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NAME
clone, __clone2 - create a child process
SYNOPSIS
/* Prototype for the glibc wrapper function */
#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <sched.h>
int clone(int (*fn)(void *), void *child_stack,
int flags, void *arg, ...
/* pid_t *ptid, void *newtls, pid_t *ctid */ );
/* For the prototype of the raw system call, see NOTES */
DESCRIPTION
clone() creates a new process, in a manner similar to fork(2).
This page describes both the glibc clone() wrapper function and the underlying system call on which it is
based. The main text describes the wrapper function; the differences for the raw system call are
described toward the end of this page.
Unlike fork(2), clone() allows the child process to share parts of its execution context with the calling
process, such as the virtual address space, the table of file descriptors, and the table of signal
handlers. (Note that on this manual page, "calling process" normally corresponds to "parent process".
But see the description of CLONE_PARENT below.)
One use of clone() is to implement threads: multiple flows of control in a program that run concurrently
in a shared address space.
When the child process is created with clone(), it commences execution by calling the function pointed to
by the argument fn. (This differs from fork(2), where execution continues in the child from the point of
the fork(2) call.) The arg argument is passed as the argument of the function fn.
When the fn(arg) function returns, the child process terminates. The integer returned by fn is the exit
status for the child process. The child process may also terminate explicitly by calling exit(2) or
after receiving a fatal signal.
The child_stack argument specifies the location of the stack used by the child process. Since the child
and calling process may share memory, it is not possible for the child process to execute in the same
stack as the calling process. The calling process must therefore set up memory space for the child stack
and pass a pointer to this space to clone(). Stacks grow downward on all processors that run Linux
(except the HP PA processors), so child_stack usually points to the topmost address of the memory space
set up for the child stack.
The low byte of flags contains the number of the termination signal sent to the parent when the child
dies. If this signal is specified as anything other than SIGCHLD, then the parent process must specify
the __WALL or __WCLONE options when waiting for the child with wait(2). If no signal is specified, then
the parent process is not signaled when the child terminates.
flags may also be bitwise-ORed with zero or more of the following constants, in order to specify what is
shared between the calling process and the child process:
CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID (since Linux 2.5.49)
Clear (zero) the child thread ID at the location ctid in child memory when the child exits, and do
a wakeup on the futex at that address. The address involved may be changed by the
set_tid_address(2) system call. This is used by threading libraries.
CLONE_CHILD_SETTID (since Linux 2.5.49)
Store the child thread ID at the location ctid in the child's memory. The store operation
completes before clone() returns control to user space.
CLONE_FILES (since Linux 2.0)
If CLONE_FILES is set, the calling process and the child process share the same file descriptor
table. Any file descriptor created by the calling process or by the child process is also valid
in the other process. Similarly, if one of the processes closes a file descriptor, or changes its
associated flags (using the fcntl(2) F_SETFD operation), the other process is also affected. If a
process sharing a file descriptor table calls execve(2), its file descriptor table is duplicated
(unshared).
If CLONE_FILES is not set, the child process inherits a copy of all file descriptors opened in the
calling process at the time of clone(). Subsequent operations that open or close file
descriptors, or change file descriptor flags, performed by either the calling process or the child
process do not affect the other process. Note, however, that the duplicated file descriptors in
the child refer to the same open file descriptions as the corresponding file descriptors in the
calling process, and thus share file offsets and file status flags (see open(2)).
CLONE_FS (since Linux 2.0)
If CLONE_FS is set, the caller and the child process share the same filesystem information. This
includes the root of the filesystem, the current working directory, and the umask. Any call to
chroot(2), chdir(2), or umask(2) performed by the calling process or the child process also
affects the other process.
If CLONE_FS is not set, the child process works on a copy of the filesystem information of the
calling process at the time of the clone() call. Calls to chroot(2), chdir(2), or umask(2)
performed later by one of the processes do not affect the other process.
CLONE_IO (since Linux 2.6.25)
If CLONE_IO is set, then the new process shares an I/O context with the calling process. If this
flag is not set, then (as with fork(2)) the new process has its own I/O context.
