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sigvec(2)

NAME

     sigvec -- software signal facilities

LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

     #include <signal.h>

     struct sigvec {
	     void     (*sv_handler)();
	     int      sv_mask;
	     int      sv_flags;
     };

     int
     sigvec(int sig, struct sigvec *vec, struct sigvec *ovec);

DESCRIPTION

     This interface is made obsolete by sigaction(2).

     The system defines a set of signals that may be delivered to a process.
     Signal delivery resembles the occurrence of a hardware interrupt: the
     signal is blocked from further occurrence, the current process context is
     saved, and a new one is built.  A process may specify a handler to which
     a signal is delivered, or specify that a signal is to be blocked or
     ignored.  A process may also specify that a default action is to be taken
     by the system when a signal occurs.  Normally, signal handlers execute on
     the current stack of the process.	This may be changed, on a per-handler
     basis, so that signals are taken on a special signal stack.

     All signals have the same priority.  Signal routines execute with the
     signal that caused their invocation blocked, but other signals may yet
     occur.  A global signal mask defines the set of signals currently blocked
     from delivery to a process.  The signal mask for a process is initialized
     from that of its parent (normally 0).  It may be changed with a
     sigblock(2) or sigsetmask(2) call, or when a signal is delivered to the
     process.

     When a signal condition arises for a process, the signal is added to a
     set of signals pending for the process.  If the signal is not currently
     blocked by the process then it is delivered to the process.  When a sig-
     nal is delivered, the current state of the process is saved, a new signal
     mask is calculated (as described below), and the signal handler is
     invoked.  The call to the handler is arranged so that if the signal han-
     dling routine returns normally the process will resume execution in the
     context from before the signal's delivery.  If the process wishes to
     resume in a different context, then it must arrange to restore the previ-
     ous context itself.

     When a signal is delivered to a process a new signal mask is installed
     for the duration of the process' signal handler (or until a sigblock(2)
     or sigsetmask(2) call is made).  This mask is formed by taking the cur-
     rent signal mask, adding the signal to be delivered, and or'ing in the
     signal mask associated with the handler to be invoked.

     The sigvec() function assigns a handler for a specific signal.  If vec is

     NAME	     Default Action	     Description
     SIGHUP	     terminate process	     terminal line hangup
     SIGINT	     terminate process	     interrupt program
     SIGQUIT	     create core image	     quit program
     SIGILL	     create core image	     illegal instruction
     SIGTRAP	     create core image	     trace trap
     SIGABRT	     create core image	     abort(3) call (formerly SIGIOT)
     SIGEMT	     create core image	     emulate instruction executed
     SIGFPE	     create core image	     floating-point exception
     SIGKILL	     terminate process	     kill program
     SIGBUS	     create core image	     bus error
     SIGSEGV	     create core image	     segmentation violation
     SIGSYS	     create core image	     non-existent system call invoked
     SIGPIPE	     terminate process	     write on a pipe with no reader
     SIGALRM	     terminate process	     real-time timer expired
     SIGTERM	     terminate process	     software termination signal
     SIGURG	     discard signal	     urgent condition present on
					     socket
     SIGSTOP	     stop process	     stop (cannot be caught or
					     ignored)
     SIGTSTP	     stop process	     stop signal generated from
					     keyboard
     SIGCONT	     discard signal	     continue after stop
     SIGCHLD	     discard signal	     child status has changed
     SIGTTIN	     stop process	     background read attempted from
					     control terminal
     SIGTTOU	     stop process	     background write attempted to
					     control terminal
     SIGIO	     discard signal	     I/O is possible on a descriptor
					     (see fcntl(2))
     SIGXCPU	     terminate process	     cpu time limit exceeded (see
					     setrlimit(2))
     SIGXFSZ	     terminate process	     file size limit exceeded (see
					     setrlimit(2))
     SIGVTALRM	     terminate process	     virtual time alarm (see
					     setitimer(2))
     SIGPROF	     terminate process	     profiling timer alarm (see
					     setitimer(2))
     SIGWINCH	     discard signal	     Window size change
     SIGINFO	     discard signal	     status request from keyboard
     SIGUSR1	     terminate process	     User defined signal 1
     SIGUSR2	     terminate process	     User defined signal 2

     Once a signal handler is installed, it remains installed until another
     sigvec() call is made, or an execve(2) is performed.  A signal-specific
     default action may be reset by setting sv_handler to SIG_DFL.  The
     defaults are process termination, possibly with core dump; no action;
     stopping the process; or continuing the process.  See the above signal
     list for each signal's default action.  If sv_handler is SIG_IGN current
     and pending instances of the signal are ignored and discarded.

     If a signal is caught during the system calls listed below, the call is
     normally restarted.  The call can be forced to terminate prematurely with
     an EINTR error return by setting the SV_INTERRUPT bit in sv_flags.  The
     affected system calls include read(2), write(2), sendto(2), recvfrom(2),
     sendmsg(2) and recvmsg(2) on a communications channel or a slow device
     (such as a terminal, but not a regular file) and during a wait(2) or
     Ignored signals remain ignored; the signal mask remains the same; signals
     that interrupt system calls continue to do so.

NOTES

     The mask specified in vec is not allowed to block SIGKILL or SIGSTOP.
     This is done silently by the system.

     The SV_INTERRUPT flag is not available in 4.2BSD, hence it should not be
     used if backward compatibility is needed.

RETURN VALUES

     The sigvec() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the
     value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the
     error.

ERRORS

     The sigvec() function will fail and no new signal handler will be
     installed if one of the following occurs:

     [EFAULT]		Either vec or ovec points to memory that is not a
			valid part of the process address space.

     [EINVAL]		The sig argument is not a valid signal number.

     [EINVAL]		An attempt is made to ignore or supply a handler for
			SIGKILL or SIGSTOP.

SEE ALSO

     kill(1), kill(2), ptrace(2), sigaction(2), sigaltstack(2), sigblock(2),
     sigpause(2), sigprocmask(2), sigsetmask(2), sigsuspend(2), setjmp(3),
     siginterrupt(3), signal(3), sigsetops(3), tty(4)

EXAMPLES

     On the VAX-11 The handler routine can be declared:

	   void handler(sig, code, scp)
	   int sig, code;
	   struct sigcontext *scp;

     Here sig is the signal number, into which the hardware faults and traps
     are mapped as defined below.  The code argument is either a constant as
     given below or, for compatibility mode faults, the code provided by the
     hardware (Compatibility mode faults are distinguished from the other
     SIGILL traps by having PSL_CM set in the psl).  The scp argument is a
     pointer to the sigcontext structure (defined in <signal.h>), used to
     restore the context from before the signal.

BUGS

     This manual page is still confusing.

FreeBSD 5.4			April 19, 1994			   FreeBSD 5.4

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