The mq_receive() function is used to receive the oldest of the highest priority message(s) from the message queue specified by mqdes. If the size of the buffer in bytes, specified by msg_len, is less than the mq_msgsize member of the message queue, the function fails and returns an error. Otherwise, the selected message is removed from the queue and copied to the buffer pointed to by msg_ptr.

If msg_prio is not NULL, the priority of the selected message is stored in the location referenced by msg_prio.

If the specified message queue is empty and O_NONBLOCK is not set in the message queue description associated with mqdes, (see mq_open(3RT) and mq_setattr(3RT)), mq_receive() blocks, waiting until a message is enqueued on the message queue, or until mq_receive() is interrupted by a signal. If more than one process (or thread) is waiting to receive a message when a message arrives at an empty queue, then the process of highest priority that has been waiting the longest is selected to receive the message. If the specified message queue is empty and O_NONBLOCK is set in the message queue description associated with mqdes, no message is removed from the queue, and mq_receive() returns an error.

Upon successful completion, mq_receive() returns the length of the selected message in bytes and the message is removed from the queue. Otherwise, no message is removed from the queue, the function returns a value of -1, and sets errno to indicate the error condition.

The mq_receive() function will fail if:

EAGAIN

O_NONBLOCK was set in the message description associated with mqdes, and the specified message queue is empty.

EBADF

The mqdes argument is not a valid message queue descriptor open for reading.

EMSGSIZE

The specified message buffer size, msg_len, is less than the message size member of the message queue.

EINTR

The mq_receive() function operation was interrupted by a signal.

ENOSYS

The mq_receive() function is not supported by the system.

The mq_receive() function may fail if:

EBADMSG

A data corruption problem with the message has been detected.

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

mq_open(3RT), mq_send(3RT), mq_setattr(3RT), attributes(5), mqueue(3HEAD)

Solaris 2.6 was the first release to support the Asynchronous Input and Output option. Prior to this release, this function always returned -1 and set errno to ENOSYS.