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2010-10-15llseek: automatically add .llseek fopArnd Bergmann
All file_operations should get a .llseek operation so we can make nonseekable_open the default for future file operations without a .llseek pointer. The three cases that we can automatically detect are no_llseek, seq_lseek and default_llseek. For cases where we can we can automatically prove that the file offset is always ignored, we use noop_llseek, which maintains the current behavior of not returning an error from a seek. New drivers should normally not use noop_llseek but instead use no_llseek and call nonseekable_open at open time. Existing drivers can be converted to do the same when the maintainer knows for certain that no user code relies on calling seek on the device file. The generated code is often incorrectly indented and right now contains comments that clarify for each added line why a specific variant was chosen. In the version that gets submitted upstream, the comments will be gone and I will manually fix the indentation, because there does not seem to be a way to do that using coccinelle. Some amount of new code is currently sitting in linux-next that should get the same modifications, which I will do at the end of the merge window. Many thanks to Julia Lawall for helping me learn to write a semantic patch that does all this. ===== begin semantic patch ===== // This adds an llseek= method to all file operations, // as a preparation for making no_llseek the default. // // The rules are // - use no_llseek explicitly if we do nonseekable_open // - use seq_lseek for sequential files // - use default_llseek if we know we access f_pos // - use noop_llseek if we know we don't access f_pos, // but we still want to allow users to call lseek // @ open1 exists @ identifier nested_open; @@ nested_open(...) { <+... nonseekable_open(...) ...+> } @ open exists@ identifier open_f; identifier i, f; identifier open1.nested_open; @@ int open_f(struct inode *i, struct file *f) { <+... ( nonseekable_open(...) | nested_open(...) ) ...+> } @ read disable optional_qualifier exists @ identifier read_f; identifier f, p, s, off; type ssize_t, size_t, loff_t; expression E; identifier func; @@ ssize_t read_f(struct file *f, char *p, size_t s, loff_t *off) { <+... ( *off = E | *off += E | func(..., off, ...) | E = *off ) ...+> } @ read_no_fpos disable optional_qualifier exists @ identifier read_f; identifier f, p, s, off; type ssize_t, size_t, loff_t; @@ ssize_t read_f(struct file *f, char *p, size_t s, loff_t *off) { ... when != off } @ write @ identifier write_f; identifier f, p, s, off; type ssize_t, size_t, loff_t; expression E; identifier func; @@ ssize_t write_f(struct file *f, const char *p, size_t s, loff_t *off) { <+... ( *off = E | *off += E | func(..., off, ...) | E = *off ) ...+> } @ write_no_fpos @ identifier write_f; identifier f, p, s, off; type ssize_t, size_t, loff_t; @@ ssize_t write_f(struct file *f, const char *p, size_t s, loff_t *off) { ... when != off } @ fops0 @ identifier fops; @@ struct file_operations fops = { ... }; @ has_llseek depends on fops0 @ identifier fops0.fops; identifier llseek_f; @@ struct file_operations fops = { ... .llseek = llseek_f, ... }; @ has_read depends on fops0 @ identifier fops0.fops; identifier read_f; @@ struct file_operations fops = { ... .read = read_f, ... }; @ has_write depends on fops0 @ identifier fops0.fops; identifier write_f; @@ struct file_operations fops = { ... .write = write_f, ... }; @ has_open depends on fops0 @ identifier fops0.fops; identifier open_f; @@ struct file_operations fops = { ... .open = open_f, ... }; // use no_llseek if we call nonseekable_open //////////////////////////////////////////// @ nonseekable1 depends on !has_llseek && has_open @ identifier fops0.fops; identifier nso ~= "nonseekable_open"; @@ struct file_operations fops = { ... .open = nso, ... +.llseek = no_llseek, /* nonseekable */ }; @ nonseekable2 depends on !has_llseek @ identifier fops0.fops; identifier open.open_f; @@ struct file_operations fops = { ... .open = open_f, ... +.llseek = no_llseek, /* open