Provided by: manpages-dev_6.16-1_all 
NAME
pidfd_open - obtain a file descriptor that refers to a task
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 task referenced by 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 flags:
PIDFD_NONBLOCK (since Linux 5.10)
Return a nonblocking file descriptor. If the task 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.
PIDFD_THREAD (since Linux 6.9)
Create a file descriptor that refers to a specific thread, rather than a process (thread-group
leader). If this flag is not set, pid must refer to a process.
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.
STANDARDS
Linux.
HISTORY
Linux 5.3.
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 task that it refers to terminates and becomes a zombie, these interfaces indicate the file
descriptor as readable (EPOLLIN). When the task is reaped, these interfaces produce a hangup event
(EPOLLHUP).
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). The polling behavior depends on whether
PIDFD_THREAD flag was used when obtaining the file descriptor:
• With PIDFD_THREAD, the file descriptor becomes readable when the task exits and becomes a zombie,
even if the thread-group is not empty.
• Without PIDFD_THREAD, the file descriptor becomes readable only when the last thread in the thread
group exits.
• 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 <sys/types.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)
Linux man-pages 6.16 2025-10-29 pidfd_open(2)