BIO_SET_FLAGS(3ossl)

💖 NAME 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to BIO_set_flags(3ossl) — this is the OpenSSL page for the little flag-wrangling crew: BIO_set_flags, BIO_clear_flags, BIO_test_flags, BIO_get_flags, BIO_set_retry_read, BIO_set_retry_write, BIO_set_retry_special, BIO_clear_retry_flags, and BIO_get_retry_flags — literally all of them exist to manipulate and interpret BIO flags. 💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <openssl/bio.h>

void BIO_set_flags(BIO *b, int flags);
void BIO_clear_flags(BIO *b, int flags);
int  BIO_test_flags(const BIO *b, int flags);
int  BIO_get_flags(const BIO *b);

void BIO_set_retry_read(BIO *b);
void BIO_set_retry_write(BIO *b);
void BIO_set_retry_special(BIO *b);
void BIO_clear_retry_flags(BIO *b);
int  BIO_get_retry_flags(BIO *b);

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so a BIO has its own internal lil set of bit flags that describe its state, right? And these functions and macros are used primarily by BIO implementations and by code that builds BIO chains, to mess with those flags. Not your everyday main-character API, iykyk. 💫

• BIO_set_flags() — sets the bits given in flags in the BIO b. Any bits already set in the BIO's flag word remain set. We're adding, not replacing, bestie. ✨
• BIO_clear_flags() — clears the bits given in flags from the BIO b. Any other bits in the flag word are left unchanged. It's giving selective removal. 🧹
• BIO_test_flags() — tests the bits given in flags in the BIO b and returns a nonzero value if any of them are currently set, and zero otherwise.
• BIO_get_flags() — returns the current flag word from the BIO b. This is equivalent to testing for all bits and returning the result. 💯

The following convenience macros are built on top of those primitives, and they're the ones that maintain the retry state of a BIO:

• BIO_set_retry_read() — marks the BIO b as being in a retryable state by setting the BIO_FLAGS_SHOULD_RETRY flag. In addition, it sets the BIO_FLAGS_READ flag to indicate that the retry condition is associated with a read operation. 📖
• BIO_set_retry_write() — marks the BIO b as being in a retryable state by setting the BIO_FLAGS_SHOULD_RETRY flag. In addition, it sets the BIO_FLAGS_WRITE flag to indicate that the retry condition is associated with a write operation. ✍️
• BIO_set_retry_special() — marks the BIO b as being in a retryable state by setting the BIO_FLAGS_SHOULD_RETRY flag. In addition, it sets the BIO_FLAGS_IO_SPECIAL flag to indicate that the retry condition is associated with a read operation some "special" condition. The precise meaning of this condition depends on the BIO type. (yes, the original sentence is a lil wobbly, but that's exactly what it says, no cap — don't come for me, come for the manpage 😭)
• BIO_clear_retry_flags() — clears all retry-related bits from b, i.e. BIO_FLAGS_READ, BIO_FLAGS_WRITE, BIO_FLAGS_IO_SPECIAL, and BIO_FLAGS_SHOULD_RETRY. Full reset, iconic. 🎀
• BIO_get_retry_flags() — returns retry-related bits that are currently set in b. The result is a subset of BIO_FLAGS_RWS|BIO_FLAGS_SHOULD_RETRY.

The retry bits are interpreted by the higher level macros BIO_should_read(), BIO_should_write(), BIO_should_io_special(), BIO_retry_type() and BIO_should_retry(), as documented in BIO_should_retry(3). Application code will typically use those macros rather than manipulate the underlying flags directly. 👑

The following flag bits are currently defined for use with BIO_set_flags(), BIO_clear_flags() and BIO_test_flags():

