DAEMON

Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (3)
Updated: 2009-05-02
Index Return to Main Contents

NAME

daemon - run in the background

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>

int daemon(int nochdir, int noclose);

Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

daemon(): _BSD_SOURCE || (_XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE < 500)

DESCRIPTION

The daemon() function is for programs wishing to detach themselves from the controlling terminal and run in the background as system daemons.

If nochdir is zero, daemon() changes the process's current working directory to the root directory ("/"); otherwise,

If noclose is zero, daemon() redirects standard input, standard output and standard error to /dev/null; otherwise, no changes are made to these file descriptors.

RETURN VALUE

(This function forks, and if the fork(2) succeeds, the parent calls _exit(2), so that further errors are seen by the child only.) On success daemon() returns zero. If an error occurs, daemon() returns -1 and sets errno to any of the errors specified for the fork(2) and setsid(2).

CONFORMING TO

Not in POSIX.1-2001. A similar function appears on the BSDs. The daemon() function first appeared in 4.4BSD.

NOTES

The glibc implementation can also return -1 when /dev/null exists but is not a character device with the expected major and minor numbers. In this case errno need not be set.

COLOPHON

This page is part of release 3.22 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.