signal(5) signal(5)
NAME
signal.h - signals
SYNOPSIS
#include <signal.h>
DESCRIPTION
The <signal.h> header defines the following symbolic constants, each
of which expands to a distinct constant expression of the type:
void (*)(int)
whose value matches no declarable function.
SIG_DFL Request for default signal handling.
SIG_ERR Return value from signal() in case of error.
SIG_HOLD Request that signal be held.
SIG_IGN Request that signal be ignored.
The following data types are defined through typedef:
sig_atomic_t Integral type of an object that can be accessed as
an atomic entity, even in the presence of
asynchronous interrupts
sigset_t Integral or structure type of an object used to
represent sets of signals.
pid_t As described in <sys/types.h>.
This header also declares the constants that are used to refer to the
signals that occur in the system. Signals defined here begin with the
letters SIG. Each of the signals have distinct positive integral
values. The value 0 is reserved for use as the null signal (see
kill()). Additional implementation-dependent signals may occurin the
system.
The following signals are supported on all implementations (default
actions are explained below the table):
Default
Signal Action Description
SIGABRT ii Process abort signal.
SIGALRM i Alarm clock.
SIGFPE ii Erroneous arithmetic operation.
SIGHUP i Hangup.
SIGILL ii Illegal instruction.
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SIGINT i Terminal interrupt signal.
SIGKILL i Kill (cannot be caught or ignored).
SIGPIPE i Write on a pipe with no one to read it.
SIGQUIT ii Terminal quit signal.
SIGSEGV ii Invalid memory reference.
SIGTERM i Termination signal.
SIGUSR1 i User-defined signal 1.
SIGUSR2 i User-defined signal 2.
SIGCHLD iii Child process terminated or stopped.
SIGCONT v Continue executing, if stopped.
SIGSTOP iv Stop executing (cannot be caught or ignored).
SIGTSTP iv Terminal stop signal.
SIGTTIN iv Background process attempting read.
SIGTTOU iv Background process attempting write.
SIGBUS ii Bus error.
SIGPOLL i Pollable event.
SIGPROF i Profiling timer expired.
SIGSYS ii Bad system call.
SIGTRAP ii Trace/breakpoint trap.
SIGURG i High bandwidth data is available at a socket.
SIGVTALRM i Virtual timer expired.
SIGXCPU ii CPU time limit exceeded.
SIGXFSZ ii File size limit exceeded.
The default actions are as follows:
i Abnormal termination of the process. The process is
terminated with all the consequences of _exit() except
that the status is made available to wait() and
waitpid() indicates abnormal termination by the
specified signal.
ii Abnormal termination of the process. Additionally,
implementation-dependent abnormal termination actions,
such as creation of a core file, may occur.
iii Ignore the signal.
iv Stop the process.
v Continue the process, if it is stopped; otherwise
ignore the signal.
The header provides a declaration of struct sigaction, including at
least the following members:
void (*sa_handler)(int) what to do on
receipt of signal
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sigset_t sa_mask set of signals to
be blocked during
execution of the
signal handling
function
int sa_flags special flags
void (*) sa_sigaction pointer to signal
(int, siginfo_t *, void *) handler function
The storage occupied by sa_handler and sa_sigaction may overlap, and a
portable program must not use both simultaneously.
The following are declared as constants:
SA_NOCLDSTOP Do not generate SIGCHLD when children
stop.
SIG_BLOCK The resulting set is the union of the
current set and the signal set pointed
to by the argument set.
SIG_UNBLOCK The resulting set is the intersection of
the current set and the complement of
the signal set pointed to by the
argument set.
SIG_SETMASK The resulting set is the signal set
pointed to by the argument set.
SA_ONSTACK Causes signal delivery to
occur on an alternate stack.
SA_RESETHAND Causes signal dispositions to be set to
SIG_DFL on entry to signal handlers.
SA_RESTART Causes certain functions to become
restartable.
SA_SIGINFO Causes extra information to be passed to
signal handlers at the time of receipt
of a signal.
SA_NOCLDWAIT Causes implementations not to create
zombie processes on child death.
SA_NODEFER Causes signal not to be automatically
blocked on entry to signal handler.
