sem_init - initialize an unnamed semaphore
Contents
Attributes
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
│ Interface │ Attribute │ Value │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
│ sem_init() │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘
Description
sem_init() initializes the unnamed semaphore at the address pointed to by sem. The value argument
specifies the initial value for the semaphore.
The pshared argument indicates whether this semaphore is to be shared between the threads of a process,
or between processes.
If pshared has the value 0, then the semaphore is shared between the threads of a process, and should be
located at some address that is visible to all threads (e.g., a global variable, or a variable allocated
dynamically on the heap).
If pshared is nonzero, then the semaphore is shared between processes, and should be located in a region
of shared memory (see shm_open(3), mmap(2), and shmget(2)). (Since a child created by fork(2) inherits
its parent's memory mappings, it can also access the semaphore.) Any process that can access the shared
memory region can operate on the semaphore using sem_post(3), sem_wait(3), and so on.
Initializing a semaphore that has already been initialized results in undefined behavior.
Errors
EINVALvalue exceeds SEM_VALUE_MAX.
ENOSYSpshared is nonzero, but the system does not support process-shared semaphores (see
sem_overview(7)).
Examples
See shm_open(3) and sem_wait(3).
History
POSIX.1-2001.
Bizarrely, POSIX.1-2001 does not specify the value that should be returned by a successful call to
sem_init(). POSIX.1-2008 rectifies this, specifying the zero return on success.
Library
POSIX threads library (libpthread, -lpthread)
Name
sem_init - initialize an unnamed semaphore
Return Value
sem_init() returns 0 on success; on error, -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the error.
See Also
sem_destroy(3), sem_post(3), sem_wait(3), sem_overview(7) Linux man-pages 6.9.1 2024-05-02 sem_init(3)
Standards
POSIX.1-2008.
Synopsis
#include<semaphore.h>intsem_init(sem_t*sem,intpshared,unsignedintvalue);