#include <signal.h>
int sigaction(int signum, const struct sigaction *act,
struct sigaction *oldact);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
sigaction(): _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 1 || _XOPEN_SOURCE || _POSIX_SOURCE
signum specifies the signal and can be any valid signal except SIGKILL and SIGSTOP.
If act is non-null, the new action for signal signum is installed from act. If oldact is non-null, the previous action is saved in oldact.
The sigaction structure is defined as something like:
struct sigaction {
void (*sa_handler)(int);
void (*sa_sigaction)(int, siginfo_t *, void *);
sigset_t sa_mask;
int sa_flags;
void (*sa_restorer)(void);
};
On some architectures a union is involved: do not assign to both sa_handler and sa_sigaction.
The sa_restorer element is obsolete and should not be used. POSIX does not specify a sa_restorer element.
sa_handler specifies the action to be associated with signum and may be SIG_DFL for the default action, SIG_IGN to ignore this signal, or a pointer to a signal handling function. This function receives the signal number as its only argument.
If SA_SIGINFO is specified in sa_flags, then sa_sigaction (instead of sa_handler) specifies the signal-handling function for signum. This function receives the signal number as its first argument, a pointer to a siginfo_t as its second argument and a pointer to a ucontext_t (cast to void *) as its third argument.
sa_mask specifies a mask of signals which should be blocked (i.e., added to the signal mask of the thread in which the signal handler is invoked) during execution of the signal handler. In addition, the signal which triggered the handler will be blocked, unless the SA_NODEFER flag is used.
sa_flags specifies a set of flags which modify the behavior of the signal. It is formed by the bitwise OR of zero or more of the following:
If the SA_NOCLDWAIT flag is set when establishing a handler for SIGCHLD, POSIX.1 leaves it unspecified whether a SIGCHLD signal is generated when a child process terminates. On Linux, a SIGCHLD signal is generated in this case; on some other implementations, it is not.
The siginfo_t argument to sa_sigaction is a struct with the following elements:
siginfo_t {
int si_signo; /* Signal number */
int si_errno; /* An errno value */
int si_code; /* Signal code */
int si_trapno; /* Trap number that caused
hardware-generated signal
(unused on most architectures) */
pid_t si_pid; /* Sending process ID */
uid_t si_uid; /* Real user ID of sending process */
int si_status; /* Exit value or signal */
clock_t si_utime; /* User time consumed */
clock_t si_stime; /* System time consumed */
sigval_t si_value; /* Signal value */
int si_int; /* POSIX.1b signal */
void *si_ptr; /* POSIX.1b signal */
int si_overrun; /* Timer overrun count; POSIX.1b timers */
int si_timerid; /* Timer ID; POSIX.1b timers */
void *si_addr; /* Memory location which caused fault */
int si_band; /* Band event */
int si_fd; /* File descriptor */
}
si_signo, si_errno and si_code are defined for all signals. (si_errno is generally unused on Linux.) The rest of the struct may be a union, so that one should only read the fields that are meaningful for the given signal:
si_code is a value (not a bit mask) indicating why this signal was sent. The following list shows the values which can be placed in si_code for any signal, along with reason that the signal was generated.
The following values can be placed in si_code for a SIGILL signal:
The following values can be placed in si_code for a SIGFPE signal:
The following values can be placed in si_code for a SIGSEGV signal:
The following values can be placed in si_code for a SIGBUS signal:
The following values can be placed in si_code for a SIGTRAP signal:
The following values can be placed in si_code for a SIGCHLD signal:
The following values can be placed in si_code for a SIGPOLL signal:
According to POSIX, the behavior of a process is undefined after it ignores a SIGFPE, SIGILL, or SIGSEGV signal that was not generated by kill(2) or raise(3). Integer division by zero has undefined result. On some architectures it will generate a SIGFPE signal. (Also dividing the most negative integer by -1 may generate SIGFPE.) Ignoring this signal might lead to an endless loop.
POSIX.1-1990 disallowed setting the action for SIGCHLD to SIG_IGN. POSIX.1-2001 allows this possibility, so that ignoring SIGCHLD can be used to prevent the creation of zombies (see wait(2)). Nevertheless, the historical BSD and System V behaviors for ignoring SIGCHLD differ, so that the only completely portable method of ensuring that terminated children do not become zombies is to catch the SIGCHLD signal and perform a wait(2) or similar.
POSIX.1-1990 only specified SA_NOCLDSTOP. POSIX.1-2001 added SA_NOCLDWAIT, SA_RESETHAND, SA_NODEFER, and SA_SIGINFO. Use of these latter values in sa_flags may be less portable in applications intended for older Unix implementations.
The SA_RESETHAND flag is compatible with the SVr4 flag of the same name.
The SA_NODEFER flag is compatible with the SVr4 flag of the same name under kernels 1.3.9 and newer. On older kernels the Linux implementation allowed the receipt of any signal, not just the one we are installing (effectively overriding any sa_mask settings).
sigaction() can be called with a null second argument to query the current signal handler. It can also be used to check whether a given signal is valid for the current machine by calling it with null second and third arguments.
It is not possible to block SIGKILL or SIGSTOP (by specifying them in sa_mask). Attempts to do so are silently ignored.
See sigsetops(3) for details on manipulating signal sets.
See signal(7) for a list of the async-signal-safe functions that can be safely called inside from inside a signal handler.