xref: /illumos-gate/usr/src/man/man3proc/proc_initstdio.3proc (revision 72d3dbb9ab4481606cb93caca98ba3b3a8eb6ce2)
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14.Dd May 11, 2016
15.Dt PROC_INITSTDIO 3PROC
16.Os
17.Sh NAME
18.Nm proc_initstdio ,
19.Nm proc_flushstdio ,
20.Nm proc_finistdio
21.Nd stdio buffering functions
22.Sh SYNOPSIS
23.Lb libproc
24.In libproc.h
25.Ft int
26.Fo proc_initstdio
27.Fa void
28.Fc
29.Ft int
30.Fo proc_flushstdio
31.Fa void
32.Fc
33.Ft int
34.Fo proc_finistdio
35.Fa void
36.Fc
37.Sh DESCRIPTION
38The
39.Fn proc_initstdio ,
40.Fn proc_flushstdio ,
41and
42.Fn proc_finistdio
43functions are utilities provided to aid with the possibility of deadlock
44while doing I/O operations.
45If a process is trying to do I/O, but holding the process handle that would
46consume that I/O, then eventually the program holding the process handle will
47block as none of its I/O has been drained.
48However, because it is holding a process handle to that process, it will never
49be drained.
50.Pp
51Consider, for example, the following invocation:
52.Li pfiles `pgrep xterm`
53where the command was launched from a shell on an xterm.
54Because the xterm is stopped, it will not be able to write out any of the
55standard out that gets passed to it, leading to a deadlock.
56The
57.Li pfiles
58program cannot release the
59.Li xterm
60process because it still has pending I/O, but the I/O cannot be drained
61due to the same hold.
62.Pp
63To address this, these functions duplicate the standard output and
64standard error of the process to temporary files and then flushes it out
65to the original file descriptors and streams later.
66When finished, the original file descriptors are restored as standard out and
67standard error.
68.Pp
69The
70.Fn proc_initstdio
71function initializes a new standard out and standard error file
72descriptors and retains the originals.
73.Pp
74The
75.Fn proc_flushstdio
76functions flushes all of the cached data from the temporary standard out
77and standard error back to the underlying ones.
78This function should only be called after all process handles have been
79released.
80For example, if iterating on multiple processes, calling this after handling
81each one is safe.
82.Pp
83The
84.Fn proc_finistdio
85flushes any outstanding I/O and restores the original standard output
86and standard error.
87.Pp
88Once called, the
89.Fn proc_initstdio
90function must not be called again until a successful call to
91.Fn proc_finistdio .
92.Sh RETURN VALUES
93Upon successful completion, the
94.Fn proc_initstdio ,
95.Fn proc_flushstdio ,
96and
97.Fn proc_finistdio
98functions all return
99.Sy 0 .
100Otherwise,
101.Sy -1
102is returned to indicate failure.
103.Sh INTERFACE STABILITY
104.Sy Uncommitted
105.Sh MT-LEVEL
106.Sy Unsafe
107.Sh SEE ALSO
108.Xr libproc 3LIB ,
109.Xr Pgrab 3PROC ,
110.Xr Prelease 3PROC
111