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<head>
<title>intro(9P) - Plan 9 from User Space</title>
<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv=Content-Type>
</head>
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<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=100%>
<tr height=10><td>
<tr><td width=20><td>
<tr><td width=20><td><b>INTRO(9P)</b><td align=right><b>INTRO(9P)</b>
<tr><td width=20><td colspan=2>
<br>
<p><font size=+1><b>NAME </b></font><br>
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=2><td><tr><td width=20><td>
intro &ndash; introduction to the Plan 9 File Protocol, 9P<br>
</table>
<p><font size=+1><b>SYNOPSIS </b></font><br>
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=2><td><tr><td width=20><td>
<tt><font size=+1>#include &lt;fcall.h&gt;<br>
</font></tt>
</table>
<p><font size=+1><b>DESCRIPTION </b></font><br>
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=2><td><tr><td width=20><td>
A Plan 9 <i>server</i> is an agent that provides one or more hierarchical
file systems -- file trees -- that may be accessed by Plan 9 processes.
A server responds to requests by <i>clients</i> to navigate the hierarchy,
and to create, remove, read, and write files. The prototypical
server is a separate machine that stores large numbers
of user files on permanent media; such a machine is called, somewhat
confusingly, a <i>file server</i>. Another possibility for a server is
to synthesize files on demand, perhaps based on information on
data structures maintained in memory; the <a href="../man4/plumber.html"><i>plumber</i>(4)</a> server is
an example of such a server.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
A <i>connection</i> to a server is a bidirectional communication path
from the client to the server. There may be a single client or
multiple clients sharing the same connection.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
The <i>Plan 9 File Protocol</i>, 9P, is used for messages between <i>clients</i>
and <i>servers</i>. A client transmits <i>requests</i> (<i>T-messages</i>) to a server,
which subsequently returns <i>replies</i> (<i>R-messages</i>) to the client.
The combined acts of transmitting (receiving) a request of a particular
type, and receiving (transmitting) its reply is called a
<i>transaction</i> of that type.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
Each message consists of a sequence of bytes. Two-, four-, and
eight-byte fields hold unsigned integers represented in little-endian
order (least significant byte first). Data items of larger or
variable lengths are represented by a two-byte field specifying
a count, <i>n</i>, followed by <i>n</i> bytes of data. Text strings are
represented this way, with the text itself stored as a UTF-8 encoded
sequence of Unicode characters (see <a href="../man7/utf.html"><i>utf</i>(7)</a>). Text strings in 9P
messages are not NUL-terminated: <i>n</i> counts the bytes of UTF-8 data,
which include no final zero byte. The NUL character is illegal
in all text strings in 9P, and is therefore excluded from file
names, user names, and so on.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
Each 9P message begins with a four-byte size field specifying
the length in bytes of the complete message including the four
bytes of the size field itself. The next byte is the message type,
one of the constants in the enumeration in the include file <tt><font size=+1>&lt;fcall.h&gt;</font></tt>.
The next two bytes are an identifying <i>tag</i>, described
below. The remaining bytes are parameters of different sizes.
