System Calls fork(2)
NAME
fork, fork1, forkall, forkx, forkallx - create a new process
SYNOPSIS
#include
#include
pid_t fork(void);
pid_t fork1(void);
pid_t forkall(void);
#include
pid_t forkx(int flags);
pid_t forkallx(int flags);
DESCRIPTION
The fork(), fork1(), forkall(), forkx(), and forkallx()
functions create a new process. The address space of the new process (child process) is an exact copy of the address space of the calling process (parent process). The child process inherits the following attributes from the parent process: o real user ID, real group ID, effective user ID, effective group ID o environment o open file descriptorso close-on-exec flags (see exec(2))
o signal handling settings (that is, SIG_DFL,
SIG_IGN, SIG_HOLD, function address)
o supplementary group IDso set-user-ID mode bit
o set-group-ID mode bit
o profiling on/off statusSunOS 5.11 Last change: 28 Oct 2008 1
System Calls fork(2) o nice value (see nice(2)) o scheduler class (see priocntl(2)) o all attached shared memory segments (see shmop(2))o process group ID -- memory mappings (see mmap(2))
o session ID (see exit(2)) o current working directory o root directory o file mode creation mask (see umask(2)) o resource limits (see getrlimit(2)) o controlling terminal o saved user ID and group ID o task ID and project IDo processor bindings (see processor_bind(2))
o processor set bindings (see pset_bind(2))
o process privilege sets (see getppriv(2)) o process flags (see getpflags(2)) o active contract templates (see contract(4))Scheduling priority and any per-process scheduling parame-
ters that are specific to a given scheduling class might ormight not be inherited according to the policy of that par-
ticular class (see priocntl(2)). The child process might or might not be in the same process contract as the parent (seeprocess(4)). The child process differs from the parent pro-
cess in the following ways: o The child process has a unique process ID which does not match any active process group ID. o The child process has a different parent process ID (that is, the process ID of the parent process). o The child process has its own copy of the parent's file descriptors and directory streams. Each of the child's file descriptors shares a common fileSunOS 5.11 Last change: 28 Oct 2008 2
System Calls fork(2) pointer with the corresponding file descriptor of the parent. o Each shared memory segment remains attached and thevalue of shm_nattach is incremented by 1.
o All semadj values are cleared (see semop(2)). o Process locks, text locks, data locks, and other memory locks are not inherited by the child (see plock(3C) and memcntl(2)). o The child process's tms structure is cleared:tms_utime, stime, cutime, and cstime are set to 0
(see times(2)). o The child processes resource utilizations are setto 0; see getrlimit(2). The it_value and
it_interval values for the ITIMER_REAL timer are
reset to 0; see getitimer(2). o The set of signals pending for the child process is initialized to the empty set.o Timers created by timer_create(3C) are not inher-
ited by the child process.o No asynchronous input or asynchronous output opera-
tions are inherited by the child. o Any preferred hardware address tranlsation sizes (see memcntl(2)) are inherited by the child.o The child process holds no contracts (see con-
tract(4)). Record locks set by the parent process are not inherited by the child process (see fcntl(2)). Although any open door descriptors in the parent are shared by the child, only the parent will receive a door invocation from clients even if the door descriptor is open in the child. If a descriptor is closed in the parent, attempts to operate on the door descriptor will fail even if it is still open in the child. ThreadsA call to forkall() or forkallx() replicates in the child
process all of the threads (see thr_create(3C) and
pthread_create(3C)) in the parent process. A call to fork1()
SunOS 5.11 Last change: 28 Oct 2008 3
System Calls fork(2) or forkx() replicates only the calling thread in the child process. A call to fork() is identical to a call to fork1(); only the calling thread is replicated in the child process. This isthe POSIX-specified behavior for fork().
In releases of Solaris prior to Solaris 10, the behavior of fork() depended on whether or not the application was linkedwith the POSIX threads library. When linked with -lthread
(Solaris Threads) but not linked with -lpthread (POSIX
Threads), fork() was the same as forkall(). When linked
with -lpthread, whether or not also linked with -lthread,
fork() was the same as fork1().Prior to Solaris 10, either -lthread or -lpthread was
required for multithreaded applications. This is no longerthe case. The standard C library provides all threading sup-
port for both sets of application programming interfaces.Applications that require replicate-all fork semantics must
call forkall() or forkallx().
