NAME

     pdfork, pdgetpid, pdkill — System calls to manage process descriptors

LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

     #include <sys/procdesc.h>

     pid_t
     pdfork(int *fdp, int flags);

     int
     pdgetpid(int fd, pid_t *pidp);

     int
     pdkill(int fd, int signum);

DESCRIPTION

     Process descriptors are special file descriptors that represent processes, and are created
     using pdfork(), a variant of fork(2), which, if successful, returns a process descriptor in
     the integer pointed to by fdp.  Processes created via pdfork() will not cause SIGCHLD on
     termination.  pdfork() can accept the flags:

     PD_DAEMON  Instead of the default terminate-on-close behaviour, allow the process to live
                until it is explicitly killed with kill(2).

                This option is not permitted in capsicum(4) capability mode (see cap_enter(2)).

     PD_CLOEXEC
                Set close-on-exec on process descriptor.

     pdgetpid() queries the process ID (PID) in the process descriptor fd.

     pdkill() is functionally identical to kill(2), except that it accepts a process descriptor,
     fd, rather than a PID.

     The following system calls also have effects specific to process descriptors:

     fstat(2) queries status of a process descriptor; currently only the st_mode, st_birthtime,
     st_atime, st_ctime and st_mtime fields are defined.  If the owner read, write, and execute
     bits are set then the process represented by the process descriptor is still alive.

     poll(2) and select(2) allow waiting for process state transitions; currently only POLLHUP is
     defined, and will be raised when the process dies.  Process state transitions can also be
     monitored using kqueue(2) filter EVFILT_PROCDESC; currently only NOTE_EXIT is implemented.

     close(2) will close the process descriptor unless PD_DAEMON is set; if the process is still
     alive and this is the last reference to the process descriptor, the process will be
     terminated with the signal SIGKILL.

RETURN VALUES

     pdfork() returns a PID, 0 or -1, as fork(2) does.

     pdgetpid() and pdkill() return 0 on success and -1 on failure.

ERRORS

     These functions may return the same error numbers as their PID-based equivalents (e.g.
     pdfork() may return the same error numbers as fork(2)), with the following additions:

     [EINVAL]           The signal number given to pdkill() is invalid.

     [ENOTCAPABLE]      The process descriptor being operated on has insufficient rights (e.g.
                        CAP_PDKILL for pdkill()).

SEE ALSO

     close(2), fork(2), fstat(2), kill(2), poll(2), kqueue(2), wait4(2), capsicum(4), procdesc(4)

HISTORY

     The pdfork(), pdgetpid(), and pdkill() system calls first appeared in FreeBSD 9.0.

     Support for process descriptors mode was developed as part of the TrustedBSD Project.

AUTHORS

     These functions and the capability facility were created by Robert N. M. Watson
     <rwatson@FreeBSD.org> and Jonathan Anderson <jonathan@FreeBSD.org> at the University of
     Cambridge Computer Laboratory with support from a grant from Google, Inc.