io_getevents(2)

💖 io_getevents(2) — System Calls Manual 💖

okay bestie, so this is a Linux system call manual page for io_getevents, and it's all about picking up your async I/O results when they're finally done cooking. no cap, it's giving "completion queue reading" energy and honestly? iconic. 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

io_getevents — read asynchronous I/O events from the completion queue 🌸

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📚 LIBRARY 📚

Standard C library (libc, -lc) 🫶

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <linux/aio_abi.h>    /* Definition of *io_* types */
#include <sys/syscall.h>      /* Definition of SYS_* constants */
#include <unistd.h>

int syscall(SYS_io_getevents, aio_context_t ctx_id,
            long min_nr, long nr, struct io_event *events,
            struct timespec *timeout);

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👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

heads up queen: you probably want to use the io_getevents(3) wrapper function provided by libaio instead — scroll down to VERSIONS for the tea. 💅

The io_getevents() system call attempts to read at least min_nr events and up to nr events from the completion queue of the AIO context specified by ctx_id. literally it's just collecting your finished async homework 📬

The timeout argument specifies the amount of time to wait for events, and is specified as a relative timeout in a timespec(3) structure. ⏳

The specified time will be rounded up to the system clock granularity and is guaranteed not to expire early. yes bestie, it's punctual like that ✨

Specifying timeout as NULL means block indefinitely until at least min_nr events have been obtained. we're waiting FOREVER (or at least until the events show up) 😭

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🔥 RETURN VALUE 🔥

On success, io_getevents() returns the number of events read. this might be 0, or a value less than min_nr, if the timeout expired. it may also be a nonzero value less than min_nr if the call was interrupted by a signal handler. so like… you might get less than you asked for, and that's valid 💀

On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the error. 🙈

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💅 ERRORS 💅

• EFAULT — Either events or timeout is an invalid pointer. 🫠
• EINTR — Interrupted by a signal handler; see signal(7).
• EINVAL — ctx_id is invalid. 🚫
• EINVAL — min_nr is out of range or nr is out of range.
• ENOSYS — io_getevents() is not implemented on this architecture. 💀

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🌈 VERSIONS 🌈

libaio provides a wrapper function with the same name, but with a different prototype and return value. You probably want to use that wrapper. like fr fr, that's the one you want 🧚

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⭐ STANDARDS ⭐

Linux. 🐧 that's it, that's the standard.

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🌸 HISTORY 🌸

Linux 2.5. a true elder of the async world, and she still slays 👑

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🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

io_cancel(2), io_destroy(2), io_setup(2), io_submit(2), io_getevents(3), timespec(3), aio(7), time(7)

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okay that's the whole page bestie, mwah 💋 — this was Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2026-04-11, and it ate, no crumbs left. go read the io_getevents(3) wrapper instead, iykyk 💖✨🎀