SS_ONSTACK Process is executing on an alternate
signal stack.
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SS_DISABLE Alternate signal stack is disabled.
MINSIGSTKSZ Minimum stack size for a signal handler.
SIGSTKSZ Default size in bytes for the alternate
signal stack.
The ucontext_t structure is defined through typedef as described in
<ucontext.h>.
The <signal.h> header defines the stack_t type as a structure that
includes at least the following members:
void *ss_sp stack base or pointer
size_t ss_size stack size
int ss_flags flags
The <signal.h> header defines the sigstack structure that includes at
least the following members:
int ss_onstack non-zero when signal stack is in use
void *ss_sp signal stack pointer
The <signal.h> header defines the siginfo_t type as a structure that
includes at least the following members:
int si_signo signal number
int si_errno if non-zero, an errno value
associated with this signal, as
defined in <errno.h>
int si_code signal code
id_t si_pid sending process ID
uid_t si_uid real user ID of sending process
void *si_addr address of faulting instruction
int si_status exit value or signal
long si_band band event for SIGPOLL
The macros specified in the Code column of the following table are
defined for use as values of si_code that are signal-specific reasons
why the signal was generated.
Signal Code Reason
SIGILL ILL_ILLOPC illegal opcode
ILL_ILLOPN illegal operand
ILL_ILLADR illegal addressing mode
ILL_ILLTRP illegal trap
ILL_PRVOPC privileged opcode
ILL_PRVREG privileged register
ILL_COPROC coprocessor error
ILL_BADSTK internal stack error
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SIGFPE FPE_INTDIV integer divide by zero
FPE_INTOVF integer overflow
FPE_FLTDIV floating point divide by zero
FPE_FLTOVF floating point overflow
FPE_FLTUND floating point underflow
FPE_FLTRES floating point inexact result
FPE_FLTINV invalid floating point operation
FPE_FLTSUB subscript out of range
SIGSEGV SEGV_MAPERR address not mapped to object
SEGV_ACCERR invalid permissions for mapped object
SIGBUS BUS_ADRALN invalid address alignment
BUS_ADRERR non-existent physical address
BUS_OBJERR object specific hardware error
SIGTRAP TRAP_BRKPT process breakpoint
TRAP_TRACE process trace trap
SIGCHLD CLD_EXITED child has exited
CLD_KILLED child has terminated abnormally and
did not create a core file
CLD_DUMPED child has terminated and
created a core file
CLD_KILLED child was killed
CLD_DUMPED child has terminated abnormally
CLD_TRAPPED traced child has trapped
CLD_STOPPED child has stopped
CLD_CONTINUED stopped child has continued
SIGPOLL POLL_IN data input available
POLL_OUT output buffers available
POLL_MSG input message available
POLL_ERR I/O error
POLL_PRI high priority input available
POLL_HUP device disconnected
Implementations may support additional si_code values not included in
this list, may generate values included in this list under
circumstances other than those described in this list, and may contain
extensions or limitations that prevent some values from being
generated. Implementations will not generate a different value from
the ones described in this list for circumstances described in this
list.
In addition, the following signal-specific information will be
available:
Signal Member Value
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SIGILL void * si_addr address of faulting instruction
SIGFP
SIGSEGV void * si_addr address of faulting memory reference
SIGBUS
SIGCHLD pid_t si_pid child process ID
int si_status exit value or signal
uid_t si_uid real user ID of the process that
sent the signal
SIGPOL long si_band band event for POLL_IN, POLL_OUT, or
POLL_MSG
For some implementations, the value of si_addr may be inaccurate.