The I/O context is the I/O scope of the disk scheduler (i.e., what the I/O scheduler uses to model
scheduling of a process's I/O). If processes share the same I/O context, they are treated as one
by the I/O scheduler. As a consequence, they get to share disk time. For some I/O schedulers, if
two processes share an I/O context, they will be allowed to interleave their disk access. If
several threads are doing I/O on behalf of the same process (aio_read(3), for instance), they
should employ CLONE_IO to get better I/O performance.
If the kernel is not configured with the CONFIG_BLOCK option, this flag is a no-op.
CLONE_NEWCGROUP (since Linux 4.6)
Create the process in a new cgroup namespace. If this flag is not set, then (as with fork(2)) the
process is created in the same cgroup namespaces as the calling process. This flag is intended
for the implementation of containers.
For further information on cgroup namespaces, see cgroup_namespaces(7).
Only a privileged process (CAP_SYS_ADMIN) can employ CLONE_NEWCGROUP.
CLONE_NEWIPC (since Linux 2.6.19)
If CLONE_NEWIPC is set, then create the process in a new IPC namespace. If this flag is not set,
then (as with fork(2)), the process is created in the same IPC namespace as the calling process.
This flag is intended for the implementation of containers.
An IPC namespace provides an isolated view of System V IPC objects (see svipc(7)) and (since Linux
2.6.30) POSIX message queues (see mq_overview(7)). The common characteristic of these IPC
mechanisms is that IPC objects are identified by mechanisms other than filesystem pathnames.
Objects created in an IPC namespace are visible to all other processes that are members of that
namespace, but are not visible to processes in other IPC namespaces.
When an IPC namespace is destroyed (i.e., when the last process that is a member of the namespace
terminates), all IPC objects in the namespace are automatically destroyed.
Only a privileged process (CAP_SYS_ADMIN) can employ CLONE_NEWIPC. This flag can't be specified
in conjunction with CLONE_SYSVSEM.
For further information on IPC namespaces, see namespaces(7).
CLONE_NEWNET (since Linux 2.6.24)
(The implementation of this flag was completed only by about kernel version 2.6.29.)
If CLONE_NEWNET is set, then create the process in a new network namespace. If this flag is not
set, then (as with fork(2)) the process is created in the same network namespace as the calling
process. This flag is intended for the implementation of containers.
A network namespace provides an isolated view of the networking stack (network device interfaces,
IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks, IP routing tables, firewall rules, the /proc/net and /sys/class/net
directory trees, sockets, etc.). A physical network device can live in exactly one network
namespace. A virtual network (veth(4)) device pair provides a pipe-like abstraction that can be
used to create tunnels between network namespaces, and can be used to create a bridge to a
physical network device in another namespace.
When a network namespace is freed (i.e., when the last process in the namespace terminates), its
physical network devices are moved back to the initial network namespace (not to the parent of the
process). For further information on network namespaces, see namespaces(7).
Only a privileged process (CAP_SYS_ADMIN) can employ CLONE_NEWNET.
CLONE_NEWNS (since Linux 2.4.19)
If CLONE_NEWNS is set, the cloned child is started in a new mount namespace, initialized with a
copy of the namespace of the parent. If CLONE_NEWNS is not set, the child lives in the same mount
namespace as the parent.
Only a privileged process (CAP_SYS_ADMIN) can employ CLONE_NEWNS. It is not permitted to specify
both CLONE_NEWNS and CLONE_FS in the same clone() call.
For further information on mount namespaces, see namespaces(7) and mount_namespaces(7).
CLONE_NEWPID (since Linux 2.6.24)
If CLONE_NEWPID is set, then create the process in a new PID namespace. If this flag is not set,
then (as with fork(2)) the process is created in the same PID namespace as the calling process.
This flag is intended for the implementation of containers.
For further information on PID namespaces, see namespaces(7) and pid_namespaces(7).