uses nonseekable */ }; // use seq_lseek for sequential files ///////////////////////////////////// @ seq depends on !has_llseek @ identifier fops0.fops; identifier sr ~= "seq_read"; @@ struct file_operations fops = { ... .read = sr, ... +.llseek = seq_lseek, /* we have seq_read */ }; // use default_llseek if there is a readdir /////////////////////////////////////////// @ fops1 depends on !has_llseek && !nonseekable1 && !nonseekable2 && !seq @ identifier fops0.fops; identifier readdir_e; @@ // any other fop is used that changes pos struct file_operations fops = { ... .readdir = readdir_e, ... +.llseek = default_llseek, /* readdir is present */ }; // use default_llseek if at least one of read/write touches f_pos ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// @ fops2 depends on !fops1 && !has_llseek && !nonseekable1 && !nonseekable2 && !seq @ identifier fops0.fops; identifier read.read_f; @@ // read fops use offset struct file_operations fops = { ... .read = read_f, ... +.llseek = default_llseek, /* read accesses f_pos */ }; @ fops3 depends on !fops1 && !fops2 && !has_llseek && !nonseekable1 && !nonseekable2 && !seq @ identifier fops0.fops; identifier write.write_f; @@ // write fops use offset struct file_operations fops = { ... .write = write_f, ... + .llseek = default_llseek, /* write accesses f_pos */ }; // Use noop_llseek if neither read nor write accesses f_pos /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// @ fops4 depends on !fops1 && !fops2 && !fops3 && !has_llseek && !nonseekable1 && !nonseekable2 && !seq @ identifier fops0.fops; identifier read_no_fpos.read_f; identifier write_no_fpos.write_f; @@ // write fops use offset struct file_operations fops = { ... .write = write_f, .read = read_f, ... +.llseek = noop_llseek, /* read and write both use no f_pos */ }; @ depends on has_write && !has_read && !fops1 && !fops2 && !has_llseek && !nonseekable1 && !nonseekable2 && !seq @ identifier fops0.fops; identifier write_no_fpos.write_f; @@ struct file_operations fops = { ... .write = write_f, ... +.llseek = noop_llseek, /* write uses no f_pos */ }; @ depends on has_read && !has_write && !fops1 && !fops2 && !has_llseek && !nonseekable1 && !nonseekable2 && !seq @ identifier fops0.fops; identifier read_no_fpos.read_f; @@ struct file_operations fops = { ... .read = read_f, ... +.llseek = noop_llseek, /* read uses no f_pos */ }; @ depends on !has_read && !has_write && !fops1 && !fops2 && !has_llseek && !nonseekable1 && !nonseekable2 && !seq @ identifier fops0.fops; @@ struct file_operations fops = { ... +.llseek = noop_llseek, /* no read or write fn */ }; ===== End semantic patch ===== Signed-off-by: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de> Cc: Julia Lawall <julia@diku.dk> Cc: Christoph Hellwig <hch@infradead.org>
2010-05-20fs/timerfd.c: make use of wait_event_interruptible_locked_irq()Michal Nazarewicz
This patch modifies the fs/timerfd.c to use the newly created wait_event_interruptible_locked_irq() macro. This replaces an open code implementation with a single macro call. Signed-off-by: Michal Nazarewicz <m.nazarewicz@samsung.com> Cc: Kyungmin Park <kyungmin.park@samsung.com> Cc: Marek Szyprowski <m.szyprowski@samsung.com> Cc: Alexander Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk> Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> Cc: Roland Dreier <rolandd@cisco.com> Cc: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org> Cc: Christoph Lameter <cl@linux-foundation.org> Cc: Davide Libenzi <davidel@xmailserver.org> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
2010-03-30include cleanup: Update gfp.h and slab.h includes to prepare for breaking ↵Tejun Heo
