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CLONE(2)		   Linux Programmer's Manual		      CLONE(2)

NAME
       clone, __clone2 - create a child process

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sched.h>

       int clone(int (*fn)(void *), void *child_stack,
		 int flags, void *arg, ...
		 /* pid_t *pid, struct user_desc *tls, pid_t *ctid */ );

       int __clone2(int (*fn)(void *),	void *child_stack_base,
		    size_t stack_size, int flags, void *arg, ...
		    /* pid_t *pid, struct user_desc *tls, pid_t *ctid */ );

DESCRIPTION
       clone()	creates	 a new process, in a manner similar to fork(2).	 It is
       actually a library function layered on top of  the  underlying  clone()
       system  call,  hereinafter  referred to as sys_clone.  A description of
       sys_clone is given towards the end of this page.

       Unlike fork(2), these calls allow the child process to share  parts  of
       its  execution  context	with  the  calling process, such as the memory
       space, the table of file descriptors, and the table of signal handlers.
       (Note  that on this manual page, "calling process" normally corresponds
       to "parent process".  But see the description of CLONE_PARENT below.)

       The main use of clone() is to implement threads:	 multiple  threads  of
       control in a program that run concurrently in a shared memory space.

       When  the  child process is created with clone(), it executes the func‐
       tion application fn(arg).  (This differs from fork(2), where  execution
       continues  in  the  child  from the point of the fork(2) call.)	The fn
       argument is a pointer to a function that is called by the child process
       at  the	beginning of its execution.  The arg argument is passed to the
       fn function.

       When the fn(arg) function application returns, the child process termi‐
       nates.	The  integer  returned	by  fn	is the exit code for the child
       process.	 The child process may also terminate  explicitly  by  calling
       exit(2) or after receiving a fatal signal.

       The  child_stack	 argument  specifies the location of the stack used by
       the child process.  Since the child and calling process may share  mem‐
       ory,  it	 is  not possible for the child process to execute in the same
       stack as the calling process.  The calling process must	therefore  set
       up memory space for the child stack and pass a pointer to this space to
       clone().	 Stacks grow  downwards	 on  all  processors  that  run	 Linux
       (except	the  HP	 PA  processors), so child_stack usually points to the
       topmost address of the memory space set up for the child stack.

       The low byte of flags contains the number  of  the  termination	signal
       sent to the parent when the child dies.	If this signal is specified as
       anything other than SIGCHLD, then the parent process must  specify  the
       __WALL or __WCLONE options when waiting for the child with wait(2).  If
       no signal is specified, then the parent process is  not	signaled  when
       the child terminates.

       flags may also be bitwise-or'ed with zero or more of the following con‐
       stants, in order to specify what is shared between the calling  process
       and the child process:

       CLONE_PARENT (since Linux 2.3.12)
	      If  CLONE_PARENT	is  set,  then the parent of the new child (as
	      returned by getppid(2)) will be the same as that of the  calling
	      process.

	      If  CLONE_PARENT	is not set, then (as with fork(2)) the child's
	      parent is the calling process.

	      Note that it is the parent process, as returned  by  getppid(2),
	      which  is	 signaled  when	 the  child  terminates,  so  that  if
	      CLONE_PARENT is set, then the parent  of	the  calling  process,
	      rather than the calling process itself, will be signaled.

       CLONE_FS
	      If CLONE_FS is set, the caller and the child processes share the
	      same file system information.  This includes  the	 root  of  the
	      file  system, the current working directory, and the umask.  Any
	      call to chroot(2), chdir(2), or umask(2) performed by the	 call‐
	      ing process or the child process also affects the other process.

	      If CLONE_FS is not set, the child process works on a copy of the
	      file system information of the calling process at	 the  time  of
	      the  clone()  call.  Calls to chroot(2), chdir(2), umask(2) per‐
	      formed later by one of the processes do  not  affect  the	 other
	      process.

       CLONE_FILES
	      If  CLONE_FILES  is  set, the calling process and the child pro‐
	      cesses share the same file descriptor table.  Any file  descrip‐
	      tor  created  by	the calling process or by the child process is
	      also valid in the other process.	Similarly, if one of the  pro‐
	      cesses closes a file descriptor, or changes its associated flags
	      (using the fcntl(2) F_SETFD operation),  the  other  process  is
	      also affected.