Only a privileged process (CAP_SYS_ADMIN) can employ CLONE_NEWPID. This flag can't be specified
in conjunction with CLONE_THREAD or CLONE_PARENT.
CLONE_NEWUSER
(This flag first became meaningful for clone() in Linux 2.6.23, the current clone() semantics were
merged in Linux 3.5, and the final pieces to make the user namespaces completely usable were
merged in Linux 3.8.)
If CLONE_NEWUSER is set, then create the process in a new user namespace. If this flag is not
set, then (as with fork(2)) the process is created in the same user namespace as the calling
process.
Before Linux 3.8, use of CLONE_NEWUSER required that the caller have three capabilities:
CAP_SYS_ADMIN, CAP_SETUID, and CAP_SETGID. Starting with Linux 3.8, no privileges are needed to
create a user namespace.
This flag can't be specified in conjunction with CLONE_THREAD or CLONE_PARENT. For security
reasons, CLONE_NEWUSER cannot be specified in conjunction with CLONE_FS.
For further information on user namespaces, see namespaces(7) and user_namespaces(7).
CLONE_NEWUTS (since Linux 2.6.19)
If CLONE_NEWUTS is set, then create the process in a new UTS namespace, whose identifiers are
initialized by duplicating the identifiers from the UTS namespace of the calling process. If this
flag is not set, then (as with fork(2)) the process is created in the same UTS namespace as the
calling process. This flag is intended for the implementation of containers.
A UTS namespace is the set of identifiers returned by uname(2); among these, the domain name and
the hostname can be modified by setdomainname(2) and sethostname(2), respectively. Changes made
to the identifiers in a UTS namespace are visible to all other processes in the same namespace,
but are not visible to processes in other UTS namespaces.
Only a privileged process (CAP_SYS_ADMIN) can employ CLONE_NEWUTS.
For further information on UTS namespaces, see namespaces(7).
CLONE_PARENT (since Linux 2.3.12)
If CLONE_PARENT is set, then the parent of the new child (as returned by getppid(2)) will be the
same as that of the calling process.
If CLONE_PARENT is not set, then (as with fork(2)) the child's parent is the calling process.
Note that it is the parent process, as returned by getppid(2), which is signaled when the child
terminates, so that if CLONE_PARENT is set, then the parent of the calling process, rather than
the calling process itself, will be signaled.
CLONE_PARENT_SETTID (since Linux 2.5.49)
Store the child thread ID at the location ptid in the parent's memory. (In Linux 2.5.32-2.5.48
there was a flag CLONE_SETTID that did this.) The store operation completes before clone()
returns control to user space.
CLONE_PID (Linux 2.0 to 2.5.15)
If CLONE_PID is set, the child process is created with the same process ID as the calling process.
This is good for hacking the system, but otherwise of not much use. From Linux 2.3.21 onward,
this flag could be specified only by the system boot process (PID 0). The flag disappeared
completely from the kernel sources in Linux 2.5.16. Since then, the kernel silently ignores this
bit if it is specified in flags.
CLONE_PTRACE (since Linux 2.2)
If CLONE_PTRACE is specified, and the calling process is being traced, then trace the child also
(see ptrace(2)).
CLONE_SETTLS (since Linux 2.5.32)
The TLS (Thread Local Storage) descriptor is set to newtls.
The interpretation of newtls and the resulting effect is architecture dependent. On x86, newtls
is interpreted as a struct user_desc * (see set_thread_area(2)). On x86-64 it is the new value to
be set for the %fs base register (see the ARCH_SET_FS argument to arch_prctl(2)). On
architectures with a dedicated TLS register, it is the new value of that register.
CLONE_SIGHAND (since Linux 2.0)
If CLONE_SIGHAND is set, the calling process and the child process share the same table of signal
handlers. If the calling process or child process calls sigaction(2) to change the behavior
associated with a signal, the behavior is changed in the other process as well. However, the
calling process and child processes still have distinct signal masks and sets of pending signals.
So, one of them may block or unblock signals using sigprocmask(2) without affecting the other
process.
