FreeBSD manual
download PDF document: pdkill.2.pdf
PDFORK(2) FreeBSD System Calls Manual PDFORK(2)
NAME
pdfork, pdgetpid, pdkill - System calls to manage process descriptors
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/procdesc.h>
pid_t
pdfork(int *fdp, int flags);
int
pdgetpid(int fd, pid_t *pidp);
int
pdkill(int fd, int signum);
DESCRIPTION
Process descriptors are special file descriptors that represent
processes, and are created using pdfork(), a variant of fork(2), which,
if successful, returns a process descriptor in the integer pointed to by
fdp. Processes created via pdfork() will not cause SIGCHLD on
termination. pdfork() can accept the flags:
PD_DAEMON Instead of the default terminate-on-close behaviour, allow the
process to live until it is explicitly killed with kill(2).
This option is not permitted in capsicum(4) capability mode
(see cap_enter(2)).
PD_CLOEXEC
Set close-on-exec on process descriptor.
pdgetpid() queries the process ID (PID) in the process descriptor fd.
pdkill() is functionally identical to kill(2), except that it accepts a
process descriptor, fd, rather than a PID.
The following system calls also have effects specific to process
descriptors:
fstat(2) queries status of a process descriptor; currently only the
st_mode, st_birthtime, st_atime, st_ctime and st_mtime fields are
defined. If the owner read, write, and execute bits are set then the
process represented by the process descriptor is still alive.
poll(2) and select(2) allow waiting for process state transitions;
currently only POLLHUP is defined, and will be raised when the process
dies. Process state transitions can also be monitored using kqueue(2)
filter EVFILT_PROCDESC; currently only NOTE_EXIT is implemented.
close(2) will close the process descriptor unless PD_DAEMON is set; if
the process is still alive and this is the last reference to the process
descriptor, the process will be terminated with the signal SIGKILL.
RETURN VALUES
fork(2)), with the following additions:
[EINVAL] The signal number given to pdkill() is invalid.
[ENOTCAPABLE] The process descriptor being operated on has
insufficient rights (e.g. CAP_PDKILL for pdkill()).
SEE ALSO
close(2), fork(2), fstat(2), kill(2), kqueue(2), poll(2), wait4(2),
capsicum(4), procdesc(4)
HISTORY
The pdfork(), pdgetpid(), and pdkill() system calls first appeared in
FreeBSD 9.0.
Support for process descriptors mode was developed as part of the
TrustedBSD Project.
AUTHORS
These functions and the capability facility were created by Robert N. M.
Watson <rwatson@FreeBSD.org> and Jonathan Anderson <jonathan@FreeBSD.org>
at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory with support from a
grant from Google, Inc.
FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p11 October 14, 2018 FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p11