In the message descriptions, the number of bytes in a field is
given in brackets after the field name. The notation <i>parameter</i>[<i>n</i>]
where <i>n</i> is not a constant represents a variable-length parameter:
<i>n</i>[2] followed by <i>n</i> bytes of data forming the <i>parameter</i>. The
notation <i>string</i>[<i>s</i>] (using a literal <i>s</i> character) is shorthand
for <i>s</i>[2] followed by <i>s</i> bytes of UTF-8 text. (Systems may choose
to reduce the set of legal characters to reduce syntactic problems,
for example to remove slashes from name components, but the protocol
has no such restriction. Plan 9 names may contain any
printable character (that is, any character outside hexadecimal
00-1F and 80-9F) except slash.) Messages are transported in byte
form to allow for machine independence; <a href="../man3/fcall.html"><i>fcall</i>(3)</a> describes routines
that convert to and from this form into a machine-dependent C
structure.<br>
</table>
<p><font size=+1><b>MESSAGES </b></font><br>
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=2><td><tr><td width=20><td>
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=2><td><tr><td width=20><td>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Tversion</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>msize</i>[4] <i>version</i>[<i>s</i>]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Rversion</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>msize</i>[4] <i>version</i>[<i>s</i>]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Tauth</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>afid</i>[4] <i>uname</i>[<i>s</i>] <i>aname</i>[<i>s</i>]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Rauth</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>aqid</i>[13]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Rerror</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>ename</i>[<i>s</i>]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Tflush</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>oldtag</i>[2]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Rflush</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Tattach</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>fid</i>[4] <i>afid</i>[4] <i>uname</i>[<i>s</i>] <i>aname</i>[<i>s</i>]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Rattach</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>qid</i>[13]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Twalk</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>fid</i>[4] <i>newfid</i>[4] <i>nwname</i>[2] <i>nwname</i>*(<i>wname</i>[<i>s</i>])<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Rwalk</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>nwqid</i>[2] <i>nwqid</i>*(<i>wqid</i>[13])<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Topen</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>fid</i>[4] <i>mode</i>[1]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Ropen</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>qid</i>[13] <i>iounit</i>[4]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Topenfd</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>fid</i>[4] <i>mode</i>[1]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Ropenfd</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>qid</i>[13] <i>iounit</i>[4] <i>unixfd</i>[4]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Tcreate</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>fid</i>[4] <i>name</i>[<i>s</i>] <i>perm</i>[4] <i>mode</i>[1]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Rcreate</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>qid</i>[13] <i>iounit</i>[4]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Tread</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>fid</i>[4] <i>offset</i>[8] <i>count</i>[4]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Rread</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>count</i>[4] <i>data</i>[<i>count</i>]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Twrite</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>fid</i>[4] <i>offset</i>[8] <i>count</i>[4] <i>data</i>[<i>count</i>]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Rwrite</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>count</i>[4]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Tclunk</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>fid</i>[4]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Rclunk</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Tremove</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>fid</i>[4]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Rremove</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Tstat</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>fid</i>[4]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Rstat</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>stat</i>[<i>n</i>]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Twstat</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2] <i>fid</i>[4] <i>stat</i>[<i>n</i>]<br>
<i>size</i>[4] <tt><font size=+1>Rwstat</font></tt> <i>tag</i>[2]
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
</table>
Each T-message has a <i>tag</i> field, chosen and used by the client
to identify the message. The reply to the message will have the
same tag. Clients must arrange that no two outstanding messages
on the same connection have the same tag. An exception is the
tag <tt><font size=+1>NOTAG</font></tt>, defined as <tt><font size=+1>(ushort)~0</font></tt> in <tt><font size=+1>&lt;fcall.h&gt;</font></tt>: the
client can use it, when establishing a connection, to override
tag matching in <tt><font size=+1>version</font></tt> messages.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
The type of an R-message will either be one greater than the type
of the corresponding T-message or <tt><font size=+1>Rerror</font></tt>, indicating that the
request failed. In the latter case, the <i>ename</i> field contains a
string describing the reason for failure.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
The <tt><font size=+1>version</font></tt> message identifies the version of the protocol and
indicates the maximum message size the system is prepared to handle.
It also initializes the connection and aborts all outstanding
I/O on the connection. The set of messages between <tt><font size=+1>version</font></tt> requests
is called a <i>session</i>.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
Most T-messages contain a <i>fid</i>, a 32-bit unsigned integer that
the client uses to identify a &#8220;current file&#8221; on the server. Fids
are somewhat like file descriptors in a user process, but they
are not restricted to files open for I/O: directories being examined,
files being accessed by <a href="../man3/stat.html"><i>stat</i>(3)</a> calls, and so on -- all files being
manipulated by the operating system -- are identified by fids. Fids
are chosen by the client. All requests on a connection share the
same fid space; when several clients share a connection, the agent
managing the sharing must arrange that no two clients choose the
same fid.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
The fid supplied in an <tt><font size=+1>attach</font></tt> message will be taken by the server
to refer to the root of the served file tree. The <tt><font size=+1>attach</font></tt> identifies
the user to the server and may specify a particular file tree
served by the server (for those that supply more than one).
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
Permission to attach to the service is proven by providing a special
fid, called <tt><font size=+1>afid</font></tt>, in the <tt><font size=+1>attach</font></tt> message. This <tt><font size=+1>afid</font></tt> is established
by exchanging <tt><font size=+1>auth</font></tt> messages and subsequently manipulated using
<tt><font size=+1>read</font></tt> and <tt><font size=+1>write</font></tt> messages to exchange authentication information
not defined explicitly by 9P. Once the
authentication protocol is complete, the <tt><font size=+1>afid</font></tt> is presented in
the <tt><font size=+1>attach</font></tt> to permit the user to access the service.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
A <tt><font size=+1>walk</font></tt> message causes the server to change the current file associated
with a fid to be a file in the directory that is the old current
file, or one of its subdirectories. <tt><font size=+1>Walk</font></tt> returns a new fid that
refers to the resulting file. Usually, a client maintains a fid
for the root, and navigates by <tt><font size=+1>walks</font></tt> from the root fid.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
A client can send multiple T-messages without waiting for the
corresponding R-messages, but all outstanding T-messages must
specify different tags. The server may delay the response to a
request and respond to later ones; this is sometimes necessary,
for example when the client reads from a file that the server
synthesizes from external events such as keyboard characters.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
Replies (R-messages) to <tt><font size=+1>auth</font></tt>, <tt><font size=+1>attach</font></tt>, <tt><font size=+1>walk</font></tt>, <tt><font size=+1>open</font></tt>, and <tt><font size=+1>create</font></tt> requests
convey a <i>qid</i> field back to the client. The qid represents the
server&#8217;s unique identification for the file being accessed: two
files on the same server hierarchy are the same if and only if
their qids are the same. (The client may have multiple
fids pointing to a single file on a server and hence having a
single qid.) The thirteen-byte qid fields hold a one-byte type,
specifying whether the file is a directory, append-only file,
etc., and two unsigned integers: first the four-byte qid <i>version</i>,
then the eight-byte qid <i>path</i>. The path is an integer unique among
all files
in the hierarchy. If a file is deleted and recreated with the
same name in the same directory, the old and new path components
of the qids should be different. The version is a version number
for a file; typically, it is incremented every time the file is
modified.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
An existing file can be <tt><font size=+1>opened</font></tt>, or a new file may be <tt><font size=+1>created</font></tt> in
the current (directory) file. I/O of a given number of bytes at
a given offset on an open file is done by <tt><font size=+1>read</font></tt> and <tt><font size=+1>write</font></tt>.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
A client should <tt><font size=+1>clunk</font></tt> any fid that is no longer needed. The <tt><font size=+1>remove</font></tt>
transaction deletes files.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
<tt><font size=+1>Openfd</font></tt> is an extension used by Unix utilities to allow traditional
Unix programs to have their input or output attached to fids on
9P servers. See <i>openfd</i>(9p) and <a href="../man3/9pclient.html"><i>9pclient</i>(3)</a> for details.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
The <tt><font size=+1>stat</font></tt> transaction retrieves information about the file. The
<i>stat</i> field in the reply includes the file&#8217;s name, access permissions
(read, write and execute for owner, group and public), access
and modification times, and owner and group identifications (see
<a href="../man3/stat.html"><i>stat</i>(3)</a>). The owner and group identifications are textual
names. The <tt><font size=+1>wstat</font></tt> transaction allows some of a file&#8217;s properties
to be changed.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
A request can be aborted with a flush request. When a server receives
a <tt><font size=+1>Tflush</font></tt>, it should not reply to the message with tag <i>oldtag</i> (unless
it has already replied), and it should immediately send an <tt><font size=+1>Rflush</font></tt>.