implicit slab.h inclusion from percpu.h percpu.h is included by sched.h and module.h and thus ends up being included when building most .c files. percpu.h includes slab.h which in turn includes gfp.h making everything defined by the two files universally available and complicating inclusion dependencies. percpu.h -> slab.h dependency is about to be removed. Prepare for this change by updating users of gfp and slab facilities include those headers directly instead of assuming availability. As this conversion needs to touch large number of source files, the following script is used as the basis of conversion. http://userweb.kernel.org/~tj/misc/slabh-sweep.py The script does the followings. * Scan files for gfp and slab usages and update includes such that only the necessary includes are there. ie. if only gfp is used, gfp.h, if slab is used, slab.h. * When the script inserts a new include, it looks at the include blocks and try to put the new include such that its order conforms to its surrounding. It's put in the include block which contains core kernel includes, in the same order that the rest are ordered - alphabetical, Christmas tree, rev-Xmas-tree or at the end if there doesn't seem to be any matching order. * If the script can't find a place to put a new include (mostly because the file doesn't have fitting include block), it prints out an error message indicating which .h file needs to be added to the file. The conversion was done in the following steps. 1. The initial automatic conversion of all .c files updated slightly over 4000 files, deleting around 700 includes and adding ~480 gfp.h and ~3000 slab.h inclusions. The script emitted errors for ~400 files. 2. Each error was manually checked. Some didn't need the inclusion, some needed manual addition while adding it to implementation .h or embedding .c file was more appropriate for others. This step added inclusions to around 150 files. 3. The script was run again and the output was compared to the edits from #2 to make sure no file was left behind. 4. Several build tests were done and a couple of problems were fixed. e.g. lib/decompress_*.c used malloc/free() wrappers around slab APIs requiring slab.h to be added manually. 5. The script was run on all .h files but without automatically editing them as sprinkling gfp.h and slab.h inclusions around .h files could easily lead to inclusion dependency hell. Most gfp.h inclusion directives were ignored as stuff from gfp.h was usually wildly available and often used in preprocessor macros. Each slab.h inclusion directive was examined and added manually as necessary. 6. percpu.h was updated not to include slab.h. 7. Build test were done on the following configurations and failures were fixed. CONFIG_GCOV_KERNEL was turned off for all tests (as my distributed build env didn't work with gcov compiles) and a few more options had to be turned off depending on archs to make things build (like ipr on powerpc/64 which failed due to missing writeq). * x86 and x86_64 UP and SMP allmodconfig and a custom test config. * powerpc and powerpc64 SMP allmodconfig * sparc and sparc64 SMP allmodconfig * ia64 SMP allmodconfig * s390 SMP allmodconfig * alpha SMP allmodconfig * um on x86_64 SMP allmodconfig 8. percpu.h modifications were reverted so that it could be applied as a separate patch and serve as bisection point. Given the fact that I had only a couple of failures from tests on step 6, I'm fairly confident about the coverage of this conversion patch. If there is a breakage, it's likely to be something in one of the arch headers which should be easily discoverable easily on most builds of the specific arch. Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org> Guess-its-ok-by: Christoph Lameter <cl@linux-foundation.org> Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com> Cc: Lee Schermerhorn <Lee.Schermerhorn@hp.com>
2009-12-22anonfd: Allow making anon files read-onlyRoland Dreier
It seems a couple places such as arch/ia64/kernel/perfmon.c and drivers/infiniband/core/uverbs_main.c could use anon_inode_getfile() instead of a private pseudo-fs + alloc_file(), if only there were a way to get a read-only file. So provide this by having anon_inode_getfile() create a read-only file if we pass O_RDONLY in flags. Signed-off-by: Roland Dreier <rolandd@cisco.com> Signed-off-by: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
2009-02-18timerfd: add flags checkDavide Libenzi
