The Mono.Unix namespace contains high-level wrapper classes, which provide .NET naming and usage conventions over the low-level Mono.Unix.Native.Syscall and Mono.Unix.Native.Stdlib functionality.
If an exception is generated due to an operating system-level error (as opposed to invalid arguments or some fully managed reason), the exception thrown will either inherit from Mono.Unix.UnixIOException, or the Exception.InnerException property will be a type inheriting from UnixIOException. In either case, the Mono.Unix.UnixIOException.ErrorCode property will contain the underlying error number that generated the exception. This error number can be used to look up additional information if necessary.
Thread-safety wasn't considered in the original Unix API. While some degree of thread-safety is provided from managed code, it is impossible to provide full thread-safety for interactions between managed and unmanaged code. For example, if you DllImport into a C library which uses non-thread-safe Unix functions which are also exposed in Mono.Unix, you may have threading issues including, but not limited to, memory corruption.
An effort is made to provide thread-safety from managed code, but it is impossible to know all dependencies for all potential Unix-like platforms. For example, is Mono.Unix.Native.Stdlib.fopen thread-safe? It appears to be under glibc, but isn't necessarily under all Unix platforms. Mono.Unix.Native.Stdlib assumes that it is. Only obviously unsafe exports are actually synchronized from managed code, such as Mono.Unix.Native.Stdlib.tmpnam and Mono.Unix.Native.Stdlib.strerror.
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| Type | Reason |
|---|---|
| AbstractUnixEndPoint | A System.Net.EndPoint implementation for abstract UNIX sockets as network addresses. |
| Catalog | A wrapper to the libintl library providing message translation capabilities. |
| FileAccessPattern | Possible operating system hints for future file data access. |
| FileAccessPermissions | Unix file access permissions. |
| FileHandleOperations | Operations that can be performed on a file handle. |
| FileSpecialAttributes | Unix file special attributes. |
| FileTypes | Unix filesystem types. |
| PeerCred | When using Unix domain sockets (via Mono.Unix.UnixEndPoint or Mono.Unix.UnixClient, for example) most operating systems support the passing of credentials through the socket. Generally, the process id (PID) of the application on the other side of the connection as well as the group ID (GID) and user ID (UID) of the executing user are available. This is done via the kernel and cannot be spoofed, so this can be used to reliably authenticate a Unix socket connection. |
| StdioFileStream | A System.IO.Stream wrapper over the FILE type. |
| UnixClient | A class to provide client connections to Unix domain socket servers. |
| UnixDirectoryInfo | Represents information about a directory in the filesystem. |
| UnixDriveInfo | Represents information about Unix volumes. |
| UnixDriveType | Possible Mono.Unix.UnixDriveInfo.DriveType values. |
| UnixEncoding | A Unix filename System.Text.Encoding. |
| UnixEndPoint | A System.Net.EndPoint implementation for UNIX sockets as network addresses. |
| UnixEnvironment | Provides the current settings for, and information about, the execution environment. |
| UnixFileInfo | Provides information and performs operations on files. |
| UnixFileSystemInfo | Provides information and performs operations on file system entries. |
| UnixGroupInfo | Provides information about a Unix group. |
| UnixIOException | Represents errors that are generated from Unix system calls. |
| UnixListener | Documentation for this section has not yet been entered. |
| UnixMarshal | Provides a collection of miscellaneous methods for marshaling strings, allocating memory, and interoperating with the operating system. |
| UnixPath | Performs operations on string instances that contain file or directory path information. |
| UnixPipes | Provides information about a Unix pipe. |
| UnixProcess | Provides information about a Unix process. |
| UnixSignal | Represents the number of times a Unix signal has been emitted. |
| UnixStream | A System.IO.Stream wrapper over Unix file descriptors. |
| UnixSymbolicLinkInfo | Provides information about and performs operations on symbolic links. |
| UnixUserInfo | Provides information about a Unix user. |