xref: /netbsd/share/man/man9/fork1.9 (revision bf9ec67e)
1.\"	$NetBSD: fork1.9,v 1.5 2002/02/13 08:18:41 ross Exp $
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3.\" Copyright (c) 1998 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
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7.\" by Jason R. Thorpe of the Numerical Aerospace Simulation Facility,
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38.Dd January 6, 1998
39.Dt FORK1 9
40.Os
41.Sh NAME
42.Nm fork1
43.Nd create a new process
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Fd #include \*[Lt]sys/types.h\*[Gt]
46.Fd #include \*[Lt]sys/proc.h\*[Gt]
47.Ft int
48.Fn "fork1" "struct proc *p1" "int flags" "register_t *retval" "struct proc **rnewprocp"
49.Sh DESCRIPTION
50.Fn fork1
51creates a new process out of
52.Ar p1 ,
53which is assumed to be the current process.  This function is used primarily
54to implement the
55.Xr fork 2
56and
57.Xr vfork 2
58system calls.
59.Pp
60The
61.Ar flags
62argument controls the semantics of the fork operation, and is made up of
63the bitwise-OR of the following values:
64.Bl -tag -width FORK_SHAREVM
65.It FORK_PPWAIT
66The parent process will sleep until the child process successfully calls
67.Xr execve 2
68or exits (either by a call to
69.Xr _exit 2
70or abnormally).
71.It FORK_SHAREVM
72The child process will share the parent's virtual address space.  If this
73flag is not specified, the child will get a copy-on-write snapshot of the
74parent's address space.
75.El
76.Pp
77A
78.Ar flags
79value of 0 indicates a standard fork operation.
80.Pp
81The
82.Ar retval
83argument is provided for the use of system call stubs.  If
84.Ar retval
85is not NULL, it will hold the following values after successful completion
86of the fork operation:
87.Bl -tag -width retval[0]
88.It Ar retval[0]
89This will contain the pid of the child process.
90.It Ar retval[1]
91In the parent process, this will contain the value 0.  In the child process,
92this will contain 1.
93.El
94.Pp
95User level system call stubs typically subtract 1 from
96.Ar retval[1]
97and bitwise-AND it with
98.Ar retval[0] ,
99thus returning the pid to the parent process and 0 to the child.
100.Pp
101If
102.Ar rnewprocp
103is not NULL,
104.Ar *rnewprocp
105will point to the newly created process upon successful completion of
106the fork operation.
107.Sh RETURN VALUES
108Upon successful completion of the fork operation,
109.Fn fork1
110returns 0.  Otherwise, the following error values are returned:
111.Bl -tag -width [EAGAIN]
112.It Bq Er EAGAIN
113The limit on the total number of system processes would be exceeded.
114.It Bq Er EAGAIN
115The limit
116.Dv RLIMIT_NPROC
117on the total number of processes under execution by this
118user id would be exceeded.
119.El
120.Sh SEE ALSO
121.Xr execve 2 ,
122.Xr fork 2 ,
123.Xr vfork 2
124