	      If  CLONE_FILES is not set, the child process inherits a copy of
	      all file descriptors opened in the calling process at  the  time
	      of clone().  (The duplicated file descriptors in the child refer
	      to the same open file descriptions (see open(2)) as  the	corre‐
	      sponding	file  descriptors in the calling process.)  Subsequent
	      operations that open or close file descriptors, or  change  file
	      descriptor flags, performed by either the calling process or the
	      child process do not affect the other process.

       CLONE_NEWNS (since Linux 2.4.19)
	      Start the child in a new namespace.

	      Every process lives in a namespace.  The namespace of a  process
	      is the data (the set of mounts) describing the file hierarchy as
	      seen by that process.  After a fork(2)  or  clone(2)  where  the
	      CLONE_NEWNS  flag is not set, the child lives in the same names‐
	      pace as the parent.  The system  calls  mount(2)	and  umount(2)
	      change  the  namespace  of the calling process, and hence affect
	      all processes that live in the same namespace, but do not affect
	      processes in a different namespace.

	      After  a	clone(2) where the CLONE_NEWNS flag is set, the cloned
	      child is started in a new namespace, initialized with a copy  of
	      the namespace of the parent.

	      Only a privileged process (one having the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capabil‐
	      ity) may specify the CLONE_NEWNS flag.  It is not	 permitted  to
	      specify both CLONE_NEWNS and CLONE_FS in the same clone() call.

       CLONE_SIGHAND
	      If  CLONE_SIGHAND is set, the calling process and the child pro‐
	      cesses share the same table of signal handlers.  If the  calling
	      process or child process calls sigaction(2) to change the behav‐
	      ior associated with a signal, the behavior  is  changed  in  the
	      other  process  as well.	However, the calling process and child
	      processes still have distinct signal masks and sets  of  pending
	      signals.	 So,  one  of  them  may block or unblock some signals
	      using sigprocmask(2) without affecting the other process.

	      If CLONE_SIGHAND is not set, the child process inherits  a  copy
	      of  the  signal  handlers	 of  the  calling  process at the time
	      clone() is called.  Calls to sigaction(2) performed later by one
	      of the processes have no effect on the other process.

	      Since  Linux  2.6.0-test6,  flags	 must also include CLONE_VM if
	      CLONE_SIGHAND is specified

       CLONE_PTRACE
	      If CLONE_PTRACE is specified, and the calling process  is	 being
	      traced, then trace the child also (see ptrace(2)).

       CLONE_UNTRACED (since Linux 2.5.46)
	      If  CLONE_UNTRACED  is  specified, then a tracing process cannot
	      force CLONE_PTRACE on this child process.

       CLONE_STOPPED (since Linux 2.6.0-test2)
	      If CLONE_STOPPED is set, then the child is initially stopped (as
	      though  it  was  sent  a SIGSTOP signal), and must be resumed by
	      sending it a SIGCONT signal.

       CLONE_VFORK
	      If CLONE_VFORK is set, the execution of the calling  process  is
	      suspended	 until the child releases its virtual memory resources
	      via a call to execve(2) or _exit(2) (as with vfork(2)).

	      If CLONE_VFORK is not set then both the calling process and  the
	      child  are schedulable after the call, and an application should
	      not rely on execution occurring in any particular order.

       CLONE_VM
	      If CLONE_VM is set, the calling process and the child  processes
	      run in the same memory space.  In particular, memory writes per‐
	      formed by the calling process or by the child process  are  also
	      visible  in  the other process.  Moreover, any memory mapping or
	      unmapping performed with mmap(2) or munmap(2) by	the  child  or
	      calling process also affects the other process.

	      If  CLONE_VM  is	not  set, the child process runs in a separate
	      copy of the memory space of the calling process at the  time  of
	      clone().	Memory writes or file mappings/unmappings performed by
	      one of the processes do not affect the other, as with fork(2).

       CLONE_PID (obsolete)
	      If CLONE_PID is set, the child process is created with the  same
	      process ID as the calling process.  This is good for hacking the
	      system, but otherwise of not much use.  Since 2.3.21  this  flag
	      can  be  specified  only by the system boot process (PID 0).  It
	      disappeared in Linux 2.5.16.

       CLONE_THREAD (since Linux 2.4.0-test8)
	      If CLONE_THREAD is set, the child is placed in the  same	thread
	      group as the calling process.  To make the remainder of the dis‐
	      cussion of CLONE_THREAD more readable, the term "thread" is used
	      to refer to the processes within a thread group.

