OPEN(5) OPEN(5)
NAME
open, create - prepare a fid for I/O on an existing or new
file
SYNOPSIS
Topen tag[2] fid[2] mode[1]
Ropen tag[2] fid[2] qid[8]
Tcreate tag[2] fid[2] name[28] perm[4] mode[1]
Rcreate tag[2] fid[2] qid[8]
DESCRIPTION
The open request asks the file server to check permissions
and prepare a fid for I/O with subsequent read and write
messages. The mode field determines the type of I/O: 0, 1,
2, and 3 mean read access, write access, read and write
access, and execute access, to be checked against the per-
missions for the file. In addition, if mode has the OTRUNC
(0x10) bit set, the file is to be truncated, which requires
write permission; if the mode has the ORCLOSE (0x40) bit
set, the file is to be removed when the fid is clunked,
which requires permission to remove the file from its direc-
tory. If other bits are set in mode they will be ignored.
It is illegal to write a directory, truncate it, or attempt
to remove it on close. If the file is marked for exclusive
use (see stat(5)), only one client can have the file open at
any time. That is, after such a file has been opened, no
other open will succeed until fid has been clunked. All
these permissions are checked at the time of the open
request; subsequent changes to the permissions of files do
not affect the ability to read, write, or remove an open
file.
The create request asks the file server to create a new file
with the name supplied, in the directory (dir) represented
by fid, and requires write permission in the directory. The
owner of the file is the implied user id of the request, the
group of the file is the same as dir, and the permissions
are the value of
(perm&(~0777|0111)) | (dir.perm&perm&0666)
if a regular file is being created and
(perm&~0777) | (dir.perm&perm&0777)
if a directory is being created. This means, for example,
that if the create allows read permission to others, but the
containing directory does not, then the created file will
not allow others to read the file.
Finally, the newly created file is opened according to mode,
and fid will represent the newly opened file. Mode is not
checked against the permissions in perm. The qid for the new
Page 1 Plan 9 (printed 12/21/24)
OPEN(5) OPEN(5)
file is returned with the create response.
Directories are created by setting the CHDIR bit
(0x80000000) in the mode.
The names . and .. are special; it is illegal to create
files with these names.
It is an error for either of these messages if the fid is
already the product of a successful open or create message.
An attempt to create a file in a directory where the given
name already exists will be rejected; in this case, create
(see open(2)) uses open with truncation. The algorithm used
by create is: first walk to the directory to contain the
file. If that fails, return an error. Next walk to the
specified file. If the walk succeeds, send a request to
open and truncate the file and return the result, successful
or not. If the walk fails, send a create message. If that
fails, it may be because the file was created by another
process after the previous walk failed, so (once) try the
walk and open again. For the behavior of create on a union
directory, see bind(2).
ENTRY POINTS
Open and create both generate open messages; only create
generates a create message.
Page 2 Plan 9 (printed 12/21/24)