This is libc.info, produced by makeinfo version 4.2 from libc.texinfo.

INFO-DIR-SECTION GNU libraries
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Libc: (libc).                 C library.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY

   This file documents the GNU C library.

   This is Edition 0.10, last updated 2001-07-06, of `The GNU C Library
Reference Manual', for Version 2.3.x.

   Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002
Free Software Foundation, Inc.

   Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
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   (a) The FSF's Front-Cover Text is:

   A GNU Manual

   (b) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is:

   You have freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU
software.  Copies published by the Free Software Foundation raise
funds for GNU development.


File: libc.info,  Node: Executing a File,  Next: Process Completion,  Prev: Creating a Process,  Up: Processes

Executing a File
================

   This section describes the `exec' family of functions, for executing
a file as a process image.  You can use these functions to make a child
process execute a new program after it has been forked.

   To see the effects of `exec' from the point of view of the called
program, *Note Program Basics::.

   The functions in this family differ in how you specify the arguments,
but otherwise they all do the same thing.  They are declared in the
header file `unistd.h'.

 - Function: int execv (const char *FILENAME, char *const ARGV[])
     The `execv' function executes the file named by FILENAME as a new
     process image.

     The ARGV argument is an array of null-terminated strings that is
     used to provide a value for the `argv' argument to the `main'
     function of the program to be executed.  The last element of this
     array must be a null pointer.  By convention, the first element of
     this array is the file name of the program sans directory names.
     *Note Program Arguments::, for full details on how programs can
     access these arguments.

     The environment for the new process image is taken from the
     `environ' variable of the current process image; see *Note
     Environment Variables::, for information about environments.

 - Function: int execl (const char *FILENAME, const char *ARG0, ...)
     This is similar to `execv', but the ARGV strings are specified
     individually instead of as an array.  A null pointer must be
     passed as the last such argument.

 - Function: int execve (const char *FILENAME, char *const ARGV[], char
          *const ENV[])
     This is similar to `execv', but permits you to specify the
     environment for the new program explicitly as the ENV argument.
     This should be an array of strings in the same format as for the
     `environ' variable; see *Note Environment Access::.

 - Function: int execle (const char *FILENAME, const char *ARG0, char
          *const ENV[], ...)
     This is similar to `execl', but permits you to specify the
     environment for the new program explicitly.  The environment
     argument is passed following the null pointer that marks the last
     ARGV argument, and should be an array of strings in the same
     format as for the `environ' variable.

 - Function: int execvp (const char *FILENAME, char *const ARGV[])
     The `execvp' function is similar to `execv', except that it
     searches the directories listed in the `PATH' environment variable
     (*note Standard Environment::) to find the full file name of a
     file from FILENAME if FILENAME does not contain a slash.

     This function is useful for executing system utility programs,
     because it looks for them in the places that the user has chosen.
     Shells use it to run the commands that users type.

 - Function: int execlp (const char *FILENAME, const char *ARG0, ...)
     This function is like `execl', except that it performs the same
     file name searching as the `execvp' function.

   The size of the argument list and environment list taken together
must not be greater than `ARG_MAX' bytes.  *Note General Limits::.  In
the GNU system, the size (which compares against `ARG_MAX') includes,
for each string, the number of characters in the string, plus the size
of a `char *', plus one, rounded up to a multiple of the size of a
`char *'.  Other systems may have somewhat different rules for counting.

   These functions normally don't return, since execution of a new
program causes the currently executing program to go away completely.
A value of `-1' is returned in the event of a failure.  In addition to
the usual file name errors (*note File Name Errors::), the following
`errno' error conditions are defined for these functions:

`E2BIG'
     The combined size of the new program's argument list and
     environment list is larger than `ARG_MAX' bytes.  The GNU system
     has no specific limit on the argument list size, so this error
     code cannot result, but you may get `ENOMEM' instead if the
     arguments are too big for available memory.

`ENOEXEC'
     The specified file can't be executed because it isn't in the right
     format.

`ENOMEM'
     Executing the specified file requires more storage than is
     available.

   If execution of the new file succeeds, it updates the access time
field of the file as if the file had been read.  *Note File Times::,
for more details about access times of files.

   The point at which the file is closed again is not specified, but is
at some point before the process exits or before another process image
is executed.

