xref: /minix3/lib/libc/sys/clone.2 (revision f14fb602092e015ff630df58e17c2a9cd57d29b3)
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30.Dd May 4, 2010
31.Dt CLONE 2
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm clone ,
35.Nm __clone
36.Nd spawn new process with options
37.Sh LIBRARY
38.Lb libc
39.Sh SYNOPSIS
40.In sched.h
41.Ft pid_t
42.Fn clone "int (*func)(void *arg)" "void *stack" "int flags" "void *arg"
43.Ft pid_t
44.Fn __clone "int (*func)(void *arg)" "void *stack" "int flags" "void *arg"
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46The
47.Nm
48system call (and associated library support code) creates a new process
49in a way that allows the caller to specify several options for the new
50process creation.
51.Pp
52Unlike
53.Xr fork 2
54or
55.Xr vfork 2 ,
56in which the child process returns to the call site,
57.Nm
58causes the child process to begin execution at the function specified
59by
60.Ar func .
61The argument
62.Ar arg
63is passed to the entry point, as a means for the parent to provide
64context to the child.
65The stack pointer for the child process will be set to
66.Ar stack .
67Note that the
68.Nm
69interface requires that the application know the stack direction
70for the architecture, and that the caller initialize the
71.Ar stack
72argument as appropriate for the stack direction.
73.Pp
74The
75.Ar flags
76argument specifies several options that control how the child process
77is created.
78The lower 8 bits of
79.Ar flags
80specify the signal that is to be sent to the parent when the child
81exits.
82The following flags may also be specified by bitwise-or'ing
83them with the signal value:
84.Bl -tag -width "CLONE_SIGHAND" -offset 2n
85.It Dv CLONE_VM
86Share the virtual address space with the parent.
87The address space is shared in the same way as
88.Xr vfork 2 .
89.It Dv CLONE_FS
90Share the
91.Dq file system information
92with the parent.
93This include the current working directory and file creation mask.
94.It Dv CLONE_FILES
95Share the file descriptor table with the parent.
96.It Dv CLONE_SIGHAND
97Share the signal handler set with the parent.
98Note that the signal mask
99is never shared between the parent and the child, even if
100.Dv CLONE_SIGHAND
101is set.
102.It Dv CLONE_VFORK
103Preserve the synchronization semantics of
104.Xr vfork 2 ;
105the parent blocks until the child exits.
106.El
107.Pp
108The
109.Nm
110call returns the pid of the child in the parent's context.
111The child is provided no return value, since it begins execution at
112a different address.
113.Pp
114If the child process's entry point returns, the value it returns
115is passed to
116.Xr _exit 2 ,
117and the child process exits.
118Note that if the child process wants to exit directly, it should use
119.Xr _exit 2 ,
120and not
121.Xr exit 3 ,
122since
123.Xr exit 3
124will flush and close standard I/O channels, and thereby corrupt the
125parent process's standard I/O data structures (even with
126.Xr fork 2
127it is wrong to call
128.Xr exit 3
129since buffered data would then be flushed twice).
130.Pp
131Note that
132.Nm
133is not intended to be used for new native
134.Nx
135applications.
136It is provided as a means to port software
137originally written for the Linux operating system to
138.Nx .
139.Sh RETURN VALUES
140Same as for
141.Xr fork 2 .
142.Sh ERRORS
143Same as for
144.Xr fork 2 .
145.Sh SEE ALSO
146.Xr chdir 2 ,
147.Xr chroot 2 ,
148.Xr fork 2 ,
149.Xr sigaction 2 ,
150.Xr sigprocmask 2 ,
151.Xr umask 2 ,
152.Xr vfork 2 ,
153.Xr wait 2
154.Sh HISTORY
155The
156.Fn clone
157function call appeared in
158.Nx 1.6 .
159It is compatible with the Linux function call of the same name
160with respect to the described options.
161.Sh BUGS
162The
163.Nx
164implementation of
165.Fn clone
166does not implement the following
167.Ar flags
168that are present in the Linux implementation:
169.Pp
170.Bl -bullet -offset indent -compact
171.It
172.Dv CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID
173.It
174.Dv CLONE_CHILD_SETTID
175.It
176.Dv CLONE_IO
177.It
178.Dv CLONE_NEWIPC
179.It
180.Dv CLONE_NEWNET
181.It
182.Dv CLONE_NEWNS
183.It
184.Dv CLONE_NEWPID
185.It
186.Dv CLONE_NEWUTS
187.It
188.Dv CLONE_PARENT
189.It
190.Dv CLONE_PARENT_SETTID
191.It
192.Dv CLONE_PID
193.It
194.Dv CLONE_PTRACE
195.It
196.Dv CLONE_SETTLS
197.It
198.Dv CLONE_STOPPED
199.It
200.Dv CLONE_SYSVSEM
201.It
202.Dv CLONE_THREAD
203.It
204.Dv CLONE_UNTRACED
205.El
206