Language clean ups

1 files changed, 75 insertions, 74 deletions

diff --git a/man7/epoll.7 b/man7/epoll.7
index ac04369e..23766780 100644
--- a/man7/epoll.7
+++ b/man7/epoll.7
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 .\"
 .\"  Davide Libenzi <davidel@xmailserver.org>
 .\"
-.TH EPOLL 7 2002-10-23 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
+.TH EPOLL 7 2007-06-22 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
 .SH NAME
 epoll \- I/O event notification facility
 .SH SYNOPSIS
@@ -27,8 +27,8 @@ epoll \- I/O event notification facility
 .B epoll
 is a variant of
 .BR poll (2)
-that can be used either as Edge or Level Triggered interface and scales
-well to large numbers of watched fds.
+that can be used either as an edge-triggered or a level-triggered
+interface and scales well to large numbers of watched file descriptors.
 Three system calls are provided to
 set up and control an
 .B epoll
@@ -45,36 +45,36 @@ Interest for certain file descriptors is then registered via
 .BR epoll_ctl (2).
 Finally, the actual wait is started by
 .BR epoll_wait (2).
-.SS Level Triggered and Edge Triggered
+.SS Level-Triggered and Edge-Triggered
 The
 .B epoll
-event distribution interface is able to behave both as Edge Triggered
-( ET ) and Level Triggered ( LT ).
+event distribution interface is able to behave both as edge-triggered
+(ET) and level-triggered (LT).
 The difference between ET and LT
 event distribution mechanism can be described as follows.
 Suppose that
 this scenario happens :
 .TP
 .B 1
-The file descriptor that represents the read side of a pipe (
-.B RFD
-) is added inside the
+The file descriptor that represents the read side of a pipe
+.RI ( rfd )
+is added inside the
 .B epoll
 device.
 .TP
 .B 2
-Pipe writer writes 2Kb of data on the write side of the pipe.
+A pipe writer writes 2Kb of data on the write side of the pipe.
 .TP
 .B 3
 A call to
 .BR epoll_wait (2)
 is done that will return
-.B RFD
-as ready file descriptor.
+.I rfd
+as a ready file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B 4
 The pipe reader reads 1Kb of data from
-.BR RFD .
+.IR rfd .
 .TP
 .B 5
 A call to
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ A call to
 is done.
 .PP
 If the
-.B RFD
+.I rfd
 file descriptor has been added to the
 .B epoll
 interface using the
@@ -91,17 +91,18 @@ flag, the call to
 .BR epoll_wait (2)
 done in step
 .B 5
-will probably hang because of the available data still present in the file
-input buffers and the remote peer might be expecting a response based on the
+will probably hang despite the available data still present in the file
+input buffer;
+meanwhile the remote peer might be expecting a response based on the
 data it already sent.
-The reason for this is that Edge Triggered event
+The reason for this is that edge-triggered event
 distribution delivers events only when events happens on the monitored file.
 So, in step
 .B 5
 the caller might end up waiting for some data that is already present inside
 the input buffer.
 In the above example, an event on
-.B RFD
+.I rfd
 will be generated because of the write done in
 .BR 2
 and the event is consumed in
@@ -112,19 +113,18 @@ does not consume the whole buffer data, the call to
 .BR epoll_wait (2)
 done in step
 .B 5
-might lock indefinitely.
-The
-.B epoll
-interface, when used with the
+might block indefinitely.
+
+An application that employs the
 .B EPOLLET
-flag ( Edge Triggered )
+flag (edge-triggered)
 should use non-blocking file descriptors to avoid having a blocking
-read or write starve the task that is handling multiple file descriptors.
+read or write starve a task that is handling multiple file descriptors.
 The suggested way to use
 .B epoll
-as an Edge Triggered
+as an edge-triggered
 .RB ( EPOLLET )
-interface is below, and possible pitfalls to avoid follow.