As requested by Michael, add a missing check for valid flags in timerfd_settime(), and make it return EINVAL in case some extra bits are set. Michael said: If this is to be any use to userland apps that want to check flag support (perhaps it is too late already), then the sooner we get it into the kernel the better: 2.6.29 would be good; earlier stables as well would be even better. [akpm@linux-foundation.org: remove unused TFD_FLAGS_SET] Acked-by: Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Davide Libenzi <davidel@xmailserver.org> Cc: <stable@kernel.org> [2.6.27.x, 2.6.28.x] Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2009-01-14[CVE-2009-0029] System call wrappers part 32Heiko Carstens
Signed-off-by: Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@de.ibm.com>
2009-01-14[CVE-2009-0029] System call wrappers part 31Heiko Carstens
Signed-off-by: Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@de.ibm.com>
2008-09-05hrtimer: convert timerfd to the new hrtimer apisArjan van de Ven
In order to be able to do range hrtimers we need to use accessor functions to the "expire" member of the hrtimer struct. This patch converts timerfd to these accessors. Signed-off-by: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com>
2008-07-24flag parameters: check magic constantsUlrich Drepper
This patch adds test that ensure the boundary conditions for the various constants introduced in the previous patches is met. No code is generated. [akpm@linux-foundation.org: fix alpha] Signed-off-by: Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> Acked-by: Davide Libenzi <davidel@xmailserver.org> Cc: Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@googlemail.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2008-07-24flag parameters: NONBLOCK in timerfd_createUlrich Drepper
This patch adds support for the TFD_NONBLOCK flag to timerfd_create. The additional changes needed are minimal. The following test must be adjusted for architectures other than x86 and x86-64 and in case the syscall numbers changed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ #include <fcntl.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <time.h> #include <unistd.h> #include <sys/syscall.h> #ifndef __NR_timerfd_create # ifdef __x86_64__ # define __NR_timerfd_create 283 # elif defined __i386__ # define __NR_timerfd_create 322 # else # error "need __NR_timerfd_create" # endif #endif #define TFD_NONBLOCK O_NONBLOCK int main (void) { int fd = syscall (__NR_timerfd_create, CLOCK_REALTIME, 0); if (fd == -1) { puts ("timerfd_create(0) failed"); return 1; } int fl = fcntl (fd, F_GETFL); if (fl == -1) { puts ("fcntl failed"); return 1; } if (fl & O_NONBLOCK) { puts ("timerfd_create(0) set non-blocking mode"); return 1; } close (fd); fd = syscall (__NR_timerfd_create, CLOCK_REALTIME, TFD_NONBLOCK); if (fd == -1) { puts ("timerfd_create(TFD_NONBLOCK) failed"); return 1; } fl = fcntl (fd, F_GETFL); if (fl == -1) { puts ("fcntl failed"); return 1; } if ((fl & O_NONBLOCK) == 0) { puts ("timerfd_create(TFD_NONBLOCK) set non-blocking mode"); return 1; } close (fd); puts ("OK"); return 0; } ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Signed-off-by: Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> Acked-by: Davide Libenzi <davidel@xmailserver.org> Cc: Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@googlemail.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2008-07-24flag parameters: timerfd_createUlrich Drepper
The timerfd_create syscall already has a flags parameter. It just is unused so far. This patch changes this by introducing the TFD_CLOEXEC flag to set the close-on-exec flag for the returned file descriptor. A new name TFD_CLOEXEC is introduced which in this implementation must have the same value as O_CLOEXEC. The following test must be adjusted for architectures other than x86 and x86-64 and in case the syscall numbers changed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ #include <fcntl.