Ubuntu Manpage: credentials - process identifiers

NAME

       credentials - process identifiers

DESCRIPTION

   Process ID (PID)
       Each process has a unique nonnegative integer identifier that is assigned when the process
       is created using fork(2).  A process can  obtain  its  PID  using  getpid(2).   A  PID  is
       represented using the type pid_t (defined in <sys/types.h>).

       PIDs are used in a range of system calls to identify the process affected by the call, for
       example: kill(2),  ptrace(2),  setpriority(2),  setpgid(2),  setsid(2),  sigqueue(3),  and
       waitpid(2).

       A process's PID is preserved across an execve(2).

   Parent process ID (PPID)
       A  process's  parent  process  ID  identifies  the process that created this process using
       fork(2).  A process can obtain its PPID using getppid(2).  A PPID is represented using the
       type pid_t.

       A process's PPID is preserved across an execve(2).

   Process group ID and session ID
       Each  process  has  a  session  ID and a process group ID, both represented using the type
       pid_t.  A process can obtain its session ID using getsid(2),  and  its  process  group  ID
       using getpgrp(2).

       A  child  created  by  fork(2)  inherits  its parent's session ID and process group ID.  A
       process's session ID and process group ID are preserved across an execve(2).

       Sessions and process groups are abstractions devised to  support  shell  job  control.   A
       process  group (sometimes called a "job") is a collection of processes that share the same
       process group ID; the shell creates a new  process  group  for  the  process(es)  used  to
       execute single command or pipeline (e.g., the two processes created to execute the command
       "ls | wc" are placed in the same process group).  A process's group membership can be  set
       using setpgid(2).  The process whose process ID is the same as its process group ID is the
       process group leader for that group.

       A session is a collection of processes that share the same session ID.  All of the members
       of  a  process  group also have the same session ID (i.e., all of the members of a process
       group always belong to the same session, so that sessions and process groups form a strict
       two-level  hierarchy  of  processes.)   A  new  session  is  created  when a process calls
       setsid(2), which creates a new session whose session ID is the same  as  the  PID  of  the
       process that called setsid(2).  The creator of the session is called the session leader.

       All  of the processes in a session share a controlling terminal.  The controlling terminal
       is established when the session leader first opens a terminal (unless the O_NOCTTY flag is
       specified  when  calling  open(2)).  A terminal may be the controlling terminal of at most
       one session.

       At most one of the jobs in a session may be the foreground job; other jobs in the  session
       are  background  jobs.  Only the foreground job may read from the terminal; when a process
       in the background attempts to read from the terminal, its process group is sent a  SIGTTIN
       signal,  which  suspends  the  job.  If the TOSTOP flag has been set for the terminal (see
       termios(3)), then only  the  foreground  job  may  write  to  the  terminal;  writes  from
       background  jobs  cause  a  SIGTTOU  signal to be generated, which suspends the job.  When
       terminal keys that generate a signal (such as the interrupt key, normally  control-C)  are
       pressed, the signal is sent to the processes in the foreground job.

       Various  system calls and library functions may operate on all members of a process group,
       including   kill(2),    killpg(3),    getpriority(2),    setpriority(2),    ioprio_get(2),
       ioprio_set(2),  waitid(2),  and  waitpid(2).   See  also  the  discussion of the F_GETOWN,
       F_GETOWN_EX, F_SETOWN, and F_SETOWN_EX operations in fcntl(2).

   User and group identifiers
       Each process has  various  associated  user  and  group  IDs.   These  IDs  are  integers,
       respectively represented using the types uid_t and gid_t (defined in <sys/types.h>).

       On Linux, each process has the following user and group identifiers:

       •  Real  user  ID and real group ID.  These IDs determine who owns the process.  A process
          can obtain its real user (group) ID using getuid(2) (getgid(2)).

       •  Effective user ID and effective group  ID.   These  IDs  are  used  by  the  kernel  to
          determine  the  permissions  that the process will have when accessing shared resources
          such as message queues, shared memory, and semaphores.  On most UNIX systems, these IDs
          also  determine  the  permissions  when  accessing  files.   However,  Linux  uses  the
          filesystem IDs described below for this task.  A process can obtain its effective  user
          (group) ID using geteuid(2) (getegid(2)).