+interface is as follows:
 .RS
 .TP
 .B i
@@ -138,15 +138,16 @@ or
 return EAGAIN
 .RE
 .PP
-On the contrary, when used as a Level Triggered interface,
+By contrast, when used as a level-triggered interface,
 .B epoll
-is by all means a faster
+is simplay a faster
 .BR poll (2),
 and can be used wherever the latter is used since it shares the
 same semantics.
-Since even with the Edge Triggered
+
+Since even with the edge-triggered
 .B epoll
-multiple events can be generated up on receipt of multiple chunks of data,
+multiple events can be generated upon receipt of multiple chunks of data,
 the caller has the option to specify the
 .B EPOLLONESHOT
 flag, to tell
@@ -156,17 +157,17 @@ to disable the associated file descriptor after the receipt of an event with
 When the
 .B EPOLLONESHOT
 flag is specified,
-it is caller responsibility to rearm the file descriptor using
+it is the caller's responsibility to rearm the file descriptor using
 .BR epoll_ctl (2)
 with
 .BR EPOLL_CTL_MOD .
 .SS Example for Suggested Usage
 While the usage of
 .B epoll
-when employed like a Level Triggered interface does have the same
-semantics of
+when employed as a level-triggered interface does have the same
+semantics as
 .BR poll (2),
-an Edge Triggered usage requires more clarification to avoid stalls
+the edge-triggered usage requires more clarification to avoid stalls
 in the application event loop.
 In this example, listener is a
 non-blocking socket on which
@@ -177,7 +178,7 @@ file descriptor until EAGAIN is returned by either
 .BR read (2)
 or
 .BR write (2).
-An event driven state machine application should, after having received
+An event-driven state machine application should, after having received
 EAGAIN, record its current state so that at the next call to do_use_fd()
 it will continue to
 .BR read (2)
@@ -214,12 +215,11 @@ for(;;) {
 }
 .fi
 
-When used as an Edge triggered interface, for performance reasons, it is
-possible to add the file descriptor inside the epoll interface (
-.B EPOLL_CTL_ADD
-) once by specifying (
-.BR EPOLLIN | EPOLLOUT
-).
+When used as an edge-triggered interface, for performance reasons, it is
+possible to add the file descriptor inside the epoll interface
+.RB ( EPOLL_CTL_ADD )
+) once by specifying
+.RB ( EPOLLIN | EPOLLOUT ).
 This allows you to avoid
 continuously switching between
 .B EPOLLIN
@@ -232,31 +232,30 @@ with
 .SS Questions and Answers
 .TP
 .B Q1
-What happens if you add the same fd to an epoll_set twice?
+What happens if you add the same file descriptor to an epoll_set twice?
 .TP
 .B A1
 You will probably get EEXIST.
 However, it is possible that two
-threads may add the same fd twice.
+threads may add the same file descriptor twice.
 This is a harmless condition.
 .TP
 .B Q2
 Can two
 .B epoll
-sets wait for the same fd?
+sets wait for the same file descriptor?
 If so, are events reported to both
 .B epoll
-sets fds?
+file descriptors?
 .TP
 .B A2
-Yes.
+Yes, and events would be reported to both.
 However, it is not recommended.
-Yes it would be reported to both.
 .TP
 .B Q3
 Is the
 .B epoll
-fd itself poll/epoll/selectable?
+file descriptor itself poll/epoll/selectable?
 .TP
 .B A3
 Yes.
@@ -264,24 +263,24 @@ Yes.
 .B Q4
 What happens if the
 .B epoll
-fd is put into its own fd set?
+file descriptor is put into its own file descriptor set?
 .TP
 .B A4
 It will fail.
 However, you can add an
 .B epoll
-fd inside another epoll fd set.
+file descriptor inside another epoll file descriptor set.
 .TP
 .B Q5
 Can I send the
 .B epoll
-fd over a unix-socket to another process?
+file descriptor over a unix-socket to another process?
 .TP
 .B A5
 No.
