RTEMS Logo

RTEMS 4.10.2 On-Line Library


Message Passing Manager Building a Message Queue Attribute Set

PREV UP NEXT Bookshelf RTEMS POSIX API User's Guide

16.2.4: Building a Message Queue Attribute Set

The mq_attr structure is used to define the characteristics of the message queue.

typedef struct mq_attr{
  long mq_flags;
  long mq_maxmsg;
  long mq_msgsize;
  long mq_curmsgs;
};

All of these attributes are set when the message queue is created using mq_open. The mq_flags field is not used in the creation of a message queue, it is only used by mq_setattr and mq_getattr. The structure mq_attr is passed as an argument to mq_setattr and mq_getattr.

The mq_flags contain information affecting the behavior of the message queue. The O_NONBLOCK mq_flag is the only flag that is defined. In mq_setattr, the mq_flag can be set to dynamically change the blocking and non-blocking behavior of the message queue. If the non-block flag is set then the message queue is non-blocking, and requests to send and receive messages do not block waiting for resources. For a blocking message queue, a request to send might have to wait for an empty message queue, and a request to receive might have to wait for a message to arrive on the queue. Both mq_maxmsg and mq_msgsize affect the sizing of the message queue. mq_maxmsg specifies how many messages the queue can hold at any one time. mq_msgsize specifies the size of any one message on the queue. If either of these limits is exceeded, an error message results.

Upon return from mq_getattr, the mq_curmsgs is set according to the current state of the message queue. This specifies the number of messages currently on the queue.


PREV UP NEXT Bookshelf RTEMS POSIX API User's Guide

Copyright © 1988-2008 OAR Corporation