If CLONE_SIGHAND is not set, the child process inherits a copy of the signal handlers of the
calling process at the time clone() is called. Calls to sigaction(2) performed later by one of
the processes have no effect on the other process.
Since Linux 2.6.0-test6, flags must also include CLONE_VM if CLONE_SIGHAND is specified
CLONE_STOPPED (since Linux 2.6.0-test2)
If CLONE_STOPPED is set, then the child is initially stopped (as though it was sent a SIGSTOP
signal), and must be resumed by sending it a SIGCONT signal.
This flag was deprecated from Linux 2.6.25 onward, and was removed altogether in Linux 2.6.38.
Since then, the kernel silently ignores it without error. Starting with Linux 4.6, the same bit
was reused for the CLONE_NEWCGROUP flag.
CLONE_SYSVSEM (since Linux 2.5.10)
If CLONE_SYSVSEM is set, then the child and the calling process share a single list of System V
semaphore adjustment (semadj) values (see semop(2)). In this case, the shared list accumulates
semadj values across all processes sharing the list, and semaphore adjustments are performed only
when the last process that is sharing the list terminates (or ceases sharing the list using
unshare(2)). If this flag is not set, then the child has a separate semadj list that is initially
empty.
CLONE_THREAD (since Linux 2.4.0-test8)
If CLONE_THREAD is set, the child is placed in the same thread group as the calling process. To
make the remainder of the discussion of CLONE_THREAD more readable, the term "thread" is used to
refer to the processes within a thread group.
Thread groups were a feature added in Linux 2.4 to support the POSIX threads notion of a set of
threads that share a single PID. Internally, this shared PID is the so-called thread group
identifier (TGID) for the thread group. Since Linux 2.4, calls to getpid(2) return the TGID of
the caller.
The threads within a group can be distinguished by their (system-wide) unique thread IDs (TID). A
new thread's TID is available as the function result returned to the caller of clone(), and a
thread can obtain its own TID using gettid(2).
When a call is made to clone() without specifying CLONE_THREAD, then the resulting thread is
placed in a new thread group whose TGID is the same as the thread's TID. This thread is the
leader of the new thread group.
A new thread created with CLONE_THREAD has the same parent process as the caller of clone() (i.e.,
like CLONE_PARENT), so that calls to getppid(2) return the same value for all of the threads in a
thread group. When a CLONE_THREAD thread terminates, the thread that created it using clone() is
not sent a SIGCHLD (or other termination) signal; nor can the status of such a thread be obtained
using wait(2). (The thread is said to be detached.)
After all of the threads in a thread group terminate the parent process of the thread group is
sent a SIGCHLD (or other termination) signal.
If any of the threads in a thread group performs an execve(2), then all threads other than the
thread group leader are terminated, and the new program is executed in the thread group leader.
If one of the threads in a thread group creates a child using fork(2), then any thread in the
group can wait(2) for that child.
Since Linux 2.5.35, flags must also include CLONE_SIGHAND if CLONE_THREAD is specified (and note
that, since Linux 2.6.0-test6, CLONE_SIGHAND also requires CLONE_VM to be included).
Signals may be sent to a thread group as a whole (i.e., a TGID) using kill(2), or to a specific
thread (i.e., TID) using tgkill(2).
Signal dispositions and actions are process-wide: if an unhandled signal is delivered to a thread,
then it will affect (terminate, stop, continue, be ignored in) all members of the thread group.
Each thread has its own signal mask, as set by sigprocmask(2), but signals can be pending either:
for the whole process (i.e., deliverable to any member of the thread group), when sent with
kill(2); or for an individual thread, when sent with tgkill(2). A call to sigpending(2) returns a
signal set that is the union of the signals pending for the whole process and the signals that are
pending for the calling thread.
If kill(2) is used to send a signal to a thread group, and the thread group has installed a
handler for the signal, then the handler will be invoked in exactly one, arbitrarily selected
member of the thread group that has not blocked the signal. If multiple threads in a group are
waiting to accept the same signal using sigwaitinfo(2), the kernel will arbitrarily select one of
these threads to receive a signal sent using kill(2).
