IO_SETUP(2) Linux Programmer's Manual IO_SETUP(2)

io_setup - create an asynchronous I/O context

#include <linux/aio_abi.h>          /* Defines needed types */
int io_setup(unsigned nr_events, aio_context_t *ctx_idp);
Note: There is no glibc wrapper for this system call; see NOTES.

The io_setup() system call creates an asynchronous I/O context suitable for concurrently processing nr_events operations. The ctx_idp argument must not point to an AIO context that already exists, and must be initialized to 0 prior to the call. On successful creation of the AIO context, *ctx_idp is filled in with the resulting handle.

On success, io_setup() returns 0. For the failure return, see NOTES.

EAGAIN
The specified nr_events exceeds the user's limit of available events, as defined in /proc/sys/fs/aio-max-nr.
EFAULT
An invalid pointer is passed for ctx_idp.
EINVAL
ctx_idp is not initialized, or the specified nr_events exceeds internal limits. nr_events should be greater than 0.
ENOMEM
Insufficient kernel resources are available.
ENOSYS
io_setup() is not implemented on this architecture.

The asynchronous I/O system calls first appeared in Linux 2.5.

io_setup() is Linux-specific and should not be used in programs that are intended to be portable.

Glibc does not provide a wrapper function for this system call. You could invoke it using syscall(2). But instead, you probably want to use the io_setup() wrapper function provided by libaio.
Note that the libaio wrapper function uses a different type (io_context_t *) for the ctx_idp argument. Note also that the libaio wrapper does not follow the usual C library conventions for indicating errors: on error it returns a negated error number (the negative of one of the values listed in ERRORS). If the system call is invoked via syscall(2), then the return value follows the usual conventions for indicating an error: -1, with errno set to a (positive) value that indicates the error.

io_cancel(2), io_destroy(2), io_getevents(2), io_submit(2), aio(7)
2017-09-15 Linux