MSYNC(2)		   Linux Programmer's Manual		      MSYNC(2)



NAME
       msync - synchronize a file with a memory map

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/mman.h>

       int msync(void *addr, size_t length, int flags);

DESCRIPTION
       msync()	flushes	 changes  made	to the in-core copy of a file that was
       mapped into memory using mmap(2) back to the filesystem.	  Without  use
       of  this	 call,	there  is  no  guarantee that changes are written back
       before munmap(2) is called.  To be more precise, the part of  the  file
       that  corresponds to the memory area starting at addr and having length
       length is updated.

       The flags argument should specify exactly one of MS_ASYNC and  MS_SYNC,
       and  may	 additionally  include the MS_INVALIDATE bit.  These bits have
       the following meanings:

       MS_ASYNC
	      Specifies that an update be  scheduled,  but  the	 call  returns
	      immediately.

       MS_SYNC
	      Requests an update and waits for it to complete.

       MS_INVALIDATE
	      Asks to invalidate other mappings of the same file (so that they
	      can be updated with the fresh values just written).

RETURN VALUE
       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and  errno  is
       set appropriately.

ERRORS
       EBUSY  MS_INVALIDATE  was  specified in flags, and a memory lock exists
	      for the specified address range.

       EINVAL addr is not a multiple  of  PAGESIZE;  or	 any  bit  other  than
	      MS_ASYNC	|  MS_INVALIDATE  |  MS_SYNC  is set in flags; or both
	      MS_SYNC and MS_ASYNC are set in flags.

       ENOMEM The indicated memory (or part of it) was not mapped.

CONFORMING TO
       POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008.

       This call was introduced in Linux 1.3.21, and then used EFAULT  instead
       of  ENOMEM.   In	 Linux	2.4.19,	 this  was  changed to the POSIX value
       ENOMEM.

AVAILABILITY
       On   POSIX   systems   on   which   msync()    is    available,	  both
       _POSIX_MAPPED_FILES   and   _POSIX_SYNCHRONIZED_IO   are	  defined   in
       <unistd.h> to a value greater than 0.  (See also sysconf(3).)

NOTES
       According to POSIX, either MS_SYNC or MS_ASYNC  must  be	 specified  in
       flags,  and  indeed  failure  to	 include one of these flags will cause
       msync() to fail on some systems.	 However,  Linux  permits  a  call  to
       msync()	that specifies neither of these flags, with semantics that are
       (currently) equivalent to specifying MS_ASYNC.	(Since	Linux  2.6.19,
       MS_ASYNC	 is  in	 fact  a no-op, since the kernel properly tracks dirty
       pages and flushes them to storage as necessary.)	  Notwithstanding  the
       Linux  behavior, portable, future-proof applications should ensure that
       they specify either MS_SYNC or MS_ASYNC in flags.

SEE ALSO
       mmap(2)

       B.O. Gallmeister, POSIX.4, O'Reilly, pp. 128-129 and 389-391.

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 4.10 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of	the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
       latest	 version    of	  this	  page,	   can	   be	  found	    at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



Linux				  2015-08-08			      MSYNC(2)