CLONE_UNTRACED (since Linux 2.5.46)
If CLONE_UNTRACED is specified, then a tracing process cannot force CLONE_PTRACE on this child
process.
CLONE_VFORK (since Linux 2.2)
If CLONE_VFORK is set, the execution of the calling process is suspended until the child releases
its virtual memory resources via a call to execve(2) or _exit(2) (as with vfork(2)).
If CLONE_VFORK is not set, then both the calling process and the child are schedulable after the
call, and an application should not rely on execution occurring in any particular order.
CLONE_VM (since Linux 2.0)
If CLONE_VM is set, the calling process and the child process run in the same memory space. In
particular, memory writes performed by the calling process or by the child process are also
visible in the other process. Moreover, any memory mapping or unmapping performed with mmap(2) or
munmap(2) by the child or calling process also affects the other process.
If CLONE_VM is not set, the child process runs in a separate copy of the memory space of the
calling process at the time of clone(). Memory writes or file mappings/unmappings performed by
one of the processes do not affect the other, as with fork(2).
NOTES
Note that the glibc clone() wrapper function makes some changes in the memory pointed to by child_stack
(changes required to set the stack up correctly for the child) before invoking the clone() system call.
So, in cases where clone() is used to recursively create children, do not use the buffer employed for the
parent's stack as the stack of the child.
C library/kernel differences
The raw clone() system call corresponds more closely to fork(2) in that execution in the child continues
from the point of the call. As such, the fn and arg arguments of the clone() wrapper function are
omitted.
Another difference for the raw clone() system call is that the child_stack argument may be zero, in which
case the child uses a duplicate of the parent's stack. (Copy-on-write semantics ensure that the child
gets separate copies of stack pages when either process modifies the stack.) In this case, for correct
operation, the CLONE_VM option should not be specified. (If the child shares the parent's memory because
of the use of the CLONE_VM flag, then no copy-on-write duplication occurs and chaos is likely to result.)
The order of the arguments also differs in the raw system call, and there are variations in the arguments
across architectures, as detailed in the following paragraphs.
The raw system call interface on x86-64 and some other architectures (including sh, tile, and alpha) is
roughly:
long clone(unsigned long flags, void *child_stack,
int *ptid, int *ctid,
unsigned long newtls);
On x86-32, and several other common architectures (including score, ARM, ARM 64, PA-RISC, arc, Power PC,
xtensa, and MIPS), the order of the last two arguments is reversed:
long clone(unsigned long flags, void *child_stack,
int *ptid, unsigned long newtls,
int *ctid);
On the cris and s390 architectures, the order of the first two arguments is reversed:
long clone(void *child_stack, unsigned long flags,
int *ptid, int *ctid,
unsigned long newtls);
On the microblaze architecture, an additional argument is supplied:
long clone(unsigned long flags, void *child_stack,
int stack_size, /* Size of stack */
int *ptid, int *ctid,
unsigned long newtls);
blackfin, m68k, and sparc
The argument-passing conventions on blackfin, m68k, and sparc are different from the descriptions above.
For details, see the kernel (and glibc) source.
ia64
On ia64, a different interface is used:
int __clone2(int (*fn)(void *),
void *child_stack_base, size_t stack_size,
int flags, void *arg, ...
/* pid_t *ptid, struct user_desc *tls, pid_t *ctid */ );
The prototype shown above is for the glibc wrapper function; the raw system call interface has no fn or
arg argument, and changes the order of the arguments so that flags is the first argument, and tls is the
last argument.
__clone2() operates in the same way as clone(), except that child_stack_base points to the lowest address
of the child's stack area, and stack_size specifies the size of the stack pointed to by child_stack_base.
Linux 2.4 and earlier
In Linux 2.4 and earlier, clone() does not take arguments ptid, tls, and ctid.
RETURN VALUE
On success, the thread ID of the child process is returned in the caller's thread of execution. On
failure, -1 is returned in the caller's context, no child process will be created, and errno will be set
appropriately.
