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(libc.info)Process Completion

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Process Completion
==================

   The functions described in this section are used to wait for a child
process to terminate or stop, and determine its status.  These functions
are declared in the header file `sys/wait.h'.

 - Function: pid_t waitpid (pid_t PID, int *STATUS-PTR, int OPTIONS)
     The `waitpid' function is used to request status information from a
     child process whose process ID is PID.  Normally, the calling
     process is suspended until the child process makes status
     information available by terminating.

     Other values for the PID argument have special interpretations.  A
     value of `-1' or `WAIT_ANY' requests status information for any
     child process; a value of `0' or `WAIT_MYPGRP' requests
     information for any child process in the same process group as the
     calling process; and any other negative value - PGID requests
     information for any child process whose process group ID is PGID.

     If status information for a child process is available
     immediately, this function returns immediately without waiting.
     If more than one eligible child process has status information
     available, one of them is chosen randomly, and its status is
     returned immediately.  To get the status from the other eligible
     child processes, you need to call `waitpid' again.

     The OPTIONS argument is a bit mask.  Its value should be the
     bitwise OR (that is, the `|' operator) of zero or more of the
     `WNOHANG' and `WUNTRACED' flags.  You can use the `WNOHANG' flag
     to indicate that the parent process shouldn't wait; and the
     `WUNTRACED' flag to request status information from stopped
     processes as well as processes that have terminated.

     The status information from the child process is stored in the
     object that STATUS-PTR points to, unless STATUS-PTR is a null
     pointer.

     This function is a cancellation point in multi-threaded programs.
     This is a problem if the thread allocates some resources (like
     memory, file descriptors, semaphores or whatever) at the time
     `waitpid' is called.  If the thread gets canceled these resources
     stay allocated until the program ends.  To avoid this calls to
     `waitpid' should be protected using cancellation handlers.

     The return value is normally the process ID of the child process
     whose status is reported.  If there are child processes but none
     of them is waiting to be noticed, `waitpid' will block until one
     is.  However, if the `WNOHANG' option was specified, `waitpid'
     will return zero instead of blocking.

     If a specific PID to wait for was given to `waitpid', it will
     ignore all other children (if any).  Therefore if there are
     children waiting to be noticed but the child whose PID was
     specified is not one of them, `waitpid' will block or return zero
     as described above.

     A value of `-1' is returned in case of error.  The following
     `errno' error conditions are defined for this function:

    `EINTR'
          The function was interrupted by delivery of a signal to the
          calling process.  Note: Interrupted Primitives.

    `ECHILD'
          There are no child processes to wait for, or the specified PID
          is not a child of the calling process.

    `EINVAL'
          An invalid value was provided for the OPTIONS argument.

   These symbolic constants are defined as values for the PID argument
to the `waitpid' function.

`WAIT_ANY'
     This constant macro (whose value is `-1') specifies that `waitpid'
     should return status information about any child process.

`WAIT_MYPGRP'
     This constant (with value `0') specifies that `waitpid' should
     return status information about any child process in the same
     process group as the calling process.

   These symbolic constants are defined as flags for the OPTIONS
argument to the `waitpid' function.  You can bitwise-OR the flags
together to obtain a value to use as the argument.

`WNOHANG'
     This flag specifies that `waitpid' should return immediately
     instead of waiting, if there is no child process ready to be
     noticed.

`WUNTRACED'
     This flag specifies that `waitpid' should report the status of any
     child processes that have been stopped as well as those that have
     terminated.

 - Function: pid_t wait (int *STATUS-PTR)
     This is a simplified version of `waitpid', and is used to wait
     until any one child process terminates.  The call:

          wait (&status)

     is exactly equivalent to:

          waitpid (-1, &status, 0)

     This function is a cancellation point in multi-threaded programs.
     This is a problem if the thread allocates some resources (like
     memory, file descriptors, semaphores or whatever) at the time
     `wait' is called.  If the thread gets canceled these resources
     stay allocated until the program ends.  To avoid this calls to
     `wait' should be protected using cancellation handlers.

 - Function: pid_t wait4 (pid_t PID, int *STATUS-PTR, int OPTIONS,
          struct rusage *USAGE)
     If USAGE is a null pointer, `wait4' is equivalent to `waitpid
     (PID, STATUS-PTR, OPTIONS)'.

     If USAGE is not null, `wait4' stores usage figures for the child
     process in `*RUSAGE' (but only if the child has terminated, not if
     it has stopped).  Note: Resource Usage.

     This function is a BSD extension.

   Here's an example of how to use `waitpid' to get the status from all
child processes that have terminated, without ever waiting.  This
function is designed to be a handler for `SIGCHLD', the signal that
indicates that at least one child process has terminated.

     void
     sigchld_handler (int signum)
     {
       int pid, status, serrno;
       serrno = errno;
       while (1)
         {
           pid = waitpid (WAIT_ANY, &status, WNOHANG);
           if (pid < 0)
             {
               perror ("waitpid");
               break;
             }
           if (pid == 0)
             break;
           notice_termination (pid, status);
         }
       errno = serrno;
     }