#include <sys/ipc.h>
key_t ftok(const char *path, int id);
The ftok() function shall return a key based on path and id that is usable in subsequent calls to msgget(), semget(), and shmget(). The application shall ensure that the path argument is the pathname of an existing file that the process is able to stat().
The ftok() function shall return the same key value for all paths that name the same file, when called with the same id value, and return different key values when called with different id values or with paths that name different files existing on the same file system at the same time. It is unspecified whether ftok() shall return the same key value when called again after the file named by path is removed and recreated with the same name.
Only the low-order 8-bits of id are significant. The behavior of ftok() is unspecified if these bits are 0.
Upon successful completion, ftok() shall return a key. Otherwise, ftok() shall return (key_t)-1 and set errno to indicate the error.
The ftok() function shall fail if:
The ftok() function may fail if:
The following sections are informative.
The following example gets a unique key that can be used by the IPC functions semget(), msgget(), and shmget(). The key returned by ftok() for this example is based on the ID value S and the pathname /tmp.
#include <sys/ipc.h> ... key_t key; char *path = "/tmp"; int id = 'S'; key = ftok(path, id);
The following example gets a unique key based on the pathname /tmp and the ID value a. It also assigns the value of the resulting key to the semkey variable so that it will be available to a later call to semget(), msgget(), or shmget().
#include <sys/ipc.h>
...
key_t semkey;
if ((semkey = ftok("/tmp", 'a')) == (key_t) -1) {
perror("IPC error: ftok"); exit(1);
}
For maximum portability, id should be a single-byte character.
msgget() , semget() , shmget() , the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <sys/ipc.h>