mmap man page on OpenBSD

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MMAP(2)			  OpenBSD Programmer's Manual		       MMAP(2)

NAME
     mmap - map files or devices into memory

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/types.h>
     #include <sys/mman.h>

     void *
     mmap(void *addr, size_t len, int prot, int flags, int fd, off_t offset);

DESCRIPTION
     The mmap function causes the pages starting at addr and continuing for at
     most len bytes to be mapped from the object described by fd, starting at
     byte offset offset.  If offset or len is not a multiple of the pagesize,
     the mapped region may extend past the specified range.

     If addr is non-zero, it is used as a hint to the system.  (As a
     convenience to the system, the actual address of the region may differ
     from the address supplied.)  If addr is zero, an address will be selected
     by the system.  The actual starting address of the region is returned.  A
     successful mmap deletes any previous mapping in the allocated address
     range.

     The protections (region accessibility) are specified in the prot argument
     by OR'ing the following values:

	   PROT_EXEC	 Pages may be executed.
	   PROT_READ	 Pages may be read.
	   PROT_WRITE	 Pages may be written.
	   PROT_NONE	 No permissions.

     The flags parameter specifies the type of the mapped object, mapping
     options, and whether modifications made to the mapped copy of the page
     are private to the process or are to be shared with other references.
     Sharing, mapping type, and options are specified in the flags argument by
     OR'ing the following values:

     MAP_ANON	 Map anonymous memory not associated with any specific file.
		 The file descriptor used for creating MAP_ANON must currently
		 be -1 indicating no name is associated with the region.

     MAP_FILE	 Mapped from a regular file or character-special device
		 memory.  (This is the default mapping type, and need not be
		 specified.)

     MAP_FIXED	 Do not permit the system to select a different address than
		 the one specified.  If the specified address cannot be used,
		 mmap will fail.  If MAP_FIXED is specified, addr must be a
		 multiple of the pagesize.  Use of this option is discouraged.

     MAP_HASSEMAPHORE
		 Notify the kernel that the region may contain semaphores and
		 that special handling may be necessary.

     MAP_INHERIT
		 Permit regions to be inherited across exec(3) system calls.

     MAP_PRIVATE
		 Modifications are private.

     MAP_SHARED	 Modifications are shared.

     MAP_COPY	 Modifications are private and, unlike MAP_PRIVATE,
		 modifications made by others are not visible.	This option is
		 deprecated, shouldn't be used and behaves just like
		 MAP_PRIVATE in the current implementation.

     The close(2) function does not unmap pages; see munmap(2) for further
     information.

     The current design does not allow a process to specify the location of
     swap space.  In the future we may define an additional mapping type,
     MAP_SWAP, in which the file descriptor argument specifies a file or
     device to which swapping should be done.

RETURN VALUES
     Upon successful completion, mmap returns a pointer to the mapped region.
     Otherwise, a value of MAP_FAILED is returned and errno is set to indicate
     the error.	 The symbol MAP_FAILED is defined in the header <sys/mman.h>.
     No successful return from mmap() will return the value MAP_FAILED.

ERRORS
     mmap() will fail if:

     [EACCES]	   The flag PROT_READ was specified as part of the prot
		   parameter and fd was not open for reading.  The flags
		   MAP_SHARED and PROT_WRITE were specified as part of the
		   flags and prot parameters and fd was not open for writing.

     [EBADF]	   fd is not a valid open file descriptor.

     [EINVAL]	   MAP_FIXED was specified and the addr parameter was not page
		   aligned or addr and size specify a region that would extend
		   beyond the end of the address space.	 fd did not reference
		   a regular or character special file.

     [ENOMEM]	   MAP_FIXED was specified and the addr parameter wasn't
		   available.  MAP_ANON was specified and insufficient memory
		   was available.

SEE ALSO
     madvise(2), mincore(2), mlock(2), mprotect(2), mquery(2), msync(2),
     munmap(2), getpagesize(3)

BUGS
     Due to a limitation of the current vm system (see uvm(9)), mapping
     descriptors PROT_WRITE without also specifying PROT_READ is useless
     (results in a segmentation fault when first accessing the mapping).  This
     means that such descriptors must be opened with O_RDWR, which requires
     both read and write permissions on the underlying object.

OpenBSD 4.9			 June 30, 2008			   OpenBSD 4.9
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