xref: /openbsd-src/share/man/man9/fork1.9 (revision d13be5d47e4149db2549a9828e244d59dbc43f15)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: fork1.9,v 1.14 2010/06/29 17:54:12 tedu Exp $
2.\"	$NetBSD: fork1.9,v 1.3 1999/03/16 00:40:47 garbled Exp $
3.\"
4.\" Copyright (c) 1998 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
5.\" All rights reserved.
6.\"
7.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
8.\" by Jason R. Thorpe of the Numerical Aerospace Simulation Facility,
9.\" NASA Ames Research Center.
10.\"
11.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
12.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
13.\" are met:
14.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
15.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
16.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
17.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
18.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
19.\"
20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE NETBSD FOUNDATION, INC. AND CONTRIBUTORS
21.\" ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
22.\" TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
23.\" PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE FOUNDATION OR CONTRIBUTORS
24.\" BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
25.\" CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
26.\" SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
27.\" INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
28.\" CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
29.\" ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
30.\" POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
31.\"
32.Dd $Mdocdate: June 29 2010 $
33.Dt FORK1 9
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm fork1
37.Nd create a new process
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.Fd #include <sys/types.h>
40.Fd #include <sys/proc.h>
41.Ft int
42.Fo "fork1"
43.Fa "struct proc *p1"
44.Fa "int exitsig"
45.Fa "int flags"
46.Fa "void *stack"
47.Fa "size_t stacksize"
48.Fa "void (*func)(void *)"
49.Fa "void *arg"
50.Fa "register_t *retval"
51.Fa "struct proc **rnewprocp"
52.Fc
53.Sh DESCRIPTION
54.Fn fork1
55creates a new process out of
56.Ar p1 ,
57which should be the current process.
58This function is used primarily to implement the
59.Xr fork 2 ,
60.Xr rfork 2 ,
61.Xr vfork 2
62system calls, as well as the
63.Xr kthread_create 9
64function.
65.Pp
66The
67.Ar flags
68argument is used to control the behavior of the fork and is created by
69a bitwise-OR of the following values:
70.Bl -tag -width FORK_SHAREFILES
71.It Dv FORK_FORK
72The call is done by the
73.Xr fork 2
74system call.
75Used only for statistics.
76.It Dv FORK_VFORK
77The call is done by the
78.Xr vfork 2
79system call.
80Used only for statistics.
81.It Dv FORK_RFORK
82The call is done by the
83.Xr rfork 2
84system call.
85Used only for statistics.
86.It Dv FORK_PPWAIT
87Suspend the parent process until the child is terminated (by calling
88.Xr _exit 2
89or abnormally), or makes a call to
90.Xr execve 2 .
91.It Dv FORK_SHAREFILES
92Let the child share the file descriptor table with the parent through
93fdshare().
94The default behavior is to copy the table through
95fdcopy().
96.It Dv FORK_CLEANFILES
97The child starts with a clean file descriptor table created by
98fdinit().
99.It Dv FORK_NOZOMBIE
100The child will be dissociated from the parent and will not leave a status
101for the parent to collect.
102See
103.Xr wait 2 .
104.It Dv FORK_SHAREVM
105The child will share the parent's address space.
106The default behavior is
107that the child gets a copy-on-write copy of the address space.
108.It Dv FORK_SIGHAND
109The child will share the parent's signal actions, including the handler,
110mask, and flags, with sigactsshare().
111The default behavior is to copy the signal actions from the parent with
112sigactsinit().
113.Dv FORK_SHAREVM
114must also be set.
115.It Dv FORK_PTRACE
116The child will start with tracing enabled, as if
117ptrace(PT_TRACE_ME, 0, 0, 0) had been invoked in the child.
118.It Dv FORK_THREAD
119The child will instead be a kernel-level thread in the same process
120as the parent.
121.Dv FORK_NOZOMBIE ,
122.Dv FORK_SHAREVM ,
123and
124.Dv FORK_SIGHAND
125must also be set.
126.El
127.Pp
128If
129.Fa stack
130is not
131.Dv NULL ,
132the area starting at
133.Fa stack
134of extent
135.Fa stacksize
136will be used for the child's stack, instead of cloning the parent's
137stack.
138.Pp
139If
140.Fa retval
141is not
142.Dv NULL ,
143it will hold the following values after successful completion
144of the fork operation:
145.Bl -tag -width retval[0]
146.It Fa retval[0]
147This will contain the pid of the child process.
148.It Fa retval[1]
149In the parent process, this will contain the value 0.
150In the child process, this will contain 1.
151.El
152.Pp
153The signal
154.Fa exitsig
155is sent to the parent
156.Fa p1
157on exit of the new process.
158.Pp
159If
160.Fa func
161is not
162.Dv NULL ,
163the new process will begin execution by calling this function.
164It defaults to child_return, which returns to userland.
165.Pp
166If
167.Fa arg
168is not
169.Dv NULL ,
170it is the argument to the previous function.
171It defaults to a pointer to the new process.
172.Pp
173The newly created process is returned through
174.Fa *rnewprocp .
175.Sh RETURN VALUES
176Upon successful completion of the fork operation,
177.Fn fork1
178returns 0.
179Otherwise, the following error values are returned:
180.Bl -tag -width [EAGAIN]
181.It Bq Er EAGAIN
182The limit on the total number of system processes would be exceeded.
183.It Bq Er EAGAIN
184The limit
185.Dv RLIMIT_NPROC
186on the total number of processes under execution by this
187user id would be exceeded.
188.El
189.Sh SEE ALSO
190.Xr execve 2 ,
191.Xr fork 2 ,
192.Xr rfork 2 ,
193.Xr vfork 2 ,
194.Xr kthread_create 9 ,
195.Xr pfind 9 ,
196.Xr psignal 9 ,
197.Xr uvm_fork 9
198.Sh CAVEATS
199The
200.Nm
201function semantics are specific to
202.Ox .
203Other BSD systems have different semantics.
204.Pp
205The system never uses
206.Fn fork1
207with a non-null
208.Fa stack ,
209so that feature is not even tested.
210