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NAME

       pidfd_open - obtain a file descriptor that refers to a process

LIBRARY

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

       #include <sys/syscall.h>      /* Definition of SYS_* constants */
       #include <unistd.h>

       int syscall(SYS_pidfd_open, pid_t pid, unsigned int flags);

       Note: glibc provides no wrapper for pidfd_open(), necessitating the use of syscall(2).

DESCRIPTION

       The  pidfd_open()  system  call creates a file descriptor that refers to the process whose
       PID is specified in pid.  The file descriptor is returned  as  the  function  result;  the
       close-on-exec flag is set on the file descriptor.

       The flags argument either has the value 0, or contains the following flag:

       PIDFD_NONBLOCK (since Linux 5.10)
              Return  a  nonblocking  file  descriptor.   If  the process referred to by the file
              descriptor has not yet terminated, then an attempt to wait on the  file  descriptor
              using waitid(2) will immediately return the error EAGAIN rather than blocking.

RETURN VALUE

       On  success, pidfd_open() returns a file descriptor (a nonnegative integer).  On error, -1
       is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

       EINVAL flags is not valid.

       EINVAL pid is not valid.

       EMFILE The per-process limit on the number of open file descriptors has been reached  (see
              the description of RLIMIT_NOFILE in getrlimit(2)).

       ENFILE The system-wide limit on the total number of open files has been reached.

       ENODEV The anonymous inode filesystem is not available in this kernel.

       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.

       ESRCH  The process specified by pid does not exist.

VERSIONS

       pidfd_open() first appeared in Linux 5.3.

STANDARDS

       pidfd_open() is Linux specific.

NOTES

       The  following  code  sequence  can  be  used to obtain a file descriptor for the child of
       fork(2):

           pid = fork();
           if (pid > 0) {     /* If parent */
               pidfd = pidfd_open(pid, 0);
               ...
           }

       Even if the child has already terminated by the time of the  pidfd_open()  call,  its  PID
       will  not  have been recycled and the returned file descriptor will refer to the resulting
       zombie process.  Note, however, that this is guaranteed only if the  following  conditions
       hold true:

       •  the disposition of SIGCHLD has not been explicitly set to SIG_IGN (see sigaction(2));

       •  the  SA_NOCLDWAIT  flag  was  not specified while establishing a handler for SIGCHLD or
          while setting the disposition of that signal to SIG_DFL (see sigaction(2)); and

       •  the zombie process was not  reaped  elsewhere  in  the  program  (e.g.,  either  by  an
          asynchronously executed signal handler or by wait(2) or similar in another thread).

       If  any  of  these conditions does not hold, then the child process (along with a PID file
       descriptor that  refers  to  it)  should  instead  be  created  using  clone(2)  with  the
       CLONE_PIDFD flag.

   Use cases for PID file descriptors
       A  PID  file  descriptor returned by pidfd_open() (or by clone(2) with the CLONE_PID flag)
       can be used for the following purposes:

       •  The pidfd_send_signal(2) system call can be used  to  send  a  signal  to  the  process
          referred to by a PID file descriptor.

       •  A  PID  file  descriptor can be monitored using poll(2), select(2), and epoll(7).  When
          the process that it refers to terminates, these interfaces indicate the file descriptor
          as  readable.   Note,  however, that in the current implementation, nothing can be read
          from the file descriptor (read(2) on the file descriptor fails with the error EINVAL).

       •  If the PID file descriptor refers to a child of the calling process,  then  it  can  be
          waited on using waitid(2).

       •  The  pidfd_getfd(2)  system call can be used to obtain a duplicate of a file descriptor
          of another process referred to by a PID file descriptor.

       •  A PID file descriptor can be used as the argument of setns(2) in order to move into one
          or more of the same namespaces as the process referred to by the file descriptor.

       •  A  PID  file  descriptor  can be used as the argument of process_madvise(2) in order to
          provide advice on the memory usage patterns of the process  referred  to  by  the  file
          descriptor.

       The  pidfd_open()  system call is the preferred way of obtaining a PID file descriptor for
       an already existing process.  The alternative is to obtain a file descriptor by opening  a
       /proc/[pid]  directory.   However,  the  latter  technique is possible only if the proc(5)
       filesystem is mounted; furthermore, the file  descriptor  obtained  in  this  way  is  not
       pollable and can't be waited on with waitid(2).

EXAMPLES

       The  program  below  opens a PID file descriptor for the process whose PID is specified as
       its command-line argument.  It then uses  poll(2)  to  monitor  the  file  descriptor  for
       process exit, as indicated by an EPOLLIN event.

   Program source

       #define _GNU_SOURCE
       #include <poll.h>
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <sys/syscall.h>
       #include <unistd.h>

       static int
       pidfd_open(pid_t pid, unsigned int flags)
       {
           return syscall(SYS_pidfd_open, pid, flags);
       }

       int
       main(int argc, char *argv[])
       {
           int            pidfd, ready;
           struct pollfd  pollfd;

           if (argc != 2) {
               fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s <pid>\n", argv[0]);
               exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
           }

           pidfd = pidfd_open(atoi(argv[1]), 0);
           if (pidfd == -1) {
               perror("pidfd_open");
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }

           pollfd.fd = pidfd;
           pollfd.events = POLLIN;

           ready = poll(&pollfd, 1, -1);
           if (ready == -1) {
               perror("poll");
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }

           printf("Events (%#x): POLLIN is %sset\n", pollfd.revents,
                  (pollfd.revents & POLLIN) ? "" : "not ");

           close(pidfd);
           exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
       }

SEE ALSO

       clone(2),  kill(2),  pidfd_getfd(2),  pidfd_send_signal(2),  poll(2),  process_madvise(2),
       select(2), setns(2), waitid(2), epoll(7)