	      Thread  groups  were a feature added in Linux 2.4 to support the
	      POSIX threads notion of a set of threads	that  share  a	single
	      PID.   Internally, this shared PID is the so-called thread group
	      identifier (TGID) for the thread group.  Since Linux 2.4,	 calls
	      to getpid(2) return the TGID of the caller.

	      The  threads  within a group can be distinguished by their (sys‐
	      tem-wide) unique thread IDs (TID).  A new thread's TID is avail‐
	      able  as	the function result returned to the caller of clone(),
	      and a thread can obtain its own TID using gettid(2).

	      When a call is made to clone() without specifying	 CLONE_THREAD,
	      then  the resulting thread is placed in a new thread group whose
	      TGID is the same as the thread's TID.  This thread is the leader
	      of the new thread group.

	      A	 new  thread  created  with  CLONE_THREAD  has the same parent
	      process as the caller of clone() (i.e., like  CLONE_PARENT),  so
	      that  calls  to  getppid(2) return the same value for all of the
	      threads in a thread group.  When a  CLONE_THREAD	thread	termi‐
	      nates,  the  thread  that created it using clone() is not sent a
	      SIGCHLD (or other termination) signal; nor  can  the  status  of
	      such a thread be obtained using wait(2).	(The thread is said to
	      be detached.)

	      After all of the threads in a thread group terminate the	parent
	      process of the thread group is sent a SIGCHLD (or other termina‐
	      tion) signal.

	      If any of the threads in a thread group performs	an  execve(2),
	      then  all	 threads other than the thread group leader are termi‐
	      nated, and the new program  is  executed	in  the	 thread	 group
	      leader.

	      If  one  of  the threads in a thread group creates a child using
	      fork(2), then any thread in  the	group  can  wait(2)  for  that
	      child.

	      Since  Linux  2.5.35,  flags  must also include CLONE_SIGHAND if
	      CLONE_THREAD is specified.

	      Signals may be sent to a thread group as a whole (i.e., a	 TGID)
	      using  kill(2),  or  to  a  specific  thread  (i.e.,  TID) using
	      tgkill(2).

	      Signal dispositions and actions are process-wide: if  an	unhan‐
	      dled  signal is delivered to a thread, then it will affect (ter‐
	      minate, stop, continue, be ignored in) all members of the thread
	      group.

	      Each  thread  has its own signal mask, as set by sigprocmask(2),
	      but signals can be pending either: for the whole process	(i.e.,
	      deliverable  to  any member of the thread group), when sent with
	      kill(2); or for an individual thread, when sent with  tgkill(2).
	      A	 call  to sigpending(2) returns a signal set that is the union
	      of the signals pending for the whole  process  and  the  signals
	      that are pending for the calling thread.

	      If  kill(2)  is used to send a signal to a thread group, and the
	      thread group has installed a handler for the  signal,  then  the
	      handler  will  be	 invoked  in exactly one, arbitrarily selected
	      member of the thread group that has not blocked the signal.   If
	      multiple	threads in a group are waiting to accept the same sig‐
	      nal using sigwaitinfo(2), the kernel will arbitrarily select one
	      of these threads to receive a signal sent using kill(2).

       CLONE_SYSVSEM (since Linux 2.5.10)
	      If  CLONE_SYSVSEM is set, then the child and the calling process
	      share a single list of  System  V	 semaphore  undo  values  (see
	      semop(2)).   If this flag is not set, then the child has a sepa‐
	      rate undo list, which is initially empty.

       CLONE_SETTLS (since Linux 2.5.32)
	      The newtls parameter is  the  new	 TLS  (Thread  Local  Storage)
	      descriptor.  (See set_thread_area(2).)

       CLONE_PARENT_SETTID (since Linux 2.5.49)
	      Store  child  thread  ID at location parent_tidptr in parent and
	      child  memory.   (In  Linux  2.5.32-2.5.48  there	 was  a	  flag
	      CLONE_SETTID that did this.)

       CLONE_CHILD_SETTID (since Linux 2.5.49)
	      Store child thread ID at location child_tidptr in child memory.

       CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID (since Linux 2.5.49)
	      Erase  child  thread ID at location child_tidptr in child memory
	      when the child exits, and do a  wakeup  on  the  futex  at  that
	      address.	  The	address	  involved   may  be  changed  by  the
	      set_tid_address(2) system	 call.	 This  is  used	 by  threading
	      libraries.

   sys_clone
       The  sys_clone  system call corresponds more closely to fork(2) in that
       execution in the child continues from the point	of  the	 call.	 Thus,
       sys_clone only requires the flags and child_stack arguments, which have
       the same meaning as for clone().	 (Note that the order of  these	 argu‐
       ments differs from clone().)

       Another	difference  for sys_clone is that the child_stack argument may
       be zero, in which case copy-on-write semantics ensure  that  the	 child
       gets  separate  copies  of stack pages when either process modifies the
       stack.  In this case, for correct operation, the CLONE_VM option should
       not be specified.

       Since  Linux  2.5.49  the system call has five parameters.  The two new
       parameters are parent_tidptr which points to the	 location  (in	parent
       and  child  memory)  where  the child thread ID will be written in case
       CLONE_PARENT_SETTID was specified, and child_tidptr which points to the
       location (in child memory) where the child thread ID will be written in
       case CLONE_CHILD_SETTID was specified.

RETURN VALUE
       On success, the thread ID of the child process is returned in the call‐
       er's  thread  of	 execution.   On failure, a -1 will be returned in the
       caller's context, no child process will be created, and errno  will  be
       set appropriately.

ERRORS
       EAGAIN Too many processes are already running.

       EINVAL CLONE_SIGHAND was specified, but CLONE_VM was not.  (Since Linux
	      2.6.0-test6.)

       EINVAL CLONE_THREAD was specified, but CLONE_SIGHAND  was  not.	(Since
	      Linux 2.5.35.)

       EINVAL Both CLONE_FS and CLONE_NEWNS were specified in flags.

       EINVAL Returned	 by  clone()  when  a  zero  value  is	specified  for
	      child_stack.

       ENOMEM Cannot allocate sufficient memory to allocate a  task  structure
	      for  the	child,	or to copy those parts of the caller's context
	      that need to be copied.

       EPERM  CLONE_NEWNS was specified by a non-root process (process without
	      CAP_SYS_ADMIN).

       EPERM  CLONE_PID was specified by a process other than process 0.

VERSIONS
       There  is  no  entry  for clone() in libc5.  glibc2 provides clone() as
       described in this manual page.

CONFORMING TO
       The clone() and sys_clone calls are Linux specific and  should  not  be
       used in programs intended to be portable.

NOTES
       In  the	kernel	2.4.x series, CLONE_THREAD generally does not make the
       parent of the new thread the same as the parent of the calling process.
       However,	 for  kernel  versions	2.4.7  to 2.4.18 the CLONE_THREAD flag
       implied the CLONE_PARENT flag (as in kernel 2.6).

       For a while there was CLONE_DETACHED  (introduced  in  2.5.32):	parent
       wants  no  child-exit  signal.  In 2.6.2 the need to give this together
       with CLONE_THREAD disappeared.  This flag is still defined, but has  no
       effect.

       On  x86,	 clone()  should  not be called through vsyscall, but directly
       through int $0x80.

       On IA-64, a different system call is used:

       int __clone2(int (*fn)(void *),	void *child_stack_base,
		    size_t stack_size, int flags, void *arg, ...
		    /* pid_t *pid, struct user_desc *tls, pid_t *ctid */ );

       The __clone2() system call operates in the same way as clone(),	except
       that child_stack_base points to the lowest address of the child's stack
       area, and stack_size specifies the size of  the	stack  pointed	to  by
       child_stack_base.

BUGS
       Versions	 of  the GNU C library that include the NPTL threading library
       contain a wrapper function for getpid(2) that performs caching of PIDs.
       In  programs  linked  against  such  libraries,	calls to getpid(2) may
       return the same value, even when the threads  were  not	created	 using
       CLONE_THREAD  (and  thus are not in the same thread group).  To get the
       truth, it may be necessary to use code such as the following

	   #include <syscall.h>

	   pid_t mypid;

	   mypid = syscall(SYS_getpid);

SEE ALSO
       fork(2),	  futex(2),    getpid(2),    gettid(2),	   set_thread_area(2),
       set_tid_address(2),  tkill(2),  unshare(2),  wait(2),  capabilities(7),
       pthreads(7)

Linux 2.6			  2007-06-01			      CLONE(2)
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