   Executing a new process image completely changes the contents of
memory, copying only the argument and environment strings to new
locations.  But many other attributes of the process are unchanged:

   * The process ID and the parent process ID.  *Note Process Creation
     Concepts::.

   * Session and process group membership.  *Note Concepts of Job
     Control::.

   * Real user ID and group ID, and supplementary group IDs.  *Note
     Process Persona::.

   * Pending alarms.  *Note Setting an Alarm::.

   * Current working directory and root directory.  *Note Working
     Directory::.  In the GNU system, the root directory is not copied
     when executing a setuid program; instead the system default root
     directory is used for the new program.

   * File mode creation mask.  *Note Setting Permissions::.

   * Process signal mask; see *Note Process Signal Mask::.

   * Pending signals; see *Note Blocking Signals::.

   * Elapsed processor time associated with the process; see *Note
     Processor Time::.

   If the set-user-ID and set-group-ID mode bits of the process image
file are set, this affects the effective user ID and effective group ID
(respectively) of the process.  These concepts are discussed in detail
in *Note Process Persona::.

   Signals that are set to be ignored in the existing process image are
also set to be ignored in the new process image.  All other signals are
set to the default action in the new process image.  For more
information about signals, see *Note Signal Handling::.

   File descriptors open in the existing process image remain open in
the new process image, unless they have the `FD_CLOEXEC'
(close-on-exec) flag set.  The files that remain open inherit all
attributes of the open file description from the existing process image,
including file locks.  File descriptors are discussed in *Note
Low-Level I/O::.

   Streams, by contrast, cannot survive through `exec' functions,
because they are located in the memory of the process itself.  The new
process image has no streams except those it creates afresh.  Each of
the streams in the pre-`exec' process image has a descriptor inside it,
and these descriptors do survive through `exec' (provided that they do
not have `FD_CLOEXEC' set).  The new process image can reconnect these
to new streams using `fdopen' (*note Descriptors and Streams::).


File: libc.info,  Node: Process Completion,  Next: Process Completion Status,  Prev: Executing a File,  Up: Processes

Process Completion
==================

   The functions described in this section are used to wait for a child
process to terminate or stop, and determine its status.  These functions
are declared in the header file `sys/wait.h'.

 - Function: pid_t waitpid (pid_t PID, int *STATUS-PTR, int OPTIONS)
     The `waitpid' function is used to request status information from a
     child process whose process ID is PID.  Normally, the calling
     process is suspended until the child process makes status
     information available by terminating.

     Other values for the PID argument have special interpretations.  A
     value of `-1' or `WAIT_ANY' requests status information for any
     child process; a value of `0' or `WAIT_MYPGRP' requests
     information for any child process in the same process group as the
     calling process; and any other negative value - PGID requests
     information for any child process whose process group ID is PGID.

     If status information for a child process is available
     immediately, this function returns immediately without waiting.
     If more than one eligible child process has status information
     available, one of them is chosen randomly, and its status is
     returned immediately.  To get the status from the other eligible
     child processes, you need to call `waitpid' again.

     The OPTIONS argument is a bit mask.  Its value should be the
     bitwise OR (that is, the `|' operator) of zero or more of the
     `WNOHANG' and `WUNTRACED' flags.  You can use the `WNOHANG' flag
     to indicate that the parent process shouldn't wait; and the
     `WUNTRACED' flag to request status information from stopped
     processes as well as processes that have terminated.

     The status information from the child process is stored in the
     object that STATUS-PTR points to, unless STATUS-PTR is a null
     pointer.

     This function is a cancellation point in multi-threaded programs.
     This is a problem if the thread allocates some resources (like
     memory, file descriptors, semaphores or whatever) at the time
     `waitpid' is called.  If the thread gets canceled these resources
     stay allocated until the program ends.  To avoid this calls to
     `waitpid' should be protected using cancellation handlers.

     The return value is normally the process ID of the child process
     whose status is reported.  If there are child processes but none
     of them is waiting to be noticed, `waitpid' will block until one
     is.  However, if the `WNOHANG' option was specified, `waitpid'
     will return zero instead of blocking.

     If a specific PID to wait for was given to `waitpid', it will
     ignore all other children (if any).  Therefore if there are
     children waiting to be noticed but the child whose PID was
     specified is not one of them, `waitpid' will block or return zero
     as described above.

