man/man3c/signalfd.3c

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.Dd "May 05, 2016"
.Dt SIGNALFD 3C
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm signalfd
.Nd create or modify a file descriptor for signal handling
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In sys/signalfd.h
.
.Ft int
.Fo signalfd
.Fa "int fd"
.Fa "const sigset_t *mask"
.Fa "int flags"
.Fc
.
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Fn signalfd
function returns a file descriptor that can be used
for synchronous consumption of signals. The file descriptor can be operated
upon via
.Xr read 2
and the facilities that notify of file descriptor activity (e.g.
.Xr poll 2 ,
.Xr port_get 3C ,
.Xr epoll_wait 3C
). To dispose of the instance
.Xr close 2
should be called on the file descriptor.
.Pp
If the
.Va fd
argument is -1, a new signalfd file descriptor will be
returned, otherwise the
.Va fd
argument should be an existing signalfd file descriptor whose signal mask will
be updated.
.Pp
The
.Va mask
argument specifies the set of signals that are relevant to the file descriptor.
It may be manipulated with the standard signal set manipulation functions
documented in
.Xr sigsetops 3C .
Signals in the mask which cannot be caught (e.g.
.Fa SIGKILL )
are ignored.
.Pp
The
.Va flags
argument specifies additional parameters for the instance, and can have any of
the following values:
.Bl -tag -width Dv
.It Sy SFD_CLOEXEC
Instance will be closed upon an
.Xr exec 2 ;
see description for
.Fa O_CLOEXEC
in
.Xr open 2 .
.It Sy SFD_NONBLOCK
Instance will be set to be non-blocking. A
.Xr read 2
on a signalfd instance that has been initialized with
.Fa SFD_NONBLOCK ,
or made non-blocking in other ways, will return
.Er EAGAIN
in lieu of blocking if there are no signals from the
.Va mask
that are pending.
.El
.Pp
As with
.Xr sigwait 2 ,
reading a signal from the file descriptor will consume the signal. The signals
used with signalfd file descriptors are normally first blocked so that their
handler does not run when a signal arrives. If the signal is not blocked the
behavior matches that of
.Xr sigwait 2 ;
if a
.Xr read 2
is pending then the signal is consumed by the read, otherwise the signal is
consumed by the handler.
.Pp
The following operations can be performed upon a signalfd file descriptor:
.Bl -tag -width Dv
.It Sy read(2)
Reads and consumes one or more of the pending signals that match the file
descriptor's
.Va mask .
The read buffer must be large enough to hold one or more
.Vt signalfd_siginfo
structures, which is described below.
.Xr read 2
will block if there are no matching signals pending, or return
.Er EAGAIN
if the instance was created with
.Fa SFD_NONBLOCK .
After a
.Xr fork 2 ,
if the child reads from the descriptor it will only consume signals from itself.
.It Sy poll(2)
Provide notification when one of the signals from the
.Va mask
arrives.
.Fa POLLIN
and
.Fa POLLRDNORM
will be set.
.It Sy close(2)
Closes the desriptor.
.El
.Pp
The
.Vt signalfd_siginfo
structure returned from
.Xr read 2
is a fixed size 128 byte structure defined as follows:
.Bd -literal
typedef struct signalfd_siginfo {
        uint32_t ssi_signo;     /* signal from signal.h */
        int32_t  ssi_errno;     /* error from errno.h */
        int32_t  ssi_code;      /* signal code */
        uint32_t ssi_pid;       /* PID of sender */
        uint32_t ssi_uid;       /* real UID of sender */
        int32_t  ssi_fd;        /* file descriptor (SIGIO) */
        uint32_t ssi_tid;       /* unused */
        uint32_t ssi_band;      /* band event (SIGIO) */
        uint32_t ssi_overrun;   /* unused */
        uint32_t ssi_trapno;    /* trap number that caused signal */
        int32_t  ssi_status;    /* exit status or signal (SIGCHLD) */
        int32_t  ssi_int;       /* unused */
        uint64_t ssi_ptr;       /* unused */
        uint64_t ssi_utime;     /* user CPU time consumed (SIGCHLD) */
        uint64_t ssi_stime;     /* system CPU time consumed (SIGCHLD) */
        uint64_t ssi_addr;      /* address that generated signal */
        uint8_t  ssi_pad[48];   /* pad size to 128 bytes */
} signalfd_siginfo_t;
.Ed
.Sh NOTES
File descriptor duplication during fork presents a challenge to the
.Sy signalfd
facility since signal data and events are dependent on the process from which
they are queried.  Its use with caching event systems such as
.Xr epoll 5 ,
.Sy /dev/poll ,
or
.Xr port_create 3C
can result in undefined behavior if signalfd and polling descriptors are used
together after being shared across a fork.  Such restrictions do not apply if
the child only calls
.Xr close 2
on the descriptors.
.Sh RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion, a file descriptor associated with the instance
is returned. Otherwise, -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.
When
.Va fd
is not -1 and there is no error, the value of
.Va fd
is returned.
.Sh ERRORS
The
.Fn signalfd function
will fail if:
.Bl -tag -width Er
.It Er EBADF
The
.Va fd
descriptor is invalid.
.It Er EFAULT
The
.Va mask
address is invalid.
.It Er EINVAL
The
.Va fd
descriptor is not a signalfd descriptor or the
.Va flags
are invalid.
.It Er EMFILE
There are currently
.Va  OPEN_MAX
file descriptors open in the calling process.
.It Er ENODEV
Unable to allocate state for the file descriptor.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr poll 2 ,
.Xr sigwait 2 ,
.Xr port_create 3C ,
.Xr sigsetops 3C ,
.Xr sigwaitinfo 3C ,
.Xr signal.h 3HEAD ,
.Xr epoll 5