ERRORS
EAGAIN Too many processes are already running; see fork(2).
EINVAL CLONE_SIGHAND was specified, but CLONE_VM was not. (Since Linux 2.6.0-test6.)
EINVAL CLONE_THREAD was specified, but CLONE_SIGHAND was not. (Since Linux 2.5.35.)
EINVAL Both CLONE_FS and CLONE_NEWNS were specified in flags.
EINVAL (since Linux 3.9)
Both CLONE_NEWUSER and CLONE_FS were specified in flags.
EINVAL Both CLONE_NEWIPC and CLONE_SYSVSEM were specified in flags.
EINVAL One (or both) of CLONE_NEWPID or CLONE_NEWUSER and one (or both) of CLONE_THREAD or CLONE_PARENT
were specified in flags.
EINVAL Returned by the glibc clone() wrapper function when fn or child_stack is specified as NULL.
EINVAL CLONE_NEWIPC was specified in flags, but the kernel was not configured with the CONFIG_SYSVIPC and
CONFIG_IPC_NS options.
EINVAL CLONE_NEWNET was specified in flags, but the kernel was not configured with the CONFIG_NET_NS
option.
EINVAL CLONE_NEWPID was specified in flags, but the kernel was not configured with the CONFIG_PID_NS
option.
EINVAL CLONE_NEWUTS was specified in flags, but the kernel was not configured with the CONFIG_UTS option.
EINVAL child_stack is not aligned to a suitable boundary for this architecture. For example, on aarch64,
child_stack must be a multiple of 16.
ENOMEM Cannot allocate sufficient memory to allocate a task structure for the child, or to copy those
parts of the caller's context that need to be copied.
ENOSPC (since Linux 3.7)
CLONE_NEWPID was specified in flags, but the limit on the nesting depth of PID namespaces would
have been exceeded; see pid_namespaces(7).
ENOSPC (since Linux 4.9; beforehand EUSERS)
CLONE_NEWUSER was specified in flags, and the call would cause the limit on the number of nested
user namespaces to be exceeded. See user_namespaces(7).
From Linux 3.11 to Linux 4.8, the error diagnosed in this case was EUSERS.
ENOSPC (since Linux 4.9)
One of the values in flags specified the creation of a new user namespace, but doing so would have
caused the limit defined by the corresponding file in /proc/sys/user to be exceeded. For further
details, see namespaces(7).
EPERM CLONE_NEWCGROUP, CLONE_NEWIPC, CLONE_NEWNET, CLONE_NEWNS, CLONE_NEWPID, or CLONE_NEWUTS was
specified by an unprivileged process (process without CAP_SYS_ADMIN).
EPERM CLONE_PID was specified by a process other than process 0. (This error occurs only on Linux
2.5.15 and earlier.)
EPERM CLONE_NEWUSER was specified in flags, but either the effective user ID or the effective group ID
of the caller does not have a mapping in the parent namespace (see user_namespaces(7)).
EPERM (since Linux 3.9)
CLONE_NEWUSER was specified in flags and the caller is in a chroot environment (i.e., the caller's
root directory does not match the root directory of the mount namespace in which it resides).
ERESTARTNOINTR (since Linux 2.6.17)
System call was interrupted by a signal and will be restarted. (This can be seen only during a
trace.)
EUSERS (Linux 3.11 to Linux 4.8)
CLONE_NEWUSER was specified in flags, and the limit on the number of nested user namespaces would
be exceeded. See the discussion of the ENOSPC error above.
CONFORMING TO
clone() is Linux-specific and should not be used in programs intended to be portable.
NOTES
The kcmp(2) system call can be used to test whether two processes share various resources such as a file
descriptor table, System V semaphore undo operations, or a virtual address space.
Handlers registered using pthread_atfork(3) are not executed during a call to clone().