     A value of `-1' is returned in case of error.  The following
     `errno' error conditions are defined for this function:

    `EINTR'
          The function was interrupted by delivery of a signal to the
          calling process.  *Note Interrupted Primitives::.

    `ECHILD'
          There are no child processes to wait for, or the specified PID
          is not a child of the calling process.

    `EINVAL'
          An invalid value was provided for the OPTIONS argument.

   These symbolic constants are defined as values for the PID argument
to the `waitpid' function.

`WAIT_ANY'
     This constant macro (whose value is `-1') specifies that `waitpid'
     should return status information about any child process.

`WAIT_MYPGRP'
     This constant (with value `0') specifies that `waitpid' should
     return status information about any child process in the same
     process group as the calling process.

   These symbolic constants are defined as flags for the OPTIONS
argument to the `waitpid' function.  You can bitwise-OR the flags
together to obtain a value to use as the argument.

`WNOHANG'
     This flag specifies that `waitpid' should return immediately
     instead of waiting, if there is no child process ready to be
     noticed.

`WUNTRACED'
     This flag specifies that `waitpid' should report the status of any
     child processes that have been stopped as well as those that have
     terminated.

 - Function: pid_t wait (int *STATUS-PTR)
     This is a simplified version of `waitpid', and is used to wait
     until any one child process terminates.  The call:

          wait (&status)

     is exactly equivalent to:

          waitpid (-1, &status, 0)

     This function is a cancellation point in multi-threaded programs.
     This is a problem if the thread allocates some resources (like
     memory, file descriptors, semaphores or whatever) at the time
     `wait' is called.  If the thread gets canceled these resources
     stay allocated until the program ends.  To avoid this calls to
     `wait' should be protected using cancellation handlers.

 - Function: pid_t wait4 (pid_t PID, int *STATUS-PTR, int OPTIONS,
          struct rusage *USAGE)
     If USAGE is a null pointer, `wait4' is equivalent to `waitpid
     (PID, STATUS-PTR, OPTIONS)'.

     If USAGE is not null, `wait4' stores usage figures for the child
     process in `*RUSAGE' (but only if the child has terminated, not if
     it has stopped).  *Note Resource Usage::.

     This function is a BSD extension.

   Here's an example of how to use `waitpid' to get the status from all
child processes that have terminated, without ever waiting.  This
function is designed to be a handler for `SIGCHLD', the signal that
indicates that at least one child process has terminated.

     void
     sigchld_handler (int signum)
     {
       int pid, status, serrno;
       serrno = errno;
       while (1)
         {
           pid = waitpid (WAIT_ANY, &status, WNOHANG);
           if (pid < 0)
             {
               perror ("waitpid");
               break;
             }
           if (pid == 0)
             break;
           notice_termination (pid, status);
         }
       errno = serrno;
     }


File: libc.info,  Node: Process Completion Status,  Next: BSD Wait Functions,  Prev: Process Completion,  Up: Processes

Process Completion Status
=========================

   If the exit status value (*note Program Termination::) of the child
process is zero, then the status value reported by `waitpid' or `wait'
is also zero.  You can test for other kinds of information encoded in
the returned status value using the following macros.  These macros are
defined in the header file `sys/wait.h'.

 - Macro: int WIFEXITED (int STATUS)
     This macro returns a nonzero value if the child process terminated
     normally with `exit' or `_exit'.

 - Macro: int WEXITSTATUS (int STATUS)
     If `WIFEXITED' is true of STATUS, this macro returns the low-order
     8 bits of the exit status value from the child process.  *Note
     Exit Status::.

 - Macro: int WIFSIGNALED (int STATUS)
     This macro returns a nonzero value if the child process terminated
     because it received a signal that was not handled.  *Note Signal
     Handling::.

 - Macro: int WTERMSIG (int STATUS)
     If `WIFSIGNALED' is true of STATUS, this macro returns the signal
     number of the signal that terminated the child process.

 - Macro: int WCOREDUMP (int STATUS)
     This macro returns a nonzero value if the child process terminated
     and produced a core dump.

 - Macro: int WIFSTOPPED (int STATUS)
     This macro returns a nonzero value if the child process is stopped.