Fork ExtensionsThe forkx() and forkallx() functions accept a flags argument
consisting of a bitwise inclusive-OR of zero or more of the
following flags, which are defined in the header: FORK_NOSIGCHLD
Do not post a SIGCHLD signal to the parent process whenthe child process terminates, regardless of the disposi-
tion of the SIGCHLD signal in the parent. SIGCHLD sig-
nals are still possible for job control stop and con-
tinue actions if the parent has requested them.FORK_WAITPID
Do not allow wait-for-multiple-pids by the parent, as in
wait(), waitid(P_ALL), or waitid(P_PGID), to reap the
child and do not allow the child to be reaped automati-
cally due the disposition of the SIGCHLD signal being set to be ignored in the parent. Only a specific waitfor the child, as in waitid(P_PID, pid), is allowed and
it is required, else when the child exits it will remain a zombie until the parent exits.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 28 Oct 2008 4
System Calls fork(2) If the flags argument is 0 forkx() is identical to fork()and forkallx() is identical to forkall().
fork() Safety If a multithreaded application calls fork(), fork1(), or forkx(), and the child does more than simply call one of theexec(2) functions, there is a possibility of deadlock occur-
ring in the child. The application should usepthread_atfork(3C) to ensure safety with respect to this
deadlock. Should there be any outstanding mutexes throughoutthe process, the application should call pthread_atfork() to
wait for and acquire those mutexes prior to calling fork(),fork1(), or forkx(). See "MT-Level of Libraries" on the
attributes(5) manual page.The pthread_atfork() mechanism is used to protect the locks
that libc(3LIB) uses to implement interfaces such as malloc(3C). All interfaces provided by libc are safe to use in a child process following a fork(), except when fork() is executed within a signal handler. The POSIX standard (see standards(5)) requires fork to beAsync-Signal-Safe (see attributes(5)). This cannot be made
to happen with fork handlers in place, because they acquire locks. To be in nominal compliance, no fork handlers are called when fork() is executed within a signal context. This leaves the child process in a questionable state with respect to its locks, but at least the calling thread will not deadlock itself attempting to acquire a lock that it already owns. In this situation, the application shouldstrictly adhere to the advice given in the POSIX specifica-
tion: "To avoid errors, the child process may only executeAsync-Signal-Safe operations until such time as one of the
exec(2) functions is called."RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion, fork(), fork1(), forkall(),
forkx(), and forkallx() return 0 to the child process and
return the process ID of the child process to the parentprocess. Otherwise, (pid_t)-1 is returned to the parent pro-
cess, no child process is created, and errno is set to indi-
cate the error.ERRORS
The fork(), fork1(), forkall(), forkx(), and forkallx()
functions will fail if: EAGAIN A resource control or limit on the total number of processes, tasks or LWPs under execution by a single user, task, project, or zone has beenSunOS 5.11 Last change: 28 Oct 2008 5
System Calls fork(2) exceeded, or the total amount of system memory available is temporarily insufficient to duplicate this process. ENOMEM There is not enough swap space.EPERM The {PRIV_PROC_FORK} privilege is not asserted in
the effective set of the calling process.The forkx() and forkallx() functions will fail if:
EINVAL The flags argument is invalid.ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Interface Stability | Committed ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
| MT-Level | Async-Signal-Safe. |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Standard | See below. ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
For fork(), see standards(5).SEE ALSO
alarm(2), exec(2), exit(2), fcntl(2), getitimer(2), getrlimit(2), memcntl(2), mmap(2), nice(2), priocntl(2), semop(2), shmop(2), times(2), umask(2), waitid(2),door_create(3C), exit(3C), plock(3C), pthread_atfork(3C),
pthread_create(3C), signal(3C), system(3C), thr_create(3C)
timer_create(3C), wait(3C), contract(4), process(4), attri-
butes(5), privileges(5), standards(5) NOTESAn application should call _exit() rather than exit(3C) if
it cannot execve(), since exit() will flush and close stan-
dard I/O channels and thereby corrupt the parent process's
standard I/O data structures. Using exit(3C) will flush
SunOS 5.11 Last change: 28 Oct 2008 6
System Calls fork(2) buffered data twice. See exit(2). The thread in the child that calls fork(), fork1(), or fork1x() must not depend on any resources held by threads that no longer exist in the child. In particular, locks held by these threads will not be released.In a multithreaded process, forkall() in one thread can
cause blocking system calls to be interrupted and return with an EINTR error.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 28 Oct 2008 7