• BIO_FLAGS_READ — the last I/O operation should be retried when the BIO becomes readable. This flag is normally set by the BIO implementation via BIO_set_retry_read() after a failed read operation. 🍓
• BIO_FLAGS_WRITE — the last I/O operation should be retried when the BIO becomes writable. This flag is normally set by the BIO implementation via BIO_set_retry_write() after a failed write operation.
• BIO_FLAGS_IO_SPECIAL — the last I/O operation should be retried when some "special" condition becomes true. The precise meaning of this condition depends on the BIO type and is usually obtained via BIO_get_retry_BIO() and BIO_get_retry_reason() as described in BIO_should_retry(3). This flag is normally set by the BIO implementation via BIO_set_retry_special().
• BIO_FLAGS_RWS — the bitwise OR of BIO_FLAGS_READ, BIO_FLAGS_WRITE and BIO_FLAGS_IO_SPECIAL. This mask is used when clearing or extracting the retry-direction bits. 🧭
• BIO_FLAGS_SHOULD_RETRY — set if the last I/O operation on the BIO should be retried at a later time. If this bit is not set then the condition is treated as an error. This flag is normally set by the BIO implementation. ⚠️
• BIO_FLAGS_BASE64_NO_NL — when set on a base64 filter BIO, this flag disables the generation of newline characters in the encoded output and causes newlines to be ignored in the input. See also BIO_f_base64(3). The flag has no effect on any other built-in BIO types. 🌈
• BIO_FLAGS_MEM_RDONLY — when set on a memory BIO, this flag indicates that the underlying buffer is read only. Attempts to write to such a BIO will fail. The flag has no effect on any other built-in BIO types. 🙈
• BIO_FLAGS_NONCLEAR_RST — on a memory BIO, this flag modifies the behaviour of BIO_reset(). When it is set, resetting the BIO does not clear the underlying buffer but only resets the current read position. The flag has no effect on any other built-in BIO types. 💅
• BIO_FLAGS_IN_EOF — this flag may be used by a BIO implementation to indicate that the end of the input stream has been reached. However, BIO types are not required to use this flag to signal end-of-file conditions; they may rely on other mechanisms such as system calls or by querying the next BIO in a chain. Applications must therefore not test this flag directly to determine whether EOF has been reached, and must use BIO_eof() instead. 🚨

A range of additional flag values is reserved for internal use by OpenSSL to track kernel TLS (KTLS) state. This range and the corresponding flag macros are not part of the public API and must not be used by applications. Hands off, bestie. 🔥

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💀 RETURN VALUES 💀

• BIO_get_flags() returns a bit mask of the flags currently set on the BIO.
• BIO_test_flags() returns a bit mask consisting of those flags from the argument that are currently set in the BIO. Consequently, it returns a nonzero value if and only if at least one of the requested flags is set.
• BIO_get_retry_flags() returns a bit mask consisting of those flags from BIO_FLAGS_READ, BIO_FLAGS_WRITE, BIO_FLAGS_IO_SPECIAL, and BIO_FLAGS_SHOULD_RETRY that are currently set in the BIO.

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🌸 NOTES 🌸

Ordinary application code will rarely need to call BIO_set_flags(), BIO_clear_flags() or BIO_test_flags() directly. They're intended for BIO implementations and for code that forwards retry state from one BIO in a chain to another. After a failed I/O operation, applications should normally use BIO_should_retry() and related macros as described in BIO_should_retry(3) instead of inspecting the flags directly. Live your life through the high-level macros, periodt. 👑

These functions and macros are not thread-safe. If a single BIO is accessed from multiple threads, the caller must provide appropriate external synchronisation. Do not skip this, fr fr. 😭

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🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

BIO_should_retry(3), BIO_f_base64(3), bio(7)

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⭐ HISTORY ⭐

The functions and macros described here have been available in OpenSSL since at least 1.1.0 (BIO_FLAGS_IN_EOF since 1.1.1). Been iconic for a minute. 💜

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👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Copyright 2025 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html.

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and that's the whole vibe check, bestie 🎀✨ this was OpenSSL 3.5.9, dated 2026-09-29 — slay, go forth and BIO_should_retry() responsibly 💖🦋