Readiness notification facility (epoll)

Epoll is the best readiness notification facility in Linux. Epoll dose not perform any linear scans(poll) and ti is able to perform better and handle a larger number of events(select).

An epoll instance is created by epoll_create(2) or epoll_create1(2) (they take different arguments), which return an epoll instance. epoll_ctl(2) is used to add/remove descriptors to be watched on the epoll instance. To wait for events on the watched set, epoll_wait(2) is used, which blocks until events are available. Please see their manpages for more info.

When descriptors are added to an epoll instance, they can be added in two modes: level triggered and edge triggered. When you use level triggered mode, and data is available for reading, epoll_wait(2) will always return with ready events. If you don't read the data completely, and call epoll_wait(2) on the epoll instance watching the descriptor again, it will return again with a ready event because data is available. In edge triggered mode, you will only get a readiness notfication once. If you don't read the data fully, and call epoll_wait(2) on the epoll instance watching the descriptor again, it will block because the readiness event was already delivered.