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <time.h> #include <unistd.h> #include <sys/syscall.h> #ifndef __NR_timerfd_create # ifdef __x86_64__ # define __NR_timerfd_create 283 # elif defined __i386__ # define __NR_timerfd_create 322 # else # error "need __NR_timerfd_create" # endif #endif #define TFD_CLOEXEC O_CLOEXEC int main (void) { int fd = syscall (__NR_timerfd_create, CLOCK_REALTIME, 0); if (fd == -1) { puts ("timerfd_create(0) failed"); return 1; } int coe = fcntl (fd, F_GETFD); if (coe == -1) { puts ("fcntl failed"); return 1; } if (coe & FD_CLOEXEC) { puts ("timerfd_create(0) set close-on-exec flag"); return 1; } close (fd); fd = syscall (__NR_timerfd_create, CLOCK_REALTIME, TFD_CLOEXEC); if (fd == -1) { puts ("timerfd_create(TFD_CLOEXEC) failed"); return 1; } coe = fcntl (fd, F_GETFD); if (coe == -1) { puts ("fcntl failed"); return 1; } if ((coe & FD_CLOEXEC) == 0) { puts ("timerfd_create(TFD_CLOEXEC) set close-on-exec flag"); return 1; } close (fd); puts ("OK"); return 0; } ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Signed-off-by: Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> Acked-by: Davide Libenzi <davidel@xmailserver.org> Cc: Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@googlemail.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2008-07-24flag parameters: anon_inode_getfd extensionUlrich Drepper
This patch just extends the anon_inode_getfd interface to take an additional parameter with a flag value. The flag value is passed on to get_unused_fd_flags in anticipation for a use with the O_CLOEXEC flag. No actual semantic changes here, the changed callers all pass 0 for now. [akpm@linux-foundation.org: KVM fix] Signed-off-by: Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> Acked-by: Davide Libenzi <davidel@xmailserver.org> Cc: Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@googlemail.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2008-05-01[PATCH] sanitize anon_inode_getfd()Al Viro
a) none of the callers even looks at inode or file returned by anon_inode_getfd() b) any caller that would try to look at those would be racy, since by the time it returns we might have raced with close() from another thread and that file would be pining for fjords. Signed-off-by: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
2008-04-29fs/timerfd.c should #include <linux/syscalls.h>Adrian Bunk
Every file should include the headers containing the prototypes for its global functions (in this case for sys_timerfd_*()). Signed-off-by: Adrian Bunk <bunk@kernel.org> Cc: Davide Libenzi <davidel@xmailserver.org> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2008-02-05timerfd: new timerfd APIDavide Libenzi
This is the new timerfd API as it is implemented by the following patch: int timerfd_create(int clockid, int flags); int timerfd_settime(int ufd, int flags, const struct itimerspec *utmr, struct itimerspec *otmr); int timerfd_gettime(int ufd, struct itimerspec *otmr); The timerfd_create() API creates an un-programmed timerfd fd. The "clockid" parameter can be either CLOCK_MONOTONIC or CLOCK_REALTIME. The timerfd_settime() API give new settings by the timerfd fd, by optionally retrieving the previous expiration time (in case the "otmr" parameter is not NULL). The time value specified in "utmr" is absolute, if the TFD_TIMER_ABSTIME bit is set in the "flags" parameter. Otherwise it's a relative time. The timerfd_gettime() API returns the next expiration time of the timer, or {0, 0} if the timerfd has not been set yet. Like the previous timerfd API implementation, read(2) and poll(2) are supported (with the same interface). Here's a simple test program I used to exercise the new timerfd APIs: http://www.xmailserver.org/timerfd-test2.c [akpm@linux-foundation.org: coding-style cleanups] [akpm@linux-foundation.org: fix ia64 build] [akpm@linux-foundation.org: fix m68k build] [akpm@linux-foundation.org: fix mips build] [akpm@linux-foundation.org: fix alpha, arm, blackfin, cris, m68k, s390, sparc and sparc64 builds] [heiko.carstens@de.ibm.com: fix s390] [akpm@linux-foundation.org: fix powerpc build] [akpm@linux-foundation.org: fix sparc64 more] Signed-off-by: Davide Libenzi <davidel@xmailserver.org> Cc: Michael Kerrisk <mtk-manpages@gmx.net> Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> Cc: Davide Libenzi <davidel@xmailserver.org> Cc: Michael Kerrisk <mtk-manpages@gmx.net> Cc: Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> Signed-off-by: Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@de.ibm.com> Cc: Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com> Cc: Davide Libenzi <davidel@xmailserver.org> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2007-07-26make timerfd return a u64 and fix the __put_userDavide Libenzi
