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



NAME
       sigprocmask, rt_sigprocmask - examine and change blocked signals

SYNOPSIS
       #include <signal.h>

       /* Prototype for the glibc wrapper function */
       int sigprocmask(int how, const sigset_t *set, sigset_t *oldset);

       /* Prototype for the underlying system call */
       int rt_sigprocmask(int how, const kernel_sigset_t *set,
			  kernel_sigset_t *oldset, size_t sigsetsize);

       /* Prototype for the legacy system call (deprecated) */
       int sigprocmask(int how, const old_kernel_sigset_t *set,
		       old_kernel_sigset_t *oldset);


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

       sigprocmask(): _POSIX_C_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION
       sigprocmask()  is  used	to  fetch and/or change the signal mask of the
       calling thread.	The signal mask is the set of signals  whose  delivery
       is  currently  blocked  for  the	 caller	 (see  also signal(7) for more
       details).

       The behavior of the call is dependent on the value of how, as follows.

       SIG_BLOCK
	      The set of blocked signals is the union of the current  set  and
	      the set argument.

       SIG_UNBLOCK
	      The  signals  in set are removed from the current set of blocked
	      signals.	It is permissible to attempt to unblock a signal which
	      is not blocked.

       SIG_SETMASK
	      The set of blocked signals is set to the argument set.

       If  oldset is non-NULL, the previous value of the signal mask is stored
       in oldset.

       If set is NULL, then  the  signal  mask	is  unchanged  (i.e.,  how  is
       ignored),  but  the  current  value  of the signal mask is nevertheless
       returned in oldset (if it is not NULL).

       A set of functions for  modifying  and  inspecting  variables  of  type
       sigset_t ("signal sets") is described in sigsetops(3).

       The use of sigprocmask() is unspecified in a multithreaded process; see
       pthread_sigmask(3).

RETURN VALUE
       sigprocmask() returns 0 on success and -1 on error.  In the event of an
       error, errno is set to indicate the cause.

ERRORS
       EFAULT The  set	or  oldset argument points outside the process's allo-
	      cated address space.

       EINVAL Either the value specified in how was invalid or the kernel does
	      not support the size passed in sigsetsize.

CONFORMING TO
       POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008.

NOTES
       It  is not possible to block SIGKILL or SIGSTOP.	 Attempts to do so are
       silently ignored.

       Each of the threads in a process has its own signal mask.

       A child created via fork(2) inherits a  copy  of	 its  parent's	signal
       mask; the signal mask is preserved across execve(2).

       If  SIGBUS,  SIGFPE,  SIGILL,  or  SIGSEGV are generated while they are
       blocked, the result is undefined, unless the signal  was	 generated  by
       kill(2), sigqueue(3), or raise(3).

       See sigsetops(3) for details on manipulating signal sets.

   C library/kernel differences
       The  kernel's  definition of sigset_t differs in size from that used by
       the C library.  In this manual page, the former is referred to as  ker-
       nel_sigset_t (it is nevertheless named sigset_t in the kernel sources).

       The  glibc wrapper function for sigprocmask() silently ignores attempts
       to block the two real-time signals that are used internally by the NPTL
       threading implementation.  See nptl(7) for details.

       The  original Linux system call was named sigprocmask().	 However, with
       the addition of real-time signals in Linux 2.2, the fixed-size,	32-bit
       sigset_t	 (referred to as old_kernel_sigset_t in this manual page) type
       supported by that system call was no longer fit	for  purpose.	Conse-
       quently,	 a  new system call, rt_sigprocmask(), was added to support an
       enlarged sigset_t type (referred to as kernel_sigset_t in  this	manual
       page).  The new system call takes a fourth argument, size_t sigsetsize,
       which specifies the size in bytes of the signal sets in set and oldset.
       This  argument  is currently required to have the value 8 ( sizeof(ker-
       nel_sigset_t) ).

       The glibc sigprocmask() wrapper function hides these details  from  us,
       transparently calling rt_sigprocmask() when the kernel provides it.

SEE ALSO
       kill(2),	 pause(2),  sigaction(2),  signal(2),  sigpending(2),  sigsus-
       pend(2), pthread_sigmask(3), sigqueue(3), sigsetops(3), signal(7)

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				  2016-10-08			SIGPROCMASK(2)