The following are declared as functions and may also be defined as
macros:
void (*bsd_signal(int sig, void (*func)(int)))(int);
int kill(pid_t pid, int sig);
int killpg(pid_t pgrp, int sig);
int raise(int sig);
int sigaction(int sig, const struct sigaction
*act, struct sigaction *oact);
int sigaddset(sigset_t *set, int signo);
int sigaltstack(const stack_t *ss, stack_t *oss);
int sigdelset(sigset_t *set, int signo);
int sigemptyset(sigset_t *set);
int sigfillset(sigset_t *set);
int sighold(int sig);
int sigignore(int sig);
int siginterrupt(int sig, int flag);
int sigismember(const sigset_t *set, int signo);
int sigmask(int signum);
void (*signal(int sig, void (*func)(int)))(int);
int sigpause(int sig);
int sigpending(sigset_t *set);
int sigprocmask(int how, const sigset_t *set, sigset_t *oset);
int sigrelse(int sig);
void *sigset(int sig, void (*disp)(int)))(int);
int sigstack(struct sigstack *ss,
struct sigstack *oss);
int sigsuspend(const sigset_t *sigmask);
SEE ALSO
alarm(), bsd_signal(), ioctl(), kill(), killpg(), raise(),
sigaction(), sigaddset(), sigaltstack(), sigdelset(), sigemptyset(),
sigfillset(), siginterrupt(), sigismember(), signal(), sigpending(),
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sigprocmask(), sigstack(), sigsuspend(), wait(), waitid(), ,
, , .
CHANGE HISTORY
First released in Issue 1.
Issue 4
The following changes are incorporated for alignment with the ISO
POSIX-1 standard:
+ The function declarations in this header are expanded to full
ISO C prototypes.
+ The DESCRIPTION section is changed:
- to define the type sig_atomic_t
- to define the syntax of signal names and functions
- to combine the two tables of constants
- SIGFPE is no longer limited to floating-point exceptions,
but covers all erroneous arithmetic operations.
The following change is incorporated for alignment with the ISO C
standard:
+ The raise() function is added to the list offunctions declared
in this header.
Other changes are incorporated as follows:
+ A reference to <sys/types.h> is added for the definition of
pid_t. This is marked as an extension.
+ In the list of signals starting with SIGCHLD, the statement
"but a system not supporting the job control option is not
obliged to support the functionality of these signals" is
removed. This is because job control is defined as mandatory
on Issue 4 conforming implementations.
+ Reference to implementation-dependent abnormal termination
routines, such as creation of a core file, in item ii in the
defaults action list is marked as an extension.
Issue 4, Version 2
The following changes are incorporated for X/OPEN UNIX conformance:
+ The SIGTRAP, SIGBUS, SIGSYS, SIGPOLL, SIGPROF, SIGXCPU,
SIGXFSZ, SIGURG, and SIGVTALRM signals are added to the list
of signals that will be supported on all conforming
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implementations.
+ The sa_sigaction member is added to the sigaction structure,
and a note is added that the storage used by sa_handler and
sa_sigaction may overlap.
+ The SA_ONSTACK, SA_RESETHAND, SA_RESTART, SA_SIGINFO,
SA_NOCLDWAIT, SS_ONSTACK, SS_DISABLE, MINSIGSTKSZ, and
SIGSTKSZ constants are defined. The stack_t, sigstack, and
siginfo structures are defined.
+ Definitions are given for the ucontext_t, stack_t, sigstack,
and siginfo_t types.
+ A table is provided listing macros that are defined as
signal-specific reasons why a signal was generated.
Signal-specific additional information is specified.
+ The bsd_signal(), killpg(), _longjmp(), _setjmp(),
sigaltstack(), sighold(), sigrelse(), sigset(), and sigstack()
functions are added to the list of functions declared in this
header.
- 8 - Formatted: July 18, 2000
signal(5) signal(5)
HP-UX EXTENSIONS
DESCRIPTION
HP-UX supports multiple signal interfaces (see sigaction(2),
signal(2), sigvector(2), bsdproc(2), and sigset(2V)) that allow a
process to specify the action taken upon receipt of a signal. All
supported signal interfaces require specification of a signal, as
designated by the Name and Number shown below. Signal specification
can be any of the following except SIGKILL or SIGSTOP, which cannot be
caught or ignored:
Name Number Notes Meaning
____________________________________________________________________
SIGILL 04 A,B,C illegal instruction
SIGTRAP 05 A,B,C trace trap
SIGIOT 06 A,B software generated signal
SIGEMT 07 A,B software generated signal
SIGFPE 08 A,B floating point exception
SIGKILL 09 A,D,E,F kill
SIGCLD l8 G death of a child (see WARNINGS below)
SIGPWR 19 C,G power fail (see WARNINGS below)
SIGIO 22 G asynchronous I/O signal; see select(2)
SIGWINCH 23 G window size change; see termio(7)
SIGURG 29 G urgent data arrived on an I/O channel
SIGLOST 30 A file lock lost (NFS file locking)
The letters in the Notes column in the table above indicate the action
taken when the signal is received, and any special conditions on its
use:
A The default action is to terminate the process.