       •  Saved  set-user-ID  and saved set-group-ID.  These IDs are used in set-user-ID and set-
          group-ID programs to save a copy of the corresponding effective IDs that were set  when
          the  program  was  executed (see execve(2)).  A set-user-ID program can assume and drop
          privileges by switching its effective user ID back and forth between the values in  its
          real  user  ID  and saved set-user-ID.  This switching is done via calls to seteuid(2),
          setreuid(2), or setresuid(2).  A set-group-ID  program  performs  the  analogous  tasks
          using  setegid(2),  setregid(2),  or setresgid(2).  A process can obtain its saved set-
          user-ID (set-group-ID) using getresuid(2) (getresgid(2)).

       •  Filesystem user ID and filesystem group ID (Linux-specific).  These IDs, in conjunction
          with the supplementary group IDs described below, are used to determine permissions for
          accessing files; see path_resolution(7) for details.  Whenever  a  process's  effective
          user  (group)  ID is changed, the kernel also automatically changes the filesystem user
          (group) ID to the same value.  Consequently, the filesystem IDs normally have the  same
          values  as the corresponding effective ID, and the semantics for file-permission checks
          are thus the same on Linux as on other UNIX systems.  The filesystem IDs can be made to
          differ from the effective IDs by calling setfsuid(2) and setfsgid(2).

       •  Supplementary  group  IDs.   This  is  a  set of additional group IDs that are used for
          permission checks when accessing files and other shared resources.  Before Linux 2.6.4,
          a  process  can  be  a  member  of  up to 32 supplementary groups; since Linux 2.6.4, a
          process  can  be  a  member  of  up  to   65536   supplementary   groups.    The   call
          sysconf(_SC_NGROUPS_MAX) can be used to determine the number of supplementary groups of
          which a process may be a member.  A process can obtain its set of  supplementary  group
          IDs using getgroups(2).

       A  child  process  created by fork(2) inherits copies of its parent's user and groups IDs.
       During an execve(2), a process's real user and group ID and supplementary  group  IDs  are
       preserved; the effective and saved set IDs may be changed, as described in execve(2).

       Aside from the purposes noted above, a process's user IDs are also employed in a number of
       other contexts:

       •  when determining the permissions for sending signals (see kill(2));

       •  when determining the permissions for setting process-scheduling parameters (nice value,
          real   time   scheduling  policy  and  priority,  CPU  affinity,  I/O  priority)  using
          setpriority(2),   sched_setaffinity(2),    sched_setscheduler(2),    sched_setparam(2),
          sched_setattr(2), and ioprio_set(2);

       •  when checking resource limits (see getrlimit(2));

       •  when  checking the limit on the number of inotify instances that the process may create
          (see inotify(7)).

   Modifying process user and group IDs
       Subject to rules described in the relevant manual pages, a process can use  the  following
       APIs to modify its user and group IDs:

       setuid(2) (setgid(2))
              Modify the process's real (and possibly effective and saved-set) user (group) IDs.

       seteuid(2) (setegid(2))
              Modify the process's effective user (group) ID.

       setfsuid(2) (setfsgid(2))
              Modify the process's filesystem user (group) ID.

       setreuid(2) (setregid(2))
              Modify the process's real and effective (and possibly saved-set) user (group) IDs.

       setresuid(2) (setresgid(2))
              Modify the process's real, effective, and saved-set user (group) IDs.

       setgroups(2)
              Modify the process's supplementary group list.

       Any changes to a process's effective user (group) ID are automatically carried over to the
       process's filesystem user (group) ID.  Changes to a process's effective user or  group  ID
       can also affect the process "dumpable" attribute, as described in prctl(2).

       Changes  to  process  user  and  group  IDs can affect the capabilities of the process, as
       described in capabilities(7).

STANDARDS

       Process IDs, parent process IDs, process group IDs,  and  session  IDs  are  specified  in
       POSIX.1.   The  real,  effective, and saved set user and groups IDs, and the supplementary
       group IDs, are specified in POSIX.1.  The filesystem  user  and  group  IDs  are  a  Linux
       extension.

NOTES

       Various  fields in the /proc/pid/status file show the process credentials described above.
       See proc(5) for further information.

       The POSIX threads specification requires that credentials are shared by all of the threads
       in  a  process.   However,  at  the  kernel level, Linux maintains separate user and group
       credentials for each thread.  The NPTL threading implementation does some work  to  ensure
       that  any  change to user or group credentials (e.g., calls to setuid(2), setresuid(2)) is
       carried through to all of the POSIX  threads  in  a  process.   See  nptl(7)  for  further
       details.

NAME

DESCRIPTION

STANDARDS

NOTES

SEE ALSO