 - Macro: int WSTOPSIG (int STATUS)
     If `WIFSTOPPED' is true of STATUS, this macro returns the signal
     number of the signal that caused the child process to stop.


File: libc.info,  Node: BSD Wait Functions,  Next: Process Creation Example,  Prev: Process Completion Status,  Up: Processes

BSD Process Wait Functions
==========================

   The GNU library also provides these related facilities for
compatibility with BSD Unix.  BSD uses the `union wait' data type to
represent status values rather than an `int'.  The two representations
are actually interchangeable; they describe the same bit patterns.  The
GNU C Library defines macros such as `WEXITSTATUS' so that they will
work on either kind of object, and the `wait' function is defined to
accept either type of pointer as its STATUS-PTR argument.

   These functions are declared in `sys/wait.h'.

 - Data Type: union wait
     This data type represents program termination status values.  It
     has the following members:

    `int w_termsig'
          The value of this member is the same as that of the
          `WTERMSIG' macro.

    `int w_coredump'
          The value of this member is the same as that of the
          `WCOREDUMP' macro.

    `int w_retcode'
          The value of this member is the same as that of the
          `WEXITSTATUS' macro.

    `int w_stopsig'
          The value of this member is the same as that of the
          `WSTOPSIG' macro.

     Instead of accessing these members directly, you should use the
     equivalent macros.

   The `wait3' function is the predecessor to `wait4', which is more
flexible.  `wait3' is now obsolete.

 - Function: pid_t wait3 (union wait *STATUS-PTR, int OPTIONS, struct
          rusage *USAGE)
     If USAGE is a null pointer, `wait3' is equivalent to `waitpid (-1,
     STATUS-PTR, OPTIONS)'.

     If USAGE is not null, `wait3' stores usage figures for the child
     process in `*RUSAGE' (but only if the child has terminated, not if
     it has stopped).  *Note Resource Usage::.


File: libc.info,  Node: Process Creation Example,  Prev: BSD Wait Functions,  Up: Processes

Process Creation Example
========================

   Here is an example program showing how you might write a function
similar to the built-in `system'.  It executes its COMMAND argument
using the equivalent of `sh -c COMMAND'.

     #include <stddef.h>
     #include <stdlib.h>
     #include <unistd.h>
     #include <sys/types.h>
     #include <sys/wait.h>
     
     /* Execute the command using this shell program.  */
     #define SHELL "/bin/sh"
     
     int
     my_system (const char *command)
     {
       int status;
       pid_t pid;
     
       pid = fork ();
       if (pid == 0)
         {
           /* This is the child process.  Execute the shell command. */
           execl (SHELL, SHELL, "-c", command, NULL);
           _exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
         }
       else if (pid < 0)
         /* The fork failed.  Report failure.  */
         status = -1;
       else
         /* This is the parent process.  Wait for the child to complete.  */
         if (waitpid (pid, &status, 0) != pid)
           status = -1;
       return status;
     }

   There are a couple of things you should pay attention to in this
example.

   Remember that the first `argv' argument supplied to the program
represents the name of the program being executed.  That is why, in the
call to `execl', `SHELL' is supplied once to name the program to
execute and a second time to supply a value for `argv[0]'.

   The `execl' call in the child process doesn't return if it is
successful.  If it fails, you must do something to make the child
process terminate.  Just returning a bad status code with `return'
would leave two processes running the original program.  Instead, the
right behavior is for the child process to report failure to its parent
process.

   Call `_exit' to accomplish this.  The reason for using `_exit'
instead of `exit' is to avoid flushing fully buffered streams such as
`stdout'.  The buffers of these streams probably contain data that was
copied from the parent process by the `fork', data that will be output
eventually by the parent process.  Calling `exit' in the child would
output the data twice.  *Note Termination Internals::.


File: libc.info,  Node: Job Control,  Next: Name Service Switch,  Prev: Processes,  Up: Top

Job Control
***********

   "Job control" refers to the protocol for allowing a user to move
between multiple "process groups" (or "jobs") within a single "login
session".  The job control facilities are set up so that appropriate
behavior for most programs happens automatically and they need not do
anything special about job control.  So you can probably ignore the
material in this chapter unless you are writing a shell or login
program.

