DUP(2) MachTen Programmer’s Manual DUP(2)

NAME
dup, dup2 - duplicate an existing file descriptor

SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>

int
dup(int oldd)

int
dup2(int oldd, int newd)

DESCRIPTION
Dup() duplicates an existing object descriptor and returns its value to
the calling process (newd = dup(oldd)). The argument oldd 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 oldd
and newd in any way. Thus if newd and oldd 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 separate pointer in-
to 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 newd is specified. If this
descriptor is already in use, the descriptor is first deallocated as if a
close(2) call had been done first.

RETURN VALUES
The value -1 is returned if an error occurs in either call. The external
variable errno indicates the cause of the error.

ERRORS
Dup() and dup2() fail if:

[EBADF] Oldd or newd is not a valid active descriptor

[EMFILE] Too many descriptors are active.

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

STANDARDS
Dup() and dup2() are expected to conform to IEEE Std 1003.1-1988
(‘‘POSIX’’).

4th Berkeley Distribution June 4, 1993 1