06 — `sendfile`

Zero-copy transfer from a file fd to a socket fd. The kernel splices pages directly from the page cache into the socket's send buffer — userspace never touches the bytes. One syscall, one copy (DMA → NIC), no userspace buffer.

Kernel source

Path	What
`.dev/reference/linux/fs/read_write.c`	`SYSCALL_DEFINE4(sendfile, ...)` and `SYSCALL_DEFINE4(sendfile64, ...)`. Modern glibc aliases the first to the second; the syscalls are distinguished by the offset type.
`.dev/reference/linux/fs/splice.c`	Internally `sendfile` delegates to `splice_direct_to_actor`. Related — see 07-splice.md if you ever need the more general fd-to-fd pipe path.

Man pages

man 2 sendfile.

Rust FFI via `libc`

use libc::{sendfile, off_t};
// sendfile64 is the same syscall on 64-bit Linux; libc::sendfile already uses it

Direct-syscall example

unsafe {
    // out_fd must be a socket; in_fd must be a regular file opened O_RDONLY.
    // Pass NULL for the offset pointer to advance the file's own file offset;
    // pass a &mut offset to keep the file position untouched and step through explicitly.
    let mut sent: isize = 0;
    let mut remaining = file_len;
    let mut offset: off_t = 0;

    while remaining > 0 {
        let n = libc::sendfile(sock_fd, file_fd, &mut offset as *mut _, remaining as usize);
        if n < 0 {
            let e = io::Error::last_os_error();
            match e.raw_os_error() {
                Some(libc::EAGAIN) | Some(libc::EWOULDBLOCK) => {
                    // re-arm EPOLLOUT on sock_fd and yield back to the loop;
                    // resume this call when the loop wakes us
                    return Err(e);
                }
                _ => return Err(e),
            }
        }
        sent += n;
        remaining -= n as u64;
        if n == 0 { break; } // peer closed
    }
}

Key behaviour

Detail	Notes
Input fd	Must support `mmap`-like access — regular files, shared memory, some block devices. Not sockets, pipes, or character devices.
Output fd	Must be a socket (kernel 2.6.33+ lifted the restriction to anything, but practically: sockets).
Max per-call	Kernel caps at ~2 GB per syscall regardless of what you request. Loop for bigger files.
`offset` pointer	If NULL, updates the input fd's internal offset (like `read` does). If non-NULL, updates only the pointed-to variable. Always use non-NULL when sharing the fd across concurrent readers.
Return	Bytes sent (possibly less than requested — partial send; re-arm `EPOLLOUT` and resume).

Gotchas

EAGAIN is the common partial-write case. The socket's send buffer filled; register EPOLLOUT, drain the CQ when the loop fires, keep calling sendfile with the updated offset.
TLS and sendfile don't mix (without kTLS). Encryption requires a userspace copy. If / when TLS lands, use kTLS (setsockopt(TCP_ULP, "tls"), kernel 4.13+, AES-GCM only in practice).
Chunked transfer encoding and sendfile also don't mix — the chunk framing has to go around the payload. Send headers with write, then sendfile the body, then write the trailing zero-length chunk.
Compression can't happen on the wire — the kernel doesn't gzip. Pre-compressed sibling files (.gz, .br) + Content-Encoding header is the idiom.
fstat before sendfile to get the file length for Content-Length — spares the client from guessing when the body ends.

Used by

08-sendfile-static-assets.md — the GET /static/... handler. Future ##ui SSR output bundles go through the same path.

v1 port source

.dev/reference/crates/wo-serve/src/sendfile.rs (109 LOC) — send_file(sock, path) -> Result wrapping the loop + EAGAIN handling.

4 KiB Raw Blame History

06 — sendfile