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NAME
signal-safety - async-signal-safe functions
DESCRIPTION
An async-signal-safe function is one that can be safely called from within a signal
handler. Many functions are not async-signal-safe. In particular, nonreentrant functions
are generally unsafe to call from a signal handler.
The kinds of issues that render a function unsafe can be quickly understood when one
considers the implementation of the stdio library, all of whose functions are not async-
signal-safe.
When performing buffered I/O on a file, the stdio functions must maintain a statically
allocated data buffer along with associated counters and indexes (or pointers) that record
the amount of data and the current position in the buffer. Suppose that the main program
is in the middle of a call to a stdio function such as printf(3) where the buffer and
associated variables have been partially updated. If, at that moment, the program is
interrupted by a signal handler that also calls printf(3), then the second call to
printf(3) will operate on inconsistent data, with unpredictable results.
To avoid problems with unsafe functions, there are two possible choices:
1. Ensure that (a) the signal handler calls only async-signal-safe functions, and (b) the
signal handler itself is reentrant with respect to global variables in the main
program.
2. Block signal delivery in the main program when calling functions that are unsafe or
operating on global data that is also accessed by the signal handler.
Generally, the second choice is difficult in programs of any complexity, so the first
choice is taken.
POSIX.1 specifies a set of functions that an implementation must make async-signal-safe.
(An implementation may provide safe implementations of additional functions, but this is
not required by the standard and other implementations may not provide the same
guarantees.)
In general, a function is async-signal-safe either because it is reentrant or because it
is atomic with respect to signals (i.e., its execution can't be interrupted by a signal
handler).
The set of functions required to be async-signal-safe by POSIX.1 is shown in the following
table. The functions not otherwise noted were required to be async-signal-safe in
POSIX.1-2001; the table details changes in the subsequent standards.
Function Notes
abort(3) Added in POSIX.1-2003
accept(2)
access(2)
aio_error(3)
aio_return(3)
aio_suspend(3) See notes below
alarm(2)
bind(2)
cfgetispeed(3)
cfgetospeed(3)
cfsetispeed(3)
cfsetospeed(3)
chdir(2)
chmod(2)
chown(2)
clock_gettime(2)
close(2)
connect(2)
creat(2)
dup(2)
dup2(2)
execl(3) Added in POSIX.1-2008; see notes below
execle(3) See notes below
execv(3) Added in POSIX.1-2008
execve(2)
_exit(2)
_Exit(2)
faccessat(2) Added in POSIX.1-2008
fchdir(2) Added in POSIX.1-2013
fchmod(2)
fchmodat(2) Added in POSIX.1-2008
fchown(2)
fchownat(2) Added in POSIX.1-2008
fcntl(2)
fdatasync(2)
fexecve(3) Added in POSIX.1-2008
ffs(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
fork(2) See notes below
fstat(2)
fstatat(2) Added in POSIX.1-2008
fsync(2)
ftruncate(2)
futimens(3) Added in POSIX.1-2008
getegid(2)
geteuid(2)
getgid(2)
getgroups(2)
getpeername(2)
getpgrp(2)
getpid(2)
getppid(2)
getsockname(2)
getsockopt(2)
getuid(2)
htonl(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
htons(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
kill(2)
link(2)
linkat(2) Added in POSIX.1-2008
listen(2)
longjmp(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016; see notes below
lseek(2)
lstat(2)
memccpy(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
memchr(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
memcmp(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
memcpy(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
memmove(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
memset(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
mkdir(2)
mkdirat(2) Added in POSIX.1-2008
mkfifo(3)
mkfifoat(3) Added in POSIX.1-2008
mknod(2) Added in POSIX.1-2008
mknodat(2) Added in POSIX.1-2008
ntohl(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
ntohs(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
open(2)
openat(2) Added in POSIX.1-2008
pause(2)
pipe(2)
poll(2)
posix_trace_event(3)
pselect(2)
pthread_kill(3) Added in POSIX.1-2013
pthread_self(3) Added in POSIX.1-2013
pthread_sigmask(3) Added in POSIX.1-2013
raise(3)
read(2)
readlink(2)
readlinkat(2) Added in POSIX.1-2008
recv(2)
recvfrom(2)
recvmsg(2)
rename(2)
renameat(2) Added in POSIX.1-2008
rmdir(2)
select(2)
sem_post(3)
send(2)
sendmsg(2)
sendto(2)
setgid(2)
setpgid(2)
setsid(2)
setsockopt(2)
setuid(2)
shutdown(2)
sigaction(2)
sigaddset(3)
sigdelset(3)
sigemptyset(3)
sigfillset(3)
sigismember(3)
siglongjmp(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016; see notes below
signal(2)
sigpause(3)
sigpending(2)
sigprocmask(2)
sigqueue(2)
sigset(3)
sigsuspend(2)
sleep(3)
sockatmark(3) Added in POSIX.1-2004
socket(2)
socketpair(2)
stat(2)
stpcpy(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
stpncpy(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
strcat(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
strchr(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
strcmp(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
strcpy(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
strcspn(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
strlen(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
strncat(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
strncmp(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
strncpy(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
strnlen(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
strpbrk(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
strrchr(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
strspn(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
strstr(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
strtok_r(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
symlink(2)
symlinkat(2) Added in POSIX.1-2008
tcdrain(3)
tcflow(3)
tcflush(3)
tcgetattr(3)
tcgetpgrp(3)
tcsendbreak(3)
tcsetattr(3)
tcsetpgrp(3)
time(2)
timer_getoverrun(2)
timer_gettime(2)
timer_settime(2)
times(2)
umask(2)
uname(2)
unlink(2)
unlinkat(2) Added in POSIX.1-2008
utime(2)
utimensat(2) Added in POSIX.1-2008
utimes(2) Added in POSIX.1-2008
wait(2)
waitpid(2)
wcpcpy(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wcpncpy(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wcscat(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wcschr(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wcscmp(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wcscpy(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wcscspn(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wcslen(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wcsncat(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wcsncmp(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wcsncpy(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wcsnlen(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wcspbrk(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wcsrchr(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wcsspn(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wcsstr(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wcstok(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wmemchr(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wmemcmp(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wmemcpy(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wmemmove(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
wmemset(3) Added in POSIX.1-2016
write(2)
Notes:
* POSIX.1-2001 and POSIX.1-2004 required the functions fpathconf(3), pathconf(3), and
sysconf(3) to be async-signal-safe, but this requirement was removed in POSIX.1-2008.
* If a signal handler interrupts the execution of an unsafe function, and the handler
terminates via a call to longjmp(3) or siglongjmp(3) and the program subsequently calls
an unsafe function, then the behavior of the program is undefined.
* POSIX.1-2003 clarified that if an application calls fork(2) from a signal handler and
any of the fork handlers registered by pthread_atfork(3) calls a function that is not
async-signal-safe, the behavior is undefined. A future revision of the standard is
likely to remove fork(2) from the list of async-signal-safe functions.
* Asynchronous signal handlers that call functions which are cancellation points and nest
over regions of deferred cancellation may trigger cancellation whose behavior is as if
asynchronous cancellation had occurred and may cause application state to become
inconsistent.
Deviations in the GNU C library
The following known deviations from the standard occur in the GNU C library:
* Before glibc 2.24, execl(3) and execle(3) employed realloc(3) internally and were
consequently not async-signal-safe. This was fixed in glibc 2.24.
* The glibc implementation of aio_suspend(3) is not async-signal-safe because it uses
pthread_mutex_lock(3) internally.
SEE ALSO
sigaction(2), signal(7), standards(7)
COLOPHON
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