# zmq(7) Manual Page

## NAME

zmq - 0MQ lightweight messaging kernel

## SYNOPSIS

#include <zmq.h>

cc [flags] files -lzmq [libraries]

## DESCRIPTION

The ØMQ lightweight messaging kernel is a library which extends the standard socket interfaces with features traditionally provided by specialised messaging middleware products. ØMQ sockets provide an abstraction of asynchronous message queues, multiple messaging patterns, message filtering (subscriptions), seamless access to multiple transport protocols and more.

This documentation presents an overview of ØMQ concepts, describes how ØMQ abstracts standard sockets and provides a reference manual for the functions provided by the ØMQ library.

### Context

Before using any ØMQ library functions the caller must initialise a ØMQ context using zmq_init(). The following functions are provided to handle initialisation and termination of a context:

Initialise ØMQ context

  zmq_init(3)

Terminate ØMQ context

  zmq_term(3)

#### Thread safety

A ØMQ context is thread safe and may be shared among as many application threads as necessary, without any additional locking required on the part of the caller.

Individual ØMQ sockets are not thread safe except in the case where full memory barriers are issued when migrating a socket from one thread to another. In practice this means applications can create a socket in one thread with zmq_socket() and then pass it to a newly created thread as part of thread initialization, for example via a structure passed as an argument to pthread_create().

#### Multiple contexts

Multiple contexts may coexist within a single application. Thus, an application can use ØMQ directly and at the same time make use of any number of additional libraries or components which themselves make use of ØMQ as long as the above guidelines regarding thread safety are adhered to.

### Messages

A ØMQ message is a discrete unit of data passed between applications or components of the same application. ØMQ messages have no internal structure and from the point of view of ØMQ itself they are considered to be opaque binary data.

The following functions are provided to work with messages:

Initialise a message

  zmq_msg_init(3) zmq_msg_init_size(3) zmq_msg_init_data(3)

Release a message

  zmq_msg_close(3)

Access message content

  zmq_msg_data(3) zmq_msg_size(3)

Message manipulation

  zmq_msg_copy(3) zmq_msg_move(3)

### Sockets

ØMQ sockets present an abstraction of a asynchronous message queue, with the exact queueing semantics depending on the socket type in use. See zmq_socket(3) for the socket types provided.

The following functions are provided to work with sockets:

Creating a socket

  zmq_socket(3)

Closing a socket

  zmq_close(3)

Manipulating socket options

  zmq_getsockopt(3) zmq_setsockopt(3)

Establishing a message flow

  zmq_bind(3) zmq_connect(3)

Sending and receiving messages

  zmq_send(3) zmq_recv(3)

Input/output multiplexing

ØMQ provides a mechanism for applications to multiplex input/output events over a set containing both ØMQ sockets and standard sockets. This mechanism mirrors the standard poll() system call, and is described in detail in zmq_poll(3).

### Transports

A ØMQ socket can use multiple different underlying transport mechanisms. Each transport mechanism is suited to a particular purpose and has its own advantages and drawbacks.

The following transport mechanisms are provided:

Unicast transport using TCP

  zmq_tcp(7)

Reliable multicast transport using PGM

  zmq_pgm(7)

Local inter-process communication transport

  zmq_ipc(7)

Local in-process (inter-thread) communication transport

  zmq_inproc(7)

### Devices

Apart from the ØMQ library the ØMQ distribution includes devices which are building blocks intended to serve as intermediate nodes in complex messaging topologies.

The following devices are provided:

Forwarder device for request-response messaging

  zmq_queue(1)

Forwarder device for publish-subscribe messaging

  zmq_forwarder(1)

Streamer device for parallelized pipeline messaging

  zmq_streamer(1)

## ERROR HANDLING

The ØMQ library functions handle errors using the standard conventions found on POSIX systems. Generally, this means that upon failure a ØMQ library function shall return either a NULL value (if returning a pointer) or a negative value (if returning an integer), and the actual error code shall be stored in the errno variable.

On non-POSIX systems some users may experience issues with retrieving the correct value of the errno variable. The zmq_errno() function is provided to assist in these cases; for details refer to zmq_errno(3).

The zmq_strerror() function is provided to translate ØMQ-specific error codes into error message strings; for details refer to zmq_strerror(3).

## MISCELLANEOUS

The following miscellaneous functions are provided:

Report ØMQ library version

  zmq_version(3)

## LANGUAGE BINDINGS

The ØMQ library provides interfaces suitable for calling from programs in any language; this documentation documents those interfaces as they would be used by C programmers. The intent is that programmers using ØMQ from other languages shall refer to this documentation alongside any documentation provided by the vendor of their language binding.

Language bindings (Python, Ruby, Java and more) are provided by members of the ØMQ community and pointers can be found on the ØMQ website.

## AUTHORS

The ØMQ documentation was written by Martin Sustrik <sustrik@250bpm.com> and Martin Lucina <martin@lucina.net>.

## RESOURCES

Main web site: http://www.zeromq.org/

Report bugs to the ØMQ development mailing list: <zeromq-dev@lists.zeromq.org>

## COPYING

Free use of this software is granted under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). For details see the files `COPYING` and `COPYING.LESSER` included with the ØMQ distribution.