   You need to be familiar with concepts relating to process creation
(*note Process Creation Concepts::) and signal handling (*note Signal
Handling::) in order to understand this material presented in this
chapter.

* Menu:

* Concepts of Job Control::     Jobs can be controlled by a shell.
* Job Control is Optional::     Not all POSIX systems support job control.
* Controlling Terminal::        How a process gets its controlling terminal.
* Access to the Terminal::      How processes share the controlling terminal.
* Orphaned Process Groups::     Jobs left after the user logs out.
* Implementing a Shell::        What a shell must do to implement job control.
* Functions for Job Control::   Functions to control process groups.


File: libc.info,  Node: Concepts of Job Control,  Next: Job Control is Optional,  Up: Job Control

Concepts of Job Control
=======================

   The fundamental purpose of an interactive shell is to read commands
from the user's terminal and create processes to execute the programs
specified by those commands.  It can do this using the `fork' (*note
Creating a Process::) and `exec' (*note Executing a File::) functions.

   A single command may run just one process--but often one command uses
several processes.  If you use the `|' operator in a shell command, you
explicitly request several programs in their own processes.  But even
if you run just one program, it can use multiple processes internally.
For example, a single compilation command such as `cc -c foo.c'
typically uses four processes (though normally only two at any given
time).  If you run `make', its job is to run other programs in separate
processes.

   The processes belonging to a single command are called a "process
group" or "job".  This is so that you can operate on all of them at
once.  For example, typing `C-c' sends the signal `SIGINT' to terminate
all the processes in the foreground process group.

   A "session" is a larger group of processes.  Normally all the
processes that stem from a single login belong to the same session.

   Every process belongs to a process group.  When a process is
created, it becomes a member of the same process group and session as
its parent process.  You can put it in another process group using the
`setpgid' function, provided the process group belongs to the same
session.

   The only way to put a process in a different session is to make it
the initial process of a new session, or a "session leader", using the
`setsid' function.  This also puts the session leader into a new
process group, and you can't move it out of that process group again.

   Usually, new sessions are created by the system login program, and
the session leader is the process running the user's login shell.

   A shell that supports job control must arrange to control which job
can use the terminal at any time.  Otherwise there might be multiple
jobs trying to read from the terminal at once, and confusion about which
process should receive the input typed by the user.  To prevent this,
the shell must cooperate with the terminal driver using the protocol
described in this chapter.

   The shell can give unlimited access to the controlling terminal to
only one process group at a time.  This is called the "foreground job"
on that controlling terminal.  Other process groups managed by the shell
that are executing without such access to the terminal are called
"background jobs".

   If a background job needs to read from its controlling terminal, it
is "stopped" by the terminal driver; if the `TOSTOP' mode is set,
likewise for writing.  The user can stop a foreground job by typing the
SUSP character (*note Special Characters::) and a program can stop any
job by sending it a `SIGSTOP' signal.  It's the responsibility of the
shell to notice when jobs stop, to notify the user about them, and to
provide mechanisms for allowing the user to interactively continue
stopped jobs and switch jobs between foreground and background.

   *Note Access to the Terminal::, for more information about I/O to the
controlling terminal,


File: libc.info,  Node: Job Control is Optional,  Next: Controlling Terminal,  Prev: Concepts of Job Control,  Up: Job Control

Job Control is Optional
=======================

   Not all operating systems support job control.  The GNU system does
support job control, but if you are using the GNU library on some other
system, that system may not support job control itself.

   You can use the `_POSIX_JOB_CONTROL' macro to test at compile-time
whether the system supports job control.  *Note System Options::.

   If job control is not supported, then there can be only one process
group per session, which behaves as if it were always in the foreground.
The functions for creating additional process groups simply fail with
the error code `ENOSYS'.

   The macros naming the various job control signals (*note Job Control
Signals::) are defined even if job control is not supported.  However,
the system never generates these signals, and attempts to send a job
control signal or examine or specify their actions report errors or do
nothing.


File: libc.info,  Node: Controlling Terminal,  Next: Access to the Terminal,  Prev: Job Control is Optional,  Up: Job Control

Controlling Terminal of a Process
=================================

   One of the attributes of a process is its controlling terminal.
Child processes created with `fork' inherit the controlling terminal
from their parent process.  In this way, all the processes in a session
inherit the controlling terminal from the session leader.  A session
leader that has control of a terminal is called the "controlling
process" of that terminal.

