read(2) on Tun fd returned zero

Question

In my application, a Tun interface was created and the process keep reading the associated fd with read(2) in a select(2) loop. But, when I was debugging an issue in the application, I found that in some moments the read(2) operation on the Tun file descriptor can return zero. Is this possible and what's the condition it can happen?

Thanks in advance. woody

Answer 1

Here is the information from the manpage on read(2)click here

Return Value

On success, the number of bytes read is returned (zero indicates end of file), and the file position is advanced by this number. It is not an error if this number is smaller than the number of bytes requested; this may happen for example because fewer bytes are actually available right now (maybe because we were close to end-of-file, or because we are reading from a pipe, or from a terminal), or because read() was interrupted by a signal. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately. In this case it is left unspecified whether the file position (if any) changes.