DAEMON(3) Linux Programmer's Manual DAEMON(3)NAMEdaemon - run in the background
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int daemon(int nochdir, int noclose);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
daemon(): _BSD_SOURCE || (_XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE < 500)
DESCRIPTION
The daemon() function is for programs wishing to detach themselves from
the controlling terminal and run in the background as system daemons.
Unless the argument nochdir is non-zero, daemon() changes the current
working directory to the root ("/").
Unless the argument noclose is non-zero, daemon() will redirect stan‐
dard input, standard output and standard error to /dev/null.
RETURN VALUE
(This function forks, and if the fork(2) succeeds, the parent calls
_exit(2), so that further errors are seen by the child only.) On suc‐
cess zero will be returned. If an error occurs, daemon() returns -1
and sets the global variable errno to any of the errors specified for
the fork(2) and setsid(2).
CONFORMING TO
Not in POSIX.1-2001. A similar function appears on the BSDs. The dae‐
mon() function first appeared in 4.4BSD.
NOTES
The glibc implementation can also return -1 when /dev/null exists but
is not a character device with the expected major and minor numbers.
In this case errno need not be set.
SEE ALSOfork(2), setsid(2)COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.15 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
GNU 2007-07-26 DAEMON(3)