Davi fixed a missing cast in the __put_user(), that was making timerfd return a single byte instead of the full value. Talking with Michael about the timerfd man page, we think it'd be better to use a u64 for the returned value, to align it with the eventfd implementation. This is an ABI change. The timerfd code is new in 2.6.22 and if we merge this into 2.6.23 then we should also merge it into 2.6.22.x. That will leave a few early 2.6.22 kernels out in the wild which might misbehave when a future timerfd-enabled glibc is run on them. mtk says: The difference would be that read() will only return 4 bytes, while the application will expect 8. If the application is checking the size of returned value, as it should, then it will be able to detect the problem (it could even be sophisticated enough to know that if this is a 4-byte return, then it is running on an old 2.6.22 kernel). If the application is not checking the return from read(), then its 8-byte buffer will not be filled -- the contents of the last 4 bytes will be undefined, so the u64 value as a whole will be junk. Signed-off-by: Davide Libenzi <davidel@xmailserver.org> Cc: Michael Kerrisk <mtk-manpages@gmx.net> Cc: Davi Arnaut <davi@haxent.com.br> Cc: <stable@kernel.org> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2007-05-18timerfd use waitqueue lock ...Davide Libenzi
The timerfd was using the unlocked waitqueue operations, but it was using a different lock, so poll_wait() would race with it. This makes timerfd directly use the waitqueue lock. Signed-off-by: Davide Libenzi <davidel@xmailserver.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2007-05-11signal/timer/event: timerfd coreDavide Libenzi
This patch introduces a new system call for timers events delivered though file descriptors. This allows timer event to be used with standard POSIX poll(2), select(2) and read(2). As a consequence of supporting the Linux f_op->poll subsystem, they can be used with epoll(2) too. The system call is defined as: int timerfd(int ufd, int clockid, int flags, const struct itimerspec *utmr); The "ufd" parameter allows for re-use (re-programming) of an existing timerfd w/out going through the close/open cycle (same as signalfd). If "ufd" is -1, s new file descriptor will be created, otherwise the existing "ufd" will be re-programmed. The "clockid" parameter is either CLOCK_MONOTONIC or CLOCK_REALTIME. The time specified in the "utmr->it_value" parameter is the expiry time for the timer. If the TFD_TIMER_ABSTIME flag is set in "flags", this is an absolute time, otherwise it's a relative time. If the time specified in the "utmr->it_interval" is not zero (.tv_sec == 0, tv_nsec == 0), this is the period at which the following ticks should be generated. The "utmr->it_interval" should be set to zero if only one tick is requested. Setting the "utmr->it_value" to zero will disable the timer, or will create a timerfd without the timer enabled. The function returns the new (or same, in case "ufd" is a valid timerfd descriptor) file, or -1 in case of error. As stated before, the timerfd file descriptor supports poll(2), select(2) and epoll(2). When a timer event happened on the timerfd, a POLLIN mask will be returned. The read(2) call can be used, and it will return a u32 variable holding the number of "ticks" that happened on the interface since the last call to read(2). The read(2) call supportes the O_NONBLOCK flag too, and EAGAIN will be returned if no ticks happened. A quick test program, shows timerfd working correctly on my amd64 box: http://www.xmailserver.org/timerfd-test.c [akpm@linux-foundation.org: add sys_timerfd to sys_ni.c] Signed-off-by: Davide Libenzi <davidel@xmailserver.org> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>