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SIGACTION(2)		    BSD System Calls Manual		  SIGACTION(2)

NAME
     sigaction — software signal facilities

LIBRARY
     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <signal.h>

     int
     sigaction(int sig, const struct sigaction * restrict act,
	 struct sigaction * restrict oact);

DESCRIPTION
     The system defines a set of signals that may be delivered to a process.
     Signal delivery resembles the occurrence of a hardware interrupt: the
     signal is blocked from further occurrence, the current process context is
     saved, and a new one is built.  A process may specify a handler to which
     a signal is delivered, or specify that a signal is to be ignored.	A
     process may also specify that a default action is to be taken by the sys‐
     tem when a signal occurs.	A signal may also be blocked, in which case
     its delivery is postponed until it is unblocked.  The action to be taken
     on delivery is determined at the time of delivery.	 Normally, signal han‐
     dlers execute on the current stack of the process.	 This may be changed,
     on a per-handler basis, so that signals are taken on a special signal
     stack.

     Signal routines execute with the signal that caused their invocation
     blocked, but other signals may yet occur.	A global signal mask defines
     the set of signals currently blocked from delivery to a process.  The
     signal mask for a process is initialized from that of its parent (nor‐
     mally empty).  It may be changed with a sigprocmask(2) call, or when a
     signal is delivered to the process.  Signal masks are represented using
     the sigset_t type; the sigsetops(3) interface is used to modify such
     data.

     When a signal condition arises for a process, the signal is added to a
     set of signals pending for the process.  If the signal is not currently
     blocked by the process then it is delivered to the process.  Signals may
     be delivered any time a process enters the operating system (e.g., during
     a system call, page fault or trap, or clock interrupt).  If multiple sig‐
     nals are ready to be delivered at the same time, any signals that could
     be caused by traps are delivered first.  Additional signals may be pro‐
     cessed at the same time, with each appearing to interrupt the handlers
     for the previous signals before their first instructions.	The set of
     pending signals is returned by the sigpending(2) function.	 When a caught
     signal is delivered, the current state of the process is saved, a new
     signal mask is calculated (as described below), and the signal handler is
     invoked.  The call to the handler is arranged so that if the signal han‐
     dling routine returns normally the process will resume execution in the
     context from before the signal's delivery.	 If the process wishes to
     resume in a different context, then it must arrange to restore the previ‐
     ous context itself.

     struct sigaction includes the following members:

	   void	     (*sa_sigaction)(int sig, siginfo_t *info, void *ctx);
	   void	     (*sa_handler)(int sig);
	   sigset_t  sa_mask;
	   int	     sa_flags;

     When a signal is delivered to a process a new signal mask is installed
     for the duration of the process' signal handler (or until a
     sigprocmask(2) call is made).  This mask is formed by taking the union of
     the current signal mask, the signal to be delivered, and the signal mask
     associated with the handler to be invoked, sa_mask.

     sigaction() assigns an action for a specific signal.  If act is non-zero,
     it specifies an action (SIG_DFL, SIG_IGN, or a handler routine) and mask
     to be used when delivering the specified signal.  If oact is non-zero,
     the previous handling information for the signal is returned to the user.

     Once a signal handler is installed, it remains installed until another
     sigaction() call is made, or an execve(2) is performed.  A signal-spe‐
     cific default action may be reset by setting sa_handler to SIG_DFL.  The
     defaults are process termination, possibly with core dump; no action;
     stopping the process; or continuing the process.  See the signal list
     below for each signal's default action.  If sa_handler is set to SIG_DFL,
     the default action for the signal is to discard the signal, and if a sig‐
     nal is pending, the pending signal is discarded even if the signal is
     masked.  If sa_handler is set to SIG_IGN, current and pending instances
     of the signal are ignored and discarded.

     Options may be specified by setting sa_flags.

     SA_NODEFER	    If set, then the signal that caused the handler to be exe‐
		    cuted is not added to the list of block signals.  Please
		    note that sa_mask takes precedence over SA_NODEFER, so
		    that if the specified signal is blocked in sa_mask, then
		    SA_NODEFER will have no effect.