In the Linux 2.4.x series, CLONE_THREAD generally does not make the parent of the new thread the same as
the parent of the calling process. However, for kernel versions 2.4.7 to 2.4.18 the CLONE_THREAD flag
implied the CLONE_PARENT flag (as in Linux 2.6.0 and later).
For a while there was CLONE_DETACHED (introduced in 2.5.32): parent wants no child-exit signal. In Linux
2.6.2, the need to give this flag together with CLONE_THREAD disappeared. This flag is still defined,
but has no effect.
On i386, clone() should not be called through vsyscall, but directly through int $0x80.
BUGS
GNU C library versions 2.3.4 up to and including 2.24 contained a wrapper function for getpid(2) that
performed caching of PIDs. This caching relied on support in the glibc wrapper for clone(), but
limitations in the implementation meant that the cache was not up to date in some circumstances. In
particular, if a signal was delivered to the child immediately after the clone() call, then a call to
getpid(2) in a handler for the signal could return the PID of the calling process ("the parent"), if the
clone wrapper had not yet had a chance to update the PID cache in the child. (This discussion ignores
the case where the child was created using CLONE_THREAD, when getpid(2) should return the same value in
the child and in the process that called clone(), since the caller and the child are in the same thread
group. The stale-cache problem also does not occur if the flags argument includes CLONE_VM.) To get the
truth, it was sometimes necessary to use code such as the following:
#include <syscall.h>
pid_t mypid;
mypid = syscall(SYS_getpid);
Because of the stale-cache problem, as well as other problems noted in getpid(2), the PID caching feature
was removed in glibc 2.25.
EXAMPLE
The following program demonstrates the use of clone() to create a child process that executes in a
separate UTS namespace. The child changes the hostname in its UTS namespace. Both parent and child then
display the system hostname, making it possible to see that the hostname differs in the UTS namespaces of
the parent and child. For an example of the use of this program, see setns(2).
Program source
#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <sys/utsname.h>
#include <sched.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#define errExit(msg) do { perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); \
} while (0)
static int /* Start function for cloned child */
childFunc(void *arg)
{
struct utsname uts;
/* Change hostname in UTS namespace of child */
if (sethostname(arg, strlen(arg)) == -1)
errExit("sethostname");
/* Retrieve and display hostname */
if (uname(&uts) == -1)
errExit("uname");
printf("uts.nodename in child: %s\n", uts.nodename);
/* Keep the namespace open for a while, by sleeping.
This allows some experimentation--for example, another
process might join the namespace. */
sleep(200);
return 0; /* Child terminates now */
}
#define STACK_SIZE (1024 * 1024) /* Stack size for cloned child */
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
char *stack; /* Start of stack buffer */
char *stackTop; /* End of stack buffer */
pid_t pid;
struct utsname uts;
if (argc < 2) {
fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s <child-hostname>\n", argv[0]);
exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
/* Allocate stack for child */
stack = malloc(STACK_SIZE);
if (stack == NULL)
errExit("malloc");
stackTop = stack + STACK_SIZE; /* Assume stack grows downward */
/* Create child that has its own UTS namespace;
child commences execution in childFunc() */
pid = clone(childFunc, stackTop, CLONE_NEWUTS | SIGCHLD, argv[1]);
if (pid == -1)
errExit("clone");
printf("clone() returned %ld\n", (long) pid);
/* Parent falls through to here */
sleep(1); /* Give child time to change its hostname */
/* Display hostname in parent's UTS namespace. This will be
different from hostname in child's UTS namespace. */
if (uname(&uts) == -1)
errExit("uname");
printf("uts.nodename in parent: %s\n", uts.nodename);
if (waitpid(pid, NULL, 0) == -1) /* Wait for child */
errExit("waitpid");
printf("child has terminated\n");
exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
SEE ALSO
fork(2), futex(2), getpid(2), gettid(2), kcmp(2), set_thread_area(2), set_tid_address(2), setns(2),
tkill(2), unshare(2), wait(2), capabilities(7), namespaces(7), pthreads(7)
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 4.15 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project,
information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be found at
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Linux 2017-09-15 CLONE(2)