DUP(2)                      BSD System Calls Manual                     DUP(2)

NAME
     dup, dup2 -- duplicate an existing file descriptor

SYNOPSIS
     #include <unistd.h>

     int
     dup(int fildes);

     int
     dup2(int fildes, int fildes2);

DESCRIPTION
     dup() duplicates an existing object descriptor and returns its value to
     the calling process (fildes2 = dup(fildes)).  The argument fildes is a
     small non-negative integer index in the per-process descriptor table.
     The value must be less than the size of the table, which is returned by
     getdtablesize(2).  The new descriptor returned by the call is the lowest
     numbered descriptor currently not in use by the process.

     The object referenced by the descriptor does not distinguish between
     fildes and fildes2 in any way.  Thus if fildes2 and fildes are duplicate
     references to an open file, read(2), write(2) and lseek(2) calls all move
     a single pointer into the file, and append mode, non-blocking I/O and
     asynchronous I/O options are shared between the references.  If a sepa-
     rate pointer into the file is desired, a different object reference to
     the file must be obtained by issuing an additional open(2) call.  The
     close-on-exec flag on the new file descriptor is unset.

     In dup2(), the value of the new descriptor fildes2 is specified.  If
     fildes and fildes2 are equal, then dup2() just returns fildes2; no other
     changes are made to the existing descriptor.  Otherwise, if descriptor
     fildes2 is already in use, it is first deallocated as if a close(2) call
     had been done first.

RETURN VALUES
     Upon successful completion, the new file descriptor is returned.  Other-
     wise, a value of -1 is returned and the global integer variable errno is
     set to indicate the error.

ERRORS
     The dup() and dup2() system calls will fail if:

     [EBADF]            fildes is not an active, valid file descriptor.

     [EINTR]            Execution is interrupted by a signal.

     [EMFILE]           Too many file descriptors are active.

     The dup2() system call will fail if:

     [EBADF]            fildes2 is negative or greater than the maximum allow-
                        able number (see getdtablesize(2)).

SEE ALSO
     accept(2), close(2), fcntl(2), getdtablesize(2), open(2), pipe(2),
     socket(2), socketpair(2)

STANDARDS
     dup() and dup2() are expected to conform to IEEE Std 1003.1-1988
     (``POSIX.1'').

4th Berkeley Distribution      December 1, 2010      4th Berkeley Distribution