   You generally do not need to worry about the exact mechanism used to
allocate a controlling terminal to a session, since it is done for you
by the system when you log in.

   An individual process disconnects from its controlling terminal when
it calls `setsid' to become the leader of a new session.  *Note Process
Group Functions::.


File: libc.info,  Node: Access to the Terminal,  Next: Orphaned Process Groups,  Prev: Controlling Terminal,  Up: Job Control

Access to the Controlling Terminal
==================================

   Processes in the foreground job of a controlling terminal have
unrestricted access to that terminal; background processes do not.  This
section describes in more detail what happens when a process in a
background job tries to access its controlling terminal.

   When a process in a background job tries to read from its controlling
terminal, the process group is usually sent a `SIGTTIN' signal.  This
normally causes all of the processes in that group to stop (unless they
handle the signal and don't stop themselves).  However, if the reading
process is ignoring or blocking this signal, then `read' fails with an
`EIO' error instead.

   Similarly, when a process in a background job tries to write to its
controlling terminal, the default behavior is to send a `SIGTTOU'
signal to the process group.  However, the behavior is modified by the
`TOSTOP' bit of the local modes flags (*note Local Modes::).  If this
bit is not set (which is the default), then writing to the controlling
terminal is always permitted without sending a signal.  Writing is also
permitted if the `SIGTTOU' signal is being ignored or blocked by the
writing process.

   Most other terminal operations that a program can do are treated as
reading or as writing.  (The description of each operation should say
which.)

   For more information about the primitive `read' and `write'
functions, see *Note I/O Primitives::.


File: libc.info,  Node: Orphaned Process Groups,  Next: Implementing a Shell,  Prev: Access to the Terminal,  Up: Job Control

Orphaned Process Groups
=======================

   When a controlling process terminates, its terminal becomes free and
a new session can be established on it.  (In fact, another user could
log in on the terminal.)  This could cause a problem if any processes
from the old session are still trying to use that terminal.

   To prevent problems, process groups that continue running even after
the session leader has terminated are marked as "orphaned process
groups".

   When a process group becomes an orphan, its processes are sent a
`SIGHUP' signal.  Ordinarily, this causes the processes to terminate.
However, if a program ignores this signal or establishes a handler for
it (*note Signal Handling::), it can continue running as in the orphan
process group even after its controlling process terminates; but it
still cannot access the terminal any more.


File: libc.info,  Node: Implementing a Shell,  Next: Functions for Job Control,  Prev: Orphaned Process Groups,  Up: Job Control

Implementing a Job Control Shell
================================

   This section describes what a shell must do to implement job
control, by presenting an extensive sample program to illustrate the
concepts involved.

* Menu:

* Data Structures::             Introduction to the sample shell.
* Initializing the Shell::      What the shell must do to take
				 responsibility for job control.
* Launching Jobs::              Creating jobs to execute commands.
* Foreground and Background::   Putting a job in foreground of background.
* Stopped and Terminated Jobs::  Reporting job status.
* Continuing Stopped Jobs::     How to continue a stopped job in
				 the foreground or background.
* Missing Pieces::              Other parts of the shell.


File: libc.info,  Node: Data Structures,  Next: Initializing the Shell,  Up: Implementing a Shell

Data Structures for the Shell
-----------------------------

   All of the program examples included in this chapter are part of a
simple shell program.  This section presents data structures and
utility functions which are used throughout the example.

   The sample shell deals mainly with two data structures.  The `job'
type contains information about a job, which is a set of subprocesses
linked together with pipes.  The `process' type holds information about
a single subprocess.  Here are the relevant data structure declarations:

     /* A process is a single process.  */
     typedef struct process
     {
       struct process *next;       /* next process in pipeline */
       char **argv;                /* for exec */
       pid_t pid;                  /* process ID */
       char completed;             /* true if process has completed */
       char stopped;               /* true if process has stopped */
       int status;                 /* reported status value */
     } process;
     
     /* A job is a pipeline of processes.  */
     typedef struct job
     {
       struct job *next;           /* next active job */
       char *command;              /* command line, used for messages */
       process *first_process;     /* list of processes in this job */
       pid_t pgid;                 /* process group ID */
       char notified;              /* true if user told about stopped job */
       struct termios tmodes;      /* saved terminal modes */
       int stdin, stdout, stderr;  /* standard i/o channels */
     } job;
     
     /* The active jobs are linked into a list.  This is its head.   */
     job *first_job = NULL;

   Here are some utility functions that are used for operating on `job'
objects.

