FTOK(3)			   Linux Programmer's Manual		       FTOK(3)

NAME
       ftok  -	convert	 a pathname and a project identifier to a System V IPC
       key

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <sys/ipc.h>

       key_t ftok(const char *pathname, int proj_id);

DESCRIPTION
       The ftok() function uses the identity of the file named	by  the	 given
       pathname	 (which	 must  refer  to an existing, accessible file) and the
       least significant 8 bits of proj_id (which must be non-zero) to	gener‐
       ate  a  key_t  type  System V IPC key, suitable for use with msgget(2),
       semget(2), or shmget(2).

       The resulting value is the same for all pathnames that  name  the  same
       file,  when  the	 same  value  of  proj_id is used.  The value returned
       should be different when the (simultaneously  existing)	files  or  the
       project IDs differ.

RETURN VALUE
       On  success  the	 generated  key_t value is returned.  On failure -1 is
       returned, with errno indicating the error as  for  the  stat(2)	system
       call.

CONFORMING TO
       POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES
       Under libc4 and libc5 (and under SunOS 4.x) the prototype was:

	      key_t ftok(char *pathname, char proj_id);

       Today proj_id is an int, but still only 8 bits are used.	 Typical usage
       has an ASCII character proj_id, that is why the behavior is said to  be
       undefined when proj_id is zero.

       Of course no guarantee can be given that the resulting key_t is unique.
       Typically, a best effort attempt combines the given proj_id  byte,  the
       lower  16  bits of the inode number, and the lower 8 bits of the device
       number into a 32-bit result.  Collisions may easily happen, for example
       between files on /dev/hda1 and files on /dev/sda1.

SEE ALSO
       msgget(2), semget(2), shmget(2), stat(2), svipc(7)

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.15 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, and information about reporting  bugs,  can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

GNU				  2001-11-28			       FTOK(3)

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