xref: /freebsd/lib/libsys/pdfork.2 (revision 8269e7673cf033aba67dab8264fe719920c70f87)

.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2009-2010, 2012-2013 Robert N. M. Watson
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" This software was developed at the University of Cambridge Computer
.\" Laboratory with support from a grant from Google, Inc.
.\"
.\" This software was developed by SRI International and the University of
.\" Cambridge Computer Laboratory under DARPA/AFRL contract (FA8750-10-C-0237)
.\" ("CTSRD"), as part of the DARPA CRASH research programme.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.Dd October 14, 2018
.Dt PDFORK 2
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm pdfork ,
.Nm pdgetpid ,
.Nm pdkill
.Nd System calls to manage process descriptors
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libc
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In sys/procdesc.h
.Ft pid_t
.Fn pdfork "int *fdp" "int flags"
.Ft int
.Fn pdgetpid "int fd" "pid_t *pidp"
.Ft int
.Fn pdkill "int fd" "int signum"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
Process descriptors are special file descriptors that represent processes,
and are created using
.Fn pdfork ,
a variant of
.Xr fork 2 ,
which, if successful, returns a process descriptor in the integer pointed to
by
.Fa fdp .
Processes created via
.Fn pdfork
will not cause
.Dv SIGCHLD
on termination.
.Fn pdfork
can accept the flags:
.Bl -tag -width ".Dv PD_DAEMON"
.It Dv PD_DAEMON
Instead of the default terminate-on-close behaviour, allow the process to
live until it is explicitly killed with
.Xr kill 2 .
.Pp
This option is not permitted in
.Xr capsicum 4
capability mode (see
.Xr cap_enter 2 ) .
.El
.Bl -tag -width ".Dv PD_DAEMON"
.It Dv PD_CLOEXEC
Set close-on-exec on process descriptor.
.El
.Pp
.Fn pdgetpid
queries the process ID (PID) in the process descriptor
.Fa fd .
.Pp
.Fn pdkill
is functionally identical to
.Xr kill 2 ,
except that it accepts a process descriptor,
.Fa fd ,
rather than a PID.
.Pp
The following system calls also have effects specific to process descriptors:
.Pp
.Xr fstat 2
queries status of a process descriptor; currently only the
.Fa st_mode ,
.Fa st_birthtime ,
.Fa st_atime ,
.Fa st_ctime
and
.Fa st_mtime
fields are defined.
If the owner read, write, and execute bits are set then the
process represented by the process descriptor is still alive.
.Pp
.Xr poll 2
and
.Xr select 2
allow waiting for process state transitions; currently only
.Dv POLLHUP
is defined, and will be raised when the process dies.
Process state transitions can also be monitored using
.Xr kqueue 2
filter
.Dv EVFILT_PROCDESC ;
currently only
.Dv NOTE_EXIT
is implemented.
.Pp
.Xr close 2
will close the process descriptor unless
.Dv PD_DAEMON
is set; if the process is still alive and this is
the last reference to the process descriptor, the process will be terminated
with the signal
.Dv SIGKILL .
.Sh RETURN VALUES
.Fn pdfork
returns a PID, 0 or -1, as
.Xr fork 2
does.
.Pp
.Fn pdgetpid
and
.Fn pdkill
return 0 on success and -1 on failure.
.Sh ERRORS
These functions may return the same error numbers as their PID-based equivalents
(e.g.
.Fn pdfork
may return the same error numbers as
.Xr fork 2 ) ,
with the following additions:
.Bl -tag -width Er
.It Bq Er EINVAL
The signal number given to
.Fn pdkill
is invalid.
.It Bq Er ENOTCAPABLE
The process descriptor being operated on has insufficient rights (e.g.
.Dv CAP_PDKILL
for
.Fn pdkill ) .
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr close 2 ,
.Xr fork 2 ,
.Xr fstat 2 ,
.Xr kill 2 ,
.Xr kqueue 2 ,
.Xr poll 2 ,
.Xr wait4 2 ,
.Xr capsicum 4 ,
.Xr procdesc 4
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Fn pdfork ,
.Fn pdgetpid ,
and
.Fn pdkill
system calls first appeared in
.Fx 9.0 .
.Pp
Support for process descriptors mode was developed as part of the
.Tn TrustedBSD
Project.
.Sh AUTHORS
.An -nosplit
These functions and the capability facility were created by
.An Robert N. M. Watson Aq Mt rwatson@FreeBSD.org
and
.An Jonathan Anderson Aq Mt jonathan@FreeBSD.org
at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory with support from a grant
from Google, Inc.