Description
Determine the status of one or more sockets, waiting if necessary.
#include <winsock.h>
long PASCAL FAR select ( int nfds, fd_set FAR * readfds, fd_set FAR * writefds, fd_set FAR * exceptfds, const struct timeval FAR * timeout );
nfds
Remarks
This function is used to determine the status of one or more sockets. For each socket, the caller may request information on read, write or error status. The set of sockets for which a given status is requested is indicated by an fd_set structure. Upon return, the structure is updated to reflect the subset of these sockets which meet the specified condition, and select() returns the number of sockets meeting the conditions. A set of macros is provided for manipulating an fd_set. These macros are compatible with those used in the Berkeley software, but the underlying representation is completely different.
The parameter readfds identifies those sockets which are to be checked for readability. If the socket is currently listen()ing, it will be marked as readable if an incoming connection request has been received, so that an accept() is guaranteed to complete without blocking. For other sockets, readability means that queued data is available for reading or, for sockets of type SOCK_STREAM, that the virtual socket corresponding to the socket has been closed, so that a recv() or recvfrom() is guaranteed to complete without blocking. If the virtual circuit was closed gracefully, then a recv() will return immediately with 0 bytes read; if the virtual circuit was closed abortively, then a recv() will complete immediately with the error code WSAECONNRESET. The presence of out-of-band data will be checked if the socket option SO_OOBINLINE has been enabled (see setsockopt()).
The parameter writefds identifies those sockets which are to be checked for writeability. If a socket is connect()ing (non-blocking), writeability means that the connection establishment is complete. For other sockets, writeability means that a send() or sendto() will complete without blocking. φIt is not specified how long this guarantee can be assumed to be valid, particularly in a multithreaded environment.∙
The parameter exceptfds identifies those sockets which are to be checked for the presence of out-of-band data or any exceptional error conditions. Note that out-of-band data will only be reported in this way if the option SO_OOBINLINE is FALSE. For a SOCK_STREAM, the breaking of the connection by the peer or due to KEEPALIVE failure will be indicated as an exception. This specification does not define which other errors will be included. If a socket is connect()ing (non-blocking), failure of the connect attempt is indicated in exceptfds.
Any of readfds, writefds, or exceptfds may be given as NULL if no descriptors are of interest. Four macros are defined in the header file winsock.h for manipulating the descriptor sets. The variable FD_SETSIZE determines the maximum number of descriptors in a set. (The default value of FD_SETSIZE is 64, which may be modified by #defining FD_SETSIZE to another value before #including winsock.h.) Internally, an fd_set is represented as an array of SOCKETs; the last valid entry is followed by an element set to INVALID_SOCKET. The macros are:
FD_CLR(s, *set)
The parameter timeout controls how long the select() may take to complete. If timeout is a null pointer, select() will block indefinitely until at least one descriptor meets the specified criteria. Otherwise, timeout points to a struct timeval which specifies the maximum time that select() should wait before returning. If the timeval is initialized to {0, 0}, select() will return immediately; this is used to "poll" the state of the selected sockets. If this is the case, then the select() call is considered nonblocking and the standard assumptions for nonblocking calls apply. For example, the blocking hook must not be called, and the Windows Sockets implementation must not yield.
Return Value
select() returns the total number of descriptors which are ready and contained in the fd_set structures, or 0 if the time limit expired, or SOCKET_ERROR if an error occurred. If the return value is SOCKET_ERROR, WSAGetLastError() may be used to retrieve a specific error code.
Error Codes
WSANOTINITIALISED
See Also
WSAAsyncSelect(), accept(), connect(), recv(), recvfrom(), send()