ftok - convert a pathname and a project identifier to a System V IPC key
Standard C library (libc, -lc)
#include <sys/ipc.h>key_t ftok(const char *pathname,
int proj_id);
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 nonzero) to generate 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.
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.
See semget(2).
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).
| Interface | Attribute | Value |
ftok() |
Thread safety | MT-Safe |
POSIX.1-2008.
POSIX.1-2001.
On some ancient systems, 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.