B The default action of terminating the process also
generates a core image file if possible.
C The action is not reset to SIG_DFL before calling the
signal-catching function.
D The signal cannot be ignored.
E The signal cannot be caught.
F The signal will not be held off from a stopped process.
G The default action is to ignore the signal.
H The default action is to stop the process.
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All signal interfaces allow specification of an action that determines
what to do upon the receipt of a signal, and should be one of the
following:
SIG_DFL Execute the default action, which varies depending on
the signal as described above:
A Terminate the receiving process with all of
the consequences outlined in exit(2).
B If following conditions are met, generate a
core image file (see core(4)) in the
current working directory of the receiving
process:
+ The effective user ID and the real
user ID of the receiving process
are equal.
+ The effective group ID and the real
group ID of the receiving process
are equal.
+ A regular file named core does not
exist and can be created, or exists
and is writable.
If the file is created, it has the
following properties:
+ The file mode is 0666, modified by
the file creation mode mask (see
umask(2)).
+ The file user ID is equal to the
effective user ID of the receiving
process.
+ The file group ID is equal to the
effective group ID of the receiving
process.
G Ignore the signal. Do not terminate or
stop the receiving process.
H Stop the receiving process. While a
process is stopped, any additional signals
sent to the process are suspended until the
process is restarted (except those marked
with Note F above, which are processed
immediately). However, when the process is
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restarted, pending signals are processed.
When a process that is in an orphaned
process group (see glossary(9)) receives a
SIGTSTP, SIGTTIN, or SIGTTOU signal, the
process is not stopped because a process in
an orphaned process group is not allowed to
stop. Instead, a SIGHUP signal is sent to
the process, and the SIGTSTP, SIGTTIN, or
SIGTTOU is discarded.
SIG_IGN Ignore the signal.
When one of the supported signal interface routines
is used to set the action of a signal to SIG_IGN and
an instance of the signal is pending, the pending
signal is cleared.
D Signals marked with Note D above cannot be
ignored.
address Catch the signal.
Upon receipt of the signal, if signal() is used to set the
action, reset the action for the signal caught to SIG_DFL
(except signals marked with Note C). Then, call the
signal-catching function to which address points, and
resume executing the receiving process at the point where
it was interrupted. Signal interface routines other than
signal() normally do not reset the action for the signal
caught. However, sigaction() and sigvector() provide a
way of specifying this behavior (see sigaction(2) or
sigvector(2)).
The signal-catching function is called with the following
three parameters:
sig The signal number.
code A word of information usually provided by the
hardware.
scp A pointer to the machine-dependent structure
sigcontext defined in <signal.h>.
Depending on the value of sig, code can be zero and/or scp
can be NULL. The meanings of code and scp and the
conditions determining when they are other than zero or
NULL are implementation-dependent (see DEPENDENCIES
below). It is possible for code to always be zero, and
scp to always be NULL.
The pointer scp is valid only during the context of the
signal-catching function.
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Optional parameters can be omitted from the signal-
catching function parameter list, in which case the
signal-catching function is exactly compatible with UNIX
System V. Truly portable software should not use the
optional parameters in signal-catching routines.
Upon return from the signal-catching function, the
receiving process resumes execution at the point where it
was interrupted.
When a signal is caught during the execution of system
calls such as read(), write(), open(), or ioctl() on a
slow device (such as a terminal, but not a file), during a
pause() system call or a wait() system call that does not
return immediately because a previously stopped or zombie
process already exists, the signal-catching function is
executed and the interrupted system call returns a -1 to
the calling process with errno set to EINTR.
C If the signal is marked with Note C above, the action is
not reset to SIG_DFL before calling the signal-catching
function. Furthermore, the action is not reset if any
signal interface routine other than signal() was used to
set the action. See the description of signal catching
above.