     /* Find the active job with the indicated PGID.  */
     job *
     find_job (pid_t pgid)
     {
       job *j;
     
       for (j = first_job; j; j = j->next)
         if (j->pgid == pgid)
           return j;
       return NULL;
     }
     
     /* Return true if all processes in the job have stopped or completed.  */
     int
     job_is_stopped (job *j)
     {
       process *p;
     
       for (p = j->first_process; p; p = p->next)
         if (!p->completed && !p->stopped)
           return 0;
       return 1;
     }
     
     /* Return true if all processes in the job have completed.  */
     int
     job_is_completed (job *j)
     {
       process *p;
     
       for (p = j->first_process; p; p = p->next)
         if (!p->completed)
           return 0;
       return 1;
     }


File: libc.info,  Node: Initializing the Shell,  Next: Launching Jobs,  Prev: Data Structures,  Up: Implementing a Shell

Initializing the Shell
----------------------

   When a shell program that normally performs job control is started,
it has to be careful in case it has been invoked from another shell
that is already doing its own job control.

   A subshell that runs interactively has to ensure that it has been
placed in the foreground by its parent shell before it can enable job
control itself.  It does this by getting its initial process group ID
with the `getpgrp' function, and comparing it to the process group ID
of the current foreground job associated with its controlling terminal
(which can be retrieved using the `tcgetpgrp' function).

   If the subshell is not running as a foreground job, it must stop
itself by sending a `SIGTTIN' signal to its own process group.  It may
not arbitrarily put itself into the foreground; it must wait for the
user to tell the parent shell to do this.  If the subshell is continued
again, it should repeat the check and stop itself again if it is still
not in the foreground.

   Once the subshell has been placed into the foreground by its parent
shell, it can enable its own job control.  It does this by calling
`setpgid' to put itself into its own process group, and then calling
`tcsetpgrp' to place this process group into the foreground.

   When a shell enables job control, it should set itself to ignore all
the job control stop signals so that it doesn't accidentally stop
itself.  You can do this by setting the action for all the stop signals
to `SIG_IGN'.

   A subshell that runs non-interactively cannot and should not support
job control.  It must leave all processes it creates in the same process
group as the shell itself; this allows the non-interactive shell and its
child processes to be treated as a single job by the parent shell.  This
is easy to do--just don't use any of the job control primitives--but
you must remember to make the shell do it.

   Here is the initialization code for the sample shell that shows how
to do all of this.

     /* Keep track of attributes of the shell.  */
     
     #include <sys/types.h>
     #include <termios.h>
     #include <unistd.h>
     
     pid_t shell_pgid;
     struct termios shell_tmodes;
     int shell_terminal;
     int shell_is_interactive;
     
     
     /* Make sure the shell is running interactively as the foreground job
        before proceeding. */
     
     void
     init_shell ()
     {
     
       /* See if we are running interactively.  */
       shell_terminal = STDIN_FILENO;
       shell_is_interactive = isatty (shell_terminal);
     
       if (shell_is_interactive)
         {
           /* Loop until we are in the foreground.  */
           while (tcgetpgrp (shell_terminal) != (shell_pgid = getpgrp ()))
             kill (- shell_pgid, SIGTTIN);
     
           /* Ignore interactive and job-control signals.  */
           signal (SIGINT, SIG_IGN);
           signal (SIGQUIT, SIG_IGN);
           signal (SIGTSTP, SIG_IGN);
           signal (SIGTTIN, SIG_IGN);
           signal (SIGTTOU, SIG_IGN);
           signal (SIGCHLD, SIG_IGN);
     
           /* Put ourselves in our own process group.  */
           shell_pgid = getpid ();
           if (setpgid (shell_pgid, shell_pgid) < 0)
             {
               perror ("Couldn't put the shell in its own process group");
               exit (1);
             }
     
           /* Grab control of the terminal.  */
           tcsetpgrp (shell_terminal, shell_pgid);
     
           /* Save default terminal attributes for shell.  */
           tcgetattr (shell_terminal, &shell_tmodes);
         }
     }


File: libc.info,  Node: Launching Jobs,  Next: Foreground and Background,  Prev: Initializing the Shell,  Up: Implementing a Shell

Launching Jobs
--------------

   Once the shell has taken responsibility for performing job control on
its controlling terminal, it can launch jobs in response to commands
typed by the user.

