.\" $NetBSD: fork1.9,v 1.14 2008/04/30 13:10:58 martin Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1998 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc. .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation .\" by Jason R. Thorpe of the Numerical Aerospace Simulation Facility, .\" NASA Ames Research Center. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE NETBSD FOUNDATION, INC. AND CONTRIBUTORS .\" ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED .\" TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR .\" PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE FOUNDATION OR CONTRIBUTORS .\" BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR .\" CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF .\" SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS .\" INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN .\" CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) .\" ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE .\" POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .Dd January 4, 2008 .Dt FORK1 9 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm fork1 .Nd create a new process .Sh SYNOPSIS .In sys/types.h .In sys/proc.h .Ft int .Fn "fork1" "struct lwp *l1" "int flags" "int exitsig" "void *stack" "size_t stacksize" "void (*func)(void *)" "void *arg" "register_t *retval" "struct proc **rnewprocp" .Sh DESCRIPTION .Fn fork1 creates a new process out of the process behind .Ar l1 , which is assumed to be the current lwp. This function is used primarily to implement the .Xr fork 2 and .Xr vfork 2 system calls, but is versatile enough to be used as a backend for e.g. the .Xr __clone 2 call. .Pp The .Ar flags argument controls the semantics of the fork operation, and is made up of the bitwise-OR of the following values: .Bl -tag -width FORK_SHAREFILES .It FORK_PPWAIT The parent process will sleep until the child process successfully calls .Xr execve 2 or exits (either by a call to .Xr _exit 2 or abnormally). .It FORK_SHAREVM The child process will share the parent's virtual address space. If this flag is not specified, the child will get a copy-on-write snapshot of the parent's address space. .It FORK_SHARECWD The child process will share the parent's current directory, root directory, and file creation mask. .It FORK_SHAREFILES The child process will share the parent's file descriptors. .It FORK_SHARESIGS The child process will share the parent's signal actions. .It FORK_NOWAIT The child process will at creation time be inherited by the init process. .It FORK_CLEANFILES The child process will not copy or share the parent's descriptors, but rather will start out with a clean set. .El .Pp A .Ar flags value of 0 indicates a standard fork operation. .Pp The .Ar exitsig argument controls the signal sent to the parent on child death. If normal operation desired, SIGCHLD should be supplied. .Pp It is possible to specify the child userspace stack location and size by using the .Ar stack and .Ar stacksize arguments, respectively. Values .Dv NULL and 0, respectively, will give the child the default values for the machine architecture in question. .Pp The arguments .Ar func and .Ar arg can be used to specify a kernel function to be called when the child process returns instead of .Fn child_return . These are used for example in starting the init process and creating kernel threads. .Pp The .Ar retval argument is provided for the use of system call stubs. If .Ar retval is not NULL, it will hold the following values after successful completion of the fork operation: .Bl -tag -width retval[0] .It Ar retval[0] This will contain the pid of the child process. .It Ar retval[1] In the parent process, this will contain the value 0. In the child process, this will contain 1. .El .Pp User level system call stubs typically subtract 1 from .Ar retval[1] and bitwise-AND it with .Ar retval[0] , thus returning the pid to the parent process and 0 to the child. .Pp If .Ar rnewprocp is not NULL, .Ar *rnewprocp will point to the newly created process upon successful completion of the fork operation. .Sh RETURN VALUES Upon successful completion of the fork operation, .Fn fork1 returns 0. Otherwise, the following error values are returned: .Bl -tag -width [EAGAIN] .It Bq Er EAGAIN The limit on the total number of system processes would be exceeded. .It Bq Er EAGAIN The limit .Dv RLIMIT_NPROC on the total number of processes under execution by this user id would be exceeded. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr execve 2 , .Xr fork 2 , .Xr vfork 2