E If the signal is marked with Note E above, the signal
cannot be caught.
When any stop signal (SIGSTOP, SIGTSTP, SIGTTIN, SIGTTOU) is generated
for a process, pending SIGCONT signals for that process are discarded.
Conversely, when SIGCONT is generated for a process, all pending stop
signals for that process are discarded. When SIGCONT is generated for
a stopped process, the process is continued, even if the SIGCONT
signal is blocked or ignored. If SIGCONT is blocked and not ignored,
the process remains pending until it is either unblocked or a stop
signal is generated.
SIGKILL is sent by the system if an exec() system call is unsuccessful
and the original program has already been deleted.
WARNINGS
The signals SIGCLD and SIGPWR behave differently than those described
above.
The actions for these signals is modified as follows:
SIGCLD Setting the action for SIGCLD to SIG_IGN in a
parent process prevents exiting children of the
calling process from creating a zombie process.
If the parent process executes the wait()
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function, the calling process blocks until all of
the child processes of the calling processes
terminate. The wait() function then returns a
value of -1 with errno set to ECHILD (see
wait(2)).
If one of the signal interface routines is used to
set the action for SIGCLD to be caught (that is, a
function address is supplied) in a process that
currently has terminated (zombie) children, a
SIGCLD signal is delivered to the parent process
immediately. Thus, if the signal-catching
function reinstalls itself, the apparent effect is
that any SIGCLD signals received due to the death
of children while the function is executing are
queued and the signal-catching function is
continually reentered until the queue is empty.
Note that the function must reinstall itself after
it calls wait(), wait3(), or waitpid(). Otherwise
the presence of the child that caused the original
signal causes another signal immediately,
resulting in infinite recursion.
When processing a pipeline, the Bourne shell (see
sh-bourne(1)) makes the last process in the
pipeline the parent of the preceding processes.
Job control shells including C shell, Korn shell
and the POSIX shell (see csh(1), ksh(1), and sh-
posix(1)) make the shell itself the parent of all
processes in the pipeline. Therefore, a process
that can receive data from a pipe should not
attempt to catch SIGCLD.
SIGPWR The SIGPWR signal is sent to all processes after a
power interruption when power is restored and the
system has done all necessary reinitialization.
Processes restart by catching (or ignoring)
SIGPWR.
Applications that wish to recover from power
failures should catch SIGPWR and take whatever
necessary steps to reinitialize itself.
Some implementations do not generate SIGPWR. Only
systems with nonvolatile memory can recover from
power failures.
DEPENDENCIES
Series 700
The signal SIGPWR is not currently generated.
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Series 700/800
The structure pointer scp is always defined.
The code word is always zero for all signals except SIGILL and SIGFPE.
For SIGILL, code has the following values:
8 Illegal instruction trap;
9 Break instruction trap;
10 Privileged operation trap;
11 Privileged register trap.
For SIGFPE, code has the following values:
12 Overflow trap;
13 Conditional trap;
14 Assist exception trap;
22 Assist emulation trap.
Refer to the Series 800 processor documentation provided with your
system for more detailed information about the meaning of these
errors.
The Instruction Address Offset Queue (program counter) is not advanced
when a trap occurs on Series 800 systems. If a signal generated by a
hardware trap is masked or has its signal action set to SIG_IGN, the
program loops infinitely since the instruction causing the trap is
re-executed, causing the trap again. If the signal is received by a
signal-catching function in the user program, the instruction that
caused the trap is re-executed upon return from the signal-catching
function unless program flow is altered by the signal-catching
function. For example, the longjmp() routine (see setjmp(3C)) can be
called. Using longjmp() ensures software portability across different
hardware architectures.
AUTHOR
signal was developed by HP, AT&T, and the University of California,
Berkeley.
SEE ALSO
kill(1), init(1M), bsdproc(2), exit(2), kill(2), lseek(2), pause(2),
sigaction(2), signal(2), sigvector(2), wait(2), sigset(2V), abort(3C),
setjmp(3C).
STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
<signal.h>: AES, SVID2, SVID3, XPG2, XPG3, XPG4, FIPS 151-2, POSIX.1,
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ANSI C
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