is ignored.
.en 33 EDOM "Math argument
The argument of a function in the math package (3M)
is out of the domain of the function.
.en 34 ERANGE "Result too large
The value of a function in the math package (3M)
is unrepresentable within machine precision.
.en 35 ELOOP "Link loop
An endless cycle of symbolic links was encountered.
.SH SEE ALSO
intro(3)
.SH BUGS
ETXTBSY should happen only when a text file is open for writing.