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PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of
this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of
Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
pthread_attr_getguardsize, pthread_attr_setguardsize — get and set the thread guardsize
attribute
SYNOPSIS
#include <pthread.h>
int pthread_attr_getguardsize(const pthread_attr_t *restrict attr,
size_t *restrict guardsize);
int pthread_attr_setguardsize(pthread_attr_t *attr,
size_t guardsize);
DESCRIPTION
The pthread_attr_getguardsize() function shall get the guardsize attribute in the attr
object. This attribute shall be returned in the guardsize parameter.
The pthread_attr_setguardsize() function shall set the guardsize attribute in the attr
object. The new value of this attribute shall be obtained from the guardsize parameter. If
guardsize is zero, a guard area shall not be provided for threads created with attr. If
guardsize is greater than zero, a guard area of at least size guardsize bytes shall be
provided for each thread created with attr.
The guardsize attribute controls the size of the guard area for the created thread's
stack. The guardsize attribute provides protection against overflow of the stack pointer.
If a thread's stack is created with guard protection, the implementation allocates extra
memory at the overflow end of the stack as a buffer against stack overflow of the stack
pointer. If an application overflows into this buffer an error shall result (possibly in a
SIGSEGV signal being delivered to the thread).
A conforming implementation may round up the value contained in guardsize to a multiple of
the configurable system variable {PAGESIZE} (see <sys/mman.h>). If an implementation
rounds up the value of guardsize to a multiple of {PAGESIZE}, a call to
pthread_attr_getguardsize() specifying attr shall store in the guardsize parameter the
guard size specified by the previous pthread_attr_setguardsize() function call.
The default value of the guardsize attribute is implementation-defined.
If the stackaddr attribute has been set (that is, the caller is allocating and managing
its own thread stacks), the guardsize attribute shall be ignored and no protection shall
be provided by the implementation. It is the responsibility of the application to manage
stack overflow along with stack allocation and management in this case.
The behavior is undefined if the value specified by the attr argument to
pthread_attr_getguardsize() or pthread_attr_setguardsize() does not refer to an
initialized thread attributes object.
RETURN VALUE
If successful, the pthread_attr_getguardsize() and pthread_attr_setguardsize() functions
shall return zero; otherwise, an error number shall be returned to indicate the error.
ERRORS
These functions shall fail if:
EINVAL The parameter guardsize is invalid.
These functions shall not return an error code of [EINTR].
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
Retrieving the guardsize Attribute
This example shows how to obtain the guardsize attribute of a thread attribute object.
#include <pthread.h>
pthread_attr_t thread_attr;
size_t guardsize;
int rc;
/* code initializing thread_attr */
...
rc = pthread_attr_getguardsize (&thread_attr, &guardsize);
if (rc != 0) {
/* handle error */
...
}
else {
if (guardsize > 0) {
/* a guard area of at least guardsize bytes is provided */
...
}
else {
/* no guard area provided */
...
}
}
APPLICATION USAGE
None.
RATIONALE
The guardsize attribute is provided to the application for two reasons:
1. Overflow protection can potentially result in wasted system resources. An application
that creates a large number of threads, and which knows its threads never overflow
their stack, can save system resources by turning off guard areas.
2. When threads allocate large data structures on the stack, large guard areas may be
needed to detect stack overflow.
The default size of the guard area is left implementation-defined since on systems
supporting very large page sizes, the overhead might be substantial if at least one guard
page is required by default.
If an implementation detects that the value specified by the attr argument to
pthread_attr_getguardsize() or pthread_attr_setguardsize() does not refer to an
initialized thread attributes object, it is recommended that the function should fail and
report an [EINVAL] error.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, <pthread.h>, <sys_mman.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std
1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System
Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is
POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the event of any
discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the
original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard
can be obtained online at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have
been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report
such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .