VFORK(2)		   Linux Programmer's Manual		      VFORK(2)



NAME
       vfork - create a child process and block parent

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <unistd.h>

       pid_t vfork(void);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       vfork():
	   Since glibc 2.12:
	       (_XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500) && ! (_POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L)
		   || /* Since glibc 2.19: */ _DEFAULT_SOURCE
		   || /* Glibc versions <= 2.19: */ _BSD_SOURCE
	   Before glibc 2.12:
	       _BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500

DESCRIPTION
   Standard description
       (From  POSIX.1)	The  vfork()  function has the same effect as fork(2),
       except that the behavior is undefined if the process created by vfork()
       either  modifies	 any  data other than a variable of type pid_t used to
       store the return value from vfork(), or returns from  the  function  in
       which  vfork()  was called, or calls any other function before success-
       fully calling _exit(2) or one of the exec(3) family of functions.

   Linux description
       vfork(), just like fork(2), creates a  child  process  of  the  calling
       process.	 For details and return value and errors, see fork(2).

       vfork()	is  a special case of clone(2).	 It is used to create new pro-
       cesses without copying the page tables of the parent process.   It  may
       be  useful  in performance-sensitive applications where a child is cre-
       ated which then immediately issues an execve(2).

       vfork() differs from fork(2) in that the calling	 thread	 is  suspended
       until  the  child  terminates (either normally, by calling _exit(2), or
       abnormally, after delivery of a fatal signal), or it makes  a  call  to
       execve(2).  Until that point, the child shares all memory with its par-
       ent, including the stack.  The child must not return from  the  current
       function	 or  call exit(3) (which would have the effect of calling exit
       handlers established by the parent process and  flushing	 the  parent's
       stdio(3) buffers), but may call _exit(2).

       As  with	 fork(2), the child process created by vfork() inherits copies
       of various of the caller's process attributes (e.g., file  descriptors,
       signal  dispositions,  and current working directory); the vfork() call
       differs only  in	 the  treatment	 of  the  virtual  address  space,  as
       described above.

       Signals sent to the parent arrive after the child releases the parent's
       memory (i.e., after the child terminates or calls execve(2)).

   Historic description
       Under Linux, fork(2) is implemented using copy-on-write pages,  so  the
       only  penalty  incurred	by  fork(2) is the time and memory required to
       duplicate the parent's page tables, and to create a unique task	struc-
       ture  for  the  child.	However,  in  the bad old days a fork(2) would
       require making a complete copy of the caller's data space, often	 need-
       lessly,	since usually immediately afterward an exec(3) is done.	 Thus,
       for greater efficiency, BSD introduced the vfork() system  call,	 which
       did  not	 fully	copy the address space of the parent process, but bor-
       rowed the parent's memory  and  thread  of  control  until  a  call  to
       execve(2)  or an exit occurred.	The parent process was suspended while
       the child was using its resources.  The use of vfork() was tricky:  for
       example,	 not  modifying data in the parent process depended on knowing
       which variables were held in a register.

CONFORMING TO
       4.3BSD; POSIX.1-2001 (but marked OBSOLETE).  POSIX.1-2008  removes  the
       specification of vfork().

       The  requirements put on vfork() by the standards are weaker than those
       put on fork(2), so an implementation where the two  are	synonymous  is
       compliant.   In	particular,  the  programmer cannot rely on the parent
       remaining blocked until the child either terminates or calls execve(2),
       and cannot rely on any specific behavior with respect to shared memory.

NOTES
       Some  consider the semantics of vfork() to be an architectural blemish,
       and the 4.2BSD man page stated: "This system call  will	be  eliminated
       when  proper  system  sharing mechanisms are implemented.  Users should
       not depend on the memory sharing semantics of vfork() as	 it  will,  in
       that case, be made synonymous to fork(2)."  However, even though modern
       memory management hardware has  decreased  the  performance  difference
       between	fork(2)	 and  vfork(), there are various reasons why Linux and
       other systems have retained vfork():

       *  Some performance-critical applications require the small performance
	  advantage conferred by vfork().

       *  vfork()  can be implemented on systems that lack a memory-management
	  unit (MMU), but  fork(2)  can't  be  implemented  on	such  systems.
	  (POSIX.1-2008 removed vfork() from the standard; the POSIX rationale
	  for the posix_spawn(3) function notes that that function, which pro-
	  vides functionality equivalent to fork(2)+exec(3), is designed to be
	  implementable on systems that lack an MMU.)

       *  On systems where memory is constrained, vfork() avoids the  need  to
	  temporarily commit memory (see the description of /proc/sys/vm/over-
	  commit_memory in proc(5)) in order to execute a new program.	 (This
	  can  be especially beneficial where a large parent process wishes to
	  execute a small helper program in a child  process.)	 By  contrast,
	  using	 fork(2) in this scenario requires either committing an amount
	  of memory equal to the size of the parent process (if	 strict	 over-
	  committing is in force) or overcommiting memory with the risk that a
	  process is terminated by the out-of-memory (OOM) killer.

   Caveats
       The child process should take care not to modify the  memory  in	 unin-
       tended ways, since such changes will be seen by the parent process once
       the child terminates or executes another program.  In this regard, sig-
       nal handlers can be especially problematic: if a signal handler that is
       invoked in the child of	vfork()	 changes  memory,  those  changes  may
       result  in  an  inconsistent  process state from the perspective of the
       parent process (e.g., memory changes would be visible  in  the  parent,
       but  changes  to	 the state of open file descriptors would not be visi-
       ble).

       When vfork() is called in a multithreaded  process,  only  the  calling
       thread  is  suspended until the child terminates or executes a new pro-
       gram.  This means that the child is sharing an address space with other
       running	code.	This  can be dangerous if another thread in the parent
       process changes credentials (using setuid(2) or similar),  since	 there
       are  now	 two  processes with different privilege levels running in the
       same address space.  As an example of the dangers, suppose that a  mul-
       tithreaded  program  running  as	 root  creates	a child using vfork().
       After the vfork(), a thread in the parent process drops the process  to
       an unprivileged user in order to run some untrusted code (e.g., perhaps
       via plug-in opened with dlopen(3)).  In this case, attacks are possible
       where  the parent process uses mmap(2) to map in code that will be exe-
       cuted by the privileged child process.

   Linux notes
       Fork handlers established using pthread_atfork(3) are not called when a
       multithreaded  program  employing  the  NPTL  threading	library	 calls
       vfork().	 Fork handlers are called in this case in a program using  the
       LinuxThreads  threading library.	 (See pthreads(7) for a description of
       Linux threading libraries.)

       A call to vfork() is equivalent to calling clone(2) with	 flags	speci-
       fied as:

	    CLONE_VM | CLONE_VFORK | SIGCHLD

   History
       The vfork() system call appeared in 3.0BSD.  In 4.4BSD it was made syn-
       onymous	 to   fork(2)	but   NetBSD   introduced   it	 again,	   cf.
       <http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/kernel/vfork.html>.	  In Linux, it
       has  been  equivalent  to  fork(2)  until  2.2.0-pre6  or  so.	 Since
       2.2.0-pre9  (on	i386,  somewhat later on other architectures) it is an
       independent system call.	 Support was added in glibc 2.0.112.

BUGS
       Details of the signal handling are obscure and differ between  systems.
       The  BSD man page states: "To avoid a possible deadlock situation, pro-
       cesses that are children in the middle of  a  vfork()  are  never  sent
       SIGTTOU	or  SIGTTIN  signals; rather, output or ioctls are allowed and
       input attempts result in an end-of-file indication."

SEE ALSO
       clone(2), execve(2), _exit(2), fork(2), unshare(2), wait(2)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 4.10 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of	the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
       latest	 version    of	  this	  page,	   can	   be	  found	    at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



Linux				  2017-03-13			      VFORK(2)