   To create the processes in a process group, you use the same `fork'
and `exec' functions described in *Note Process Creation Concepts::.
Since there are multiple child processes involved, though, things are a
little more complicated and you must be careful to do things in the
right order.  Otherwise, nasty race conditions can result.

   You have two choices for how to structure the tree of parent-child
relationships among the processes.  You can either make all the
processes in the process group be children of the shell process, or you
can make one process in group be the ancestor of all the other processes
in that group.  The sample shell program presented in this chapter uses
the first approach because it makes bookkeeping somewhat simpler.

   As each process is forked, it should put itself in the new process
group by calling `setpgid'; see *Note Process Group Functions::.  The
first process in the new group becomes its "process group leader", and
its process ID becomes the "process group ID" for the group.

   The shell should also call `setpgid' to put each of its child
processes into the new process group.  This is because there is a
potential timing problem: each child process must be put in the process
group before it begins executing a new program, and the shell depends on
having all the child processes in the group before it continues
executing.  If both the child processes and the shell call `setpgid',
this ensures that the right things happen no matter which process gets
to it first.

   If the job is being launched as a foreground job, the new process
group also needs to be put into the foreground on the controlling
terminal using `tcsetpgrp'.  Again, this should be done by the shell as
well as by each of its child processes, to avoid race conditions.

   The next thing each child process should do is to reset its signal
actions.

   During initialization, the shell process set itself to ignore job
control signals; see *Note Initializing the Shell::.  As a result, any
child processes it creates also ignore these signals by inheritance.
This is definitely undesirable, so each child process should explicitly
set the actions for these signals back to `SIG_DFL' just after it is
forked.

   Since shells follow this convention, applications can assume that
they inherit the correct handling of these signals from the parent
process.  But every application has a responsibility not to mess up the
handling of stop signals.  Applications that disable the normal
interpretation of the SUSP character should provide some other
mechanism for the user to stop the job.  When the user invokes this
mechanism, the program should send a `SIGTSTP' signal to the process
group of the process, not just to the process itself.  *Note Signaling
Another Process::.

   Finally, each child process should call `exec' in the normal way.
This is also the point at which redirection of the standard input and
output channels should be handled.  *Note Duplicating Descriptors::,
for an explanation of how to do this.

   Here is the function from the sample shell program that is
responsible for launching a program.  The function is executed by each
child process immediately after it has been forked by the shell, and
never returns.

     void
     launch_process (process *p, pid_t pgid,
                     int infile, int outfile, int errfile,
                     int foreground)
     {
       pid_t pid;
     
       if (shell_is_interactive)
         {
           /* Put the process into the process group and give the process group
              the terminal, if appropriate.
              This has to be done both by the shell and in the individual
              child processes because of potential race conditions.  */
           pid = getpid ();
           if (pgid == 0) pgid = pid;
           setpgid (pid, pgid);
           if (foreground)
             tcsetpgrp (shell_terminal, pgid);
     
           /* Set the handling for job control signals back to the default.  */
           signal (SIGINT, SIG_DFL);
           signal (SIGQUIT, SIG_DFL);
           signal (SIGTSTP, SIG_DFL);
           signal (SIGTTIN, SIG_DFL);
           signal (SIGTTOU, SIG_DFL);
           signal (SIGCHLD, SIG_DFL);
         }
     
       /* Set the standard input/output channels of the new process.  */
       if (infile != STDIN_FILENO)
         {
           dup2 (infile, STDIN_FILENO);
           close (infile);
         }
       if (outfile != STDOUT_FILENO)
         {
           dup2 (outfile, STDOUT_FILENO);
           close (outfile);
         }
       if (errfile != STDERR_FILENO)
         {
           dup2 (errