xref: /illumos-gate/usr/src/man/man3proc/Pgrab.3proc (revision d7c57852794a9ac50d4b6a9c4161cb10919658aa)
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14.Dd May 11, 2016
15.Dt PGRAB 3PROC
16.Os
17.Sh NAME
18.Nm Pgrab
19.Nd grab and control a process
20.Sh SYNOPSIS
21.Lb libproc
22.In libproc.h
23.Ft "struct ps_prochandle *"
24.Fo Pgrab
25.Fa "pid_t pid"
26.Fa "int flags"
27.Fa "int *perr"
28.Fc
29.Sh DESCRIPTION
30The
31.Fn Pgrab
32function attempts to grab the process identified by
33.Fa pid
34and returns a handle to it that allows the process to be controlled,
35interrogated, and manipulated.
36This interface only works with processes that already exist.
37Use
38.Xr Pgrab_core 3PROC
39for core files and
40.Xr Pcreate 3PROC
41to create processes.
42.Pp
43A grabbed process undergoes the following changes unless
44.Fa flags
45is set to the contrary:
46.Bl -bullet -offset indent
47.It
48The process is stopped
49.It
50All other tracing flags are cleared
51.It
52The grab is exclusive.
53If any existing handles to this process exist or anyone else is using the
54underlying facilities of the /proc file system to control this process,
55it will fail.
56.It
57Unless the process is already stopped, the
58.Dv PR_RLC
59flag is set indicating the process should run-on-last-close.
60Allowing the process to resume running if its controlling process dies.
61.El
62.Pp
63Grabbing a process is a
64.Em destructive
65action.
66Stopping a process stops execution of all its threads.
67The impact of stopping a process depends on the purpose of that process.
68For example, if one stops a process that's primarily doing
69computation, then its computation is delayed the entire time that it
70is stopped.
71However, if instead this is an active TCP server, then the accept backlog may
72fill causing connection errors and potentially connection time out errors.
73.Pp
74Special care must be taken to ensure that a stopped process continues,
75even if the controlling process terminates.
76If the controlling process disables the
77.Dv PR_RLC
78flag or the process was already stopped, then the process remains
79stopped after the controlling process terminates.
80Exercise caution when changing this behavior.
81.Pp
82Many of these default behaviors can be controlled by passing values to
83the
84.Fa flags
85argument.
86Values for
87.Fa flags
88are constructed by a bitwise-inclusive-OR of flags from the following
89list:
90.Bl -tag -width Dv -offset indent
91.It Dv PGRAB_RETAIN
92Indicates that any existing tracing flags on
93.Fa pid
94should be retained.
95If this flag is not specified, they will be cleared as part of creating the
96.Sy libproc
97handle for this process.
98.Pp
99Normally extant tracing flags are cleared when a process is grabbed.
100.It Dv PGRAB_FORCE
101Indicates that the process should not be grabbed exclusively.
102Care should be taken with this option.
103If other consumers are manipulating the process, then this may result in
104surprising behavior as the process is being manipulated from multiple points of
105control at the same time.
106.Pp
107Normally an attempt will be made to grab the process exclusively and
108fail if it is already in use.
109.It Dv PGRAB_RDONLY
110Indicates that the process should be grabbed in a read-only fashion.
111This implies that both the
112.Dv PGRAB_RETAIN
113and
114.Dv PGRAB_NOSTOP
115flags should be set.
116If a process is opened read-only, then a caller can only read information about
117a process and cannot manipulate it, change its current state, or inject systems
118calls into it.
119.Pp
120Normally when a process is grabbed, it does so for both reading and writing.
121.It Dv PGRAB_NOSTOP
122Do not stop a process as it is grabbed.
123Note, any extant tracing flags on the process will still be cleared unless the
124.Dv PGRAB_RETAIN
125flag has been set.
126.Pp
127Normally a process is stopped as a result of grabbing the process.
128.El
129.Pp
130The
131.Fa perr
132argument must be a
133.Pf non- Dv NULL
134pointer which will store a more detailed error in the event that the
135.Fn Pgrab
136function fails.
137A human-readable form of the error can be obtained with
138.Xr Pgrab_error 3PROC .
139.Pp
140Once a caller is done with the library handle it should call
141.Xr Prelease 3PROC
142to release the grabbed process.
143Failure to properly release the handle may leave a process stopped and interfere
144with the ability of other software to obtain a handle.
145.Ss Permissions
146Unprivileged users may grab and control their own processes only if both
147the user and group IDs of the target process match those of the calling
148process.
149In addition, the caller must have a super set of the target's privileges.
150Processes with the
151.Sy PRIV_PROC_OWNER
152privilege may manipulate any process on the system, as long as it has an
153equal privilege set.
154For more details on the security and programming considerations, please see the
155section
156.Sy PROGRAMMING NOTES
157in
158.Xr proc 4 .
159.Sh RETURN VALUES
160Upon successful completion, the
161.Fn Pgrab
162function returns a control handle to the process.
163Otherwise,
164.Dv NULL
165is returned with
166.Fa perr
167containing the error code.
168.Sh ERRORS
169The
170.Fn Pgrab
171function will fail if:
172.Bl -tag -width Er
173.It Er G_BUSY
174The process
175.Fa pid
176is already being traced and the
177.Dv PGRAB_FORCE
178flag was not passed in
179.Fa flags .
180.It Er G_LP64
181The calling process is a 32-bit process and process
182.Fa pid
183is 64-bit.
184.It Er G_NOFD
185Too many files are open.
186This is logically equivalent to receiving
187.Er EMFILE .
188.It Er G_NOPROC
189The process referred to by
190.Fa pid
191does not exist.
192.It Er G_PERM
193The calling process has insufficient permissions or privileges to open
194the specified process.
195See
196.Sx Permissions
197for more information.
198.It Er G_SYS
199The process referred to by
200.Fa pid
201is a system process and cannot be grabbed.
202.It Er G_SELF
203The process referred to by
204.Fa pid
205is the process ID of the caller and the
206.Dv PGRAB_RDONLY
207was not passed.
208A process may only grab itself if it's read-only.
209.It Er G_STRANGE
210An unanticipated system error occurred while trying to grab the process
211file and create the handle.
212The value of
213.Sy errno
214indicates the system failure.
215.It Er G_ZOMB
216The process referred to by
217.Fa pid
218is a zombie and cannot be grabbed.
219.El
220.Sh INTERFACE STABILITY
221.Sy Uncommitted
222.Sh MT-LEVEL
223.Sy MT-Safe
224.Sh SEE ALSO
225.Xr errno 3C ,
226.Xr libproc 3LIB ,
227.Xr Pfree 3PROC ,
228.Xr Pgrab_core 3PROC ,
229.Xr Pgrab_error 3PROC ,
230.Xr Pgrab_file 3PROC ,
231.Xr Prelease 3PROC
232