     SA_NOCLDSTOP   If set when installing a catching function for the SIGCHLD
		    signal, the SIGCHLD signal will be generated only when a
		    child process exits, not when a child process stops.

     SA_NOCLDWAIT   If set, the system will not create a zombie when the child
		    exits, but the child process will be automatically waited
		    for.  The same effect can be achieved by setting the sig‐
		    nal handler for SIGCHLD to SIG_IGN.

     SA_ONSTACK	    If set, the system will deliver the signal to the process
		    on a signal stack, specified with sigaltstack(2).

     SA_RESETHAND   If set, the default action will be reinstated when the
		    signal is first posted.

     SA_RESTART	    Normally, if a signal is caught during the system calls
		    listed below, the call may be forced to terminate with the
		    error EINTR, the call may return with a data transfer
		    shorter than requested, or the call may be restarted.
		    Restarting of pending calls is requested by setting the
		    SA_RESTART bit in sa_flags.	 The affected system calls
		    include open(2), read(2), write(2), sendto(2),
		    recvfrom(2), sendmsg(2) and recvmsg(2) on a communications
		    channel or a slow device (such as a terminal, but not a
		    regular file) and during a wait(2) or ioctl(2).  However,
		    calls that have already committed are not restarted, but
		    instead return a partial success (for example, a short
		    read count).

		    After a fork(2) or vfork(2) all signals, the signal mask,
		    the signal stack, and the restart/interrupt flags are
		    inherited by the child.

		    The execve(2) system call reinstates the default action
		    for all signals which were caught and resets all signals
		    to be caught on the user stack.  Ignored signals remain
		    ignored; the signal mask remains the same; signals that
		    restart pending system calls continue to do so.

		    See signal(7) for comprehensive list of supported signals.

     SA_SIGINFO	    If set, the signal handler function will receive addi‐
		    tional information about the caught signal.	 An alterna‐
		    tive handler that gets passed additional arguments will be
		    called which is named sa_sigaction.	 The sig argument of
		    this handler contains the signal number that was caught.
		    The info argument contains additional signal specific
		    information which is listed in siginfo(2).	The ctx argu‐
		    ment is a pointer to the ucontext(2) context where the
		    signal handler will return to.

     SA_NOKERNINFO  This flag is relevant only to SIGINFO, and turns off
		    printing kernel messages on the tty.  It is similar to the
		    NOKERNINFO flag in termios(4).

     Only functions that are async-signal-safe can safely be used in signal
     handlers, see signal(7) for a complete list.

NOTES
     The mask specified in act is not allowed to block SIGKILL or SIGSTOP.
     This is enforced silently by the system.

RETURN VALUES
     A 0 value indicates that the call succeeded.  A -1 return value indicates
     an error occurred and errno is set to indicate the reason.

ERRORS
     sigaction() will fail and no new signal handler will be installed if one
     of the following occurs:

     [EFAULT]		Either act or oact points to memory that is not a
			valid part of the process address space.

     [EINVAL]		sig is not a valid signal number.

     [EINVAL]		An attempt is made to ignore or supply a handler for
			SIGKILL or SIGSTOP.

     [EINVAL]		The sa_flags word contains bits other than
			SA_NOCLDSTOP, SA_NOCLDWAIT, SA_NODEFER, SA_ONSTACK,
			SA_RESETHAND, SA_RESTART, and SA_SIGINFO.

SEE ALSO
     kill(1), kill(2), ptrace(2), sigaltstack(2), siginfo(2), sigprocmask(2),
     sigsuspend(2), setjmp(3), sigsetops(3), tty(4), signal(7)

STANDARDS
     The sigaction() function conforms to ISO/IEC 9945-1:1990 (“POSIX.1”).
     The SA_ONSTACK and SA_RESTART flags are Berkeley extensions, available on
     most BSD-derived systems.

BSD				 June 3, 2006				   BSD
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