Current "man sendfile" (git commit 36ad6ae0b4b6252a921a91dbd785de8fd88a364b) from kernel man pages contradicts to itself. The section "DESCRIPTION" says: "In Linux kernels before 2.6.33, out_fd must refer to a socket. Since Linux 2.6.33 it can be any file", and AFAIK this is right current info. But the section "NOTES" says: "In Linux 2.4 and earlier, out_fd could also refer to a regular file" and this confuses. Also, the "NOTES" says: "The Linux-specific splice(2) call supports transferring data between arbitrary files (e.g., a pair of sockets)". This is wrong, because one splice call cannot splice together two sockets. So, please fix the man. Probably you should double-check whole man and make sure that whole man is up-to-date
I changed the text in NOTES to [[ In Linux 2.4 and earlier, .I out_fd could also refer to a regular file; this possibility went away in the Linux 2.6.x kernel series, but was restored in Linux 2.6.33. ]] Thanks, Michael
"The Linux-specific splice(2) call supports transferring data between arbitrary files (e.g., a pair of sockets)" "pair of sockets" part is wrong. See splice(2). Also, I just tested this, splice doesn't work on pair of sockets (tested on Linux 3.16). So, please, change this phrase to (for example): "The Linux-specific splice(2) call supports transferring data between arbitrary file descriptors provided one of them (or both) is a pipe". (Also, where is your change? I don't see it in current head [ https://git.kernel.org/cgit/docs/man-pages/man-pages.git/tree/man2/sendfile.2?id=beb9356fdc3d377f27eec6fd2cb07b97bb1927d4 ])
(In reply to Askar Safin from comment #2) > "The Linux-specific splice(2) call supports transferring data between > arbitrary files (e.g., a pair of sockets)" > > "pair of sockets" part is wrong. See splice(2). Also, I just tested this, > splice doesn't work on pair of sockets (tested on Linux 3.16). So, please, > change this phrase to (for example): > > "The Linux-specific splice(2) call supports transferring data between > arbitrary file descriptors provided one of them (or both) is a pipe". Thanks, Askar. Changed as you suggest (but not yet pushed). Cheers, Michael
Thanks :)