nfds The number of open objects that may be ready for reading or writing or that have exceptions pending. The nfds argument is normally limited to FD_SETSIZE, which is defined in the SOCKET.H header file. Note that a single process can have a maximum of 65535 simultaneous channels (including sockets) on OpenVMS Alpha and I64 systems, and a maximum of 2047 on OpenVMS VAX systems. readfds A pointer to an array of bits, organized as integers, that should be examined for read readiness. If bit n of the longword is set, socket descriptor n is checked to see whether it is ready to be read. All bits set in the bit mask must correspond to the file descriptors of sockets. The select() function cannot be used on normal files. On return, the array to which readfds points contains a bit mask of the sockets that are ready for reading. Only bits that were set on entry to the select() function can be set on exit. writefds A pointer to an array of bits, organized as integers, that should be examined for write readiness. If bit n of the longword is set, socket descriptor n is checked to see whether it is ready to be written to. All bits set in the bit mask must correspond to socket descriptors. On return, the array to which writefds points contains a bit mask of the sockets that are ready for writing. Only bits that were set on entry to the select() function are set on exit. exceptfds A pointer to an array of bits, organized as integers, that is examined for exceptions. If bit n of the longword is set, socket descriptor n is checked to see whether it has any pending exceptions. All bits set in the bit mask must correspond to the file descriptors of sockets. On return, the array exceptfds pointer contains a bit mask of the sockets that have exceptions pending. Only bits that were set on entry to the select() function can be set on exit. timeout The length of time that the select() function should examine the sockets before returning. If one of the sockets specified in the readfds, writefds, and exceptfds bit masks is ready for I/O, the select() function returns before the timeout period expires. The timeout argument points to a timeval structure.