 .TP
 .B Q6
-Will the close of an fd cause it to be removed from all
+Will closing a file descriptor cause it to be removed from all
 .B epoll
 sets automatically?
 .TP
@@ -289,7 +288,7 @@ sets automatically?
 Yes.
 .TP
 .B Q7
-If more than one event comes in between
+If more than one event occurs between
 .BR epoll_wait (2)
 calls, are they combined or reported separately?
 .TP
@@ -297,19 +296,20 @@ calls, are they combined or reported separately?
 They will be combined.
 .TP
 .B Q8
-Does an operation on an fd affect the already collected but not yet reported
-events?
+Does an operation on a file descriptor affect the 
+already collected but not yet reported events?
 .TP
 .B A8
-You can do two operations on an existing fd.
+You can do two operations on an existing file descriptor.
 Remove would be meaningless for
 this case.
 Modify will re-read available I/O.
 .TP
 .B Q9
-Do I need to continuously read/write an fd until EAGAIN when using the
+Do I need to continuously read/write a file descriptor
+until EAGAIN when using the
 .B EPOLLET
-flag ( Edge Triggered behavior ) ?
+flag (edge-triggered behavior) ?
 .TP
 .B A9
 No you don't.
@@ -322,26 +322,26 @@ next EAGAIN.
 When and how you will use such file descriptor is entirely up
 to you.
 Also, the condition that the read/write I/O space is exhausted can
-be detected by checking the amount of data read/write from/to the target
+be detected by checking the amount of data read from / written to the target
 file descriptor.
 For example, if you call
 .BR read (2)
 by asking to read a certain amount of data and
 .BR read (2)
-returns a lower number of bytes, you can be sure to have exhausted the read
+returns a lower number of bytes,
+you can be sure of having exhausted the read
 I/O space for such file descriptor.
-Same is valid when writing using the
-.BR write (2)
-function.
+The same is true when writing using the
+.BR write (2).
 .SS Possible Pitfalls and Ways to Avoid Them
 .TP
-.B o Starvation ( Edge Triggered )
+.B o Starvation (edge-triggered)
 .PP
 If there is a large amount of I/O space,
 it is possible that by trying to drain
 it the other files will not get processed causing starvation.
-This is not specific to
-.BR epoll .
+(This problem is not specific to
+.BR epoll .)
 .PP
 The solution is to maintain a ready list
 and mark the file descriptor as ready
@@ -349,32 +349,33 @@ in its associated data structure, thereby allowing the application to
 remember which files need to be processed but still round robin amongst
 all the ready files.
 This also supports ignoring subsequent events you
-receive for fd's that are already ready.
+receive for file descriptors that are already ready.
 .TP
 .B o If using an event cache...
 .PP
-If you use an event cache or store all the fd's returned from
+If you use an event cache or store all the file descriptors returned from
 .BR epoll_wait (2),
 then make sure to provide a way to mark
-its closure dynamically (ie- caused by
+its closure dynamically (i.e., caused by
 a previous event's processing).
 Suppose you receive 100 events from
 .BR epoll_wait (2),
 and in event #47 a condition causes event #13 to be closed.
 If you remove the structure and
 .BR close (2)
-the fd for event #13, then your
-event cache might still say there are events waiting for that fd causing
-confusion.
+the file descriptor for event #13, then your
+event cache might still say there are events waiting for that
+file descriptor causing confusion.
 .PP
 One solution for this is to call, during the processing of event 47,
 .BR epoll_ctl ( EPOLL_CTL_DEL )
-to delete fd 13 and
+to delete file descriptor 13 and
 .BR close (2),
 then mark its associated
 data structure as removed and link it to a cleanup list.
 If you find another
-event for fd 13 in your batch processing, you will discover the fd had been
+event for file descriptor 13 in your batch processing,
+you will discover the file descriptor had been
 previously removed and there will be no confusion.
 .SH VERSIONS
 .BR epoll (7)