The client must wait until it gets the <tt><font size=+1>Rflush</font></tt> (even if the reply
to the original message arrives in the interim),
at which point <i>oldtag</i> may be reused.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
Because the message size is negotiable and some elements of the
protocol are variable length, it is possible (although unlikely)
to have a situation where a valid message is too large to fit
within the negotiated size. For example, a very long file name
may cause a <tt><font size=+1>Rstat</font></tt> of the file or <tt><font size=+1>Rread</font></tt> of its directory entry
to be
too large to send. In most such cases, the server should generate
an error rather than modify the data to fit, such as by truncating
the file name. The exception is that a long error string in an
<tt><font size=+1>Rerror</font></tt> message should be truncated if necessary, since the string
is only advisory and in some sense arbitrary.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
Most programs do not see the 9P protocol directly; on Plan 9,
calls to library routines that access files are translated by
the kernel&#8217;s mount driver into 9P messages.<br>
<p><font size=+1><b>Unix </b></font><br>
On Unix, 9P services are posted as Unix domain sockets in a well-known
directory (see <a href="../man3/getns.html"><i>getns</i>(3)</a> and <a href="../man4/9pserve.html"><i>9pserve</i>(4)</a>). Clients connect to these
servers using a 9P client library (see <a href="../man3/9pclient.html"><i>9pclient</i>(3)</a>).<br>
</table>
<p><font size=+1><b>DIRECTORIES </b></font><br>
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=2><td><tr><td width=20><td>
Directories are created by <tt><font size=+1>create</font></tt> with <tt><font size=+1>DMDIR</font></tt> set in the permissions
argument (see <i>stat</i>(9P)). The members of a directory can be found
with <i>read</i>(9P). All directories must support <tt><font size=+1>walks</font></tt> to the directory
<tt><font size=+1>..</font></tt> (dot-dot) meaning parent directory, although by convention
directories contain no explicit entry for <tt><font size=+1>..</font></tt> or <tt><font size=+1>.
</font></tt>(dot). The parent of the root directory of a server&#8217;s tree is
itself.<br>
</table>
<p><font size=+1><b>ACCESS PERMISSIONS </b></font><br>
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=2><td><tr><td width=20><td>
This section describes the access permission conventions implemented
by most Plan 9 file servers. These conventions are not enforced
by the protocol and may differ between servers, especially servers
built on top of foreign operating systems.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
Each file server maintains a set of user and group names. Each
user can be a member of any number of groups. Each group has a
<i>group leader</i> who has special privileges (see <i>stat</i>(9P) and Plan
9&#8217;s <i>users</i>(6)). Every file request has an implicit user id (copied
from the original <tt><font size=+1>attach</font></tt>) and an implicit set of groups (every
group of which the user is a member).
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
Each file has an associated <i>owner</i> and <i>group</i> id and three sets
of permissions: those of the owner, those of the group, and those
of &#8220;other&#8221; users. When the owner attempts to do something to a
file, the owner, group, and other permissions are consulted, and
if any of them grant the requested permission, the
operation is allowed. For someone who is not the owner, but is
a member of the file&#8217;s group, the group and other permissions
are consulted. For everyone else, the other permissions are used.
Each set of permissions says whether reading is allowed, whether
writing is allowed, and whether executing is allowed. A
<tt><font size=+1>walk</font></tt> in a directory is regarded as executing the directory, not
reading it. Permissions are kept in the low-order bits of the
file <i>mode</i>: owner read/write/execute permission represented as
1 in bits 8, 7, and 6 respectively (using 0 to number the low
order). The group permissions are in bits 5, 4, and 3, and the
other
permissions are in bits 2, 1, and 0.
<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
The file <i>mode</i> contains some additional attributes besides the
permissions. If bit 31 (<tt><font size=+1>DMDIR</font></tt>) is set, the file is a directory;
if bit 30 (<tt><font size=+1>DMAPPEND</font></tt>) is set, the file is append-only (offset is
ignored in writes); if bit 29 (<tt><font size=+1>DMEXCL</font></tt>) is set, the file is exclusive-use
(only one client may have it open at a time); if bit 27 (<tt><font size=+1>DMAUTH</font></tt>)
is
set, the file is an authentication file established by <tt><font size=+1>auth</font></tt> messages;
if bit 26 (<tt><font size=+1>DMTMP</font></tt>) is set, the contents of the file (or directory)
are not included in nightly archives. (Bit 28 is skipped for historical
reasons.) These bits are reproduced, from the top bit down, in
the type byte of the Qid: <tt><font size=+1>QTDIR</font></tt>, <tt><font size=+1>QTAPPEND</font></tt>, <tt><font size=+1>QTEXCL</font></tt>,
(skipping one bit) <tt><font size=+1>QTAUTH</font></tt>, and <tt><font size=+1>QTTMP</font></tt>. The name <tt><font size=+1>QTFILE</font></tt>, defined
to be zero, identifies the value of the type for a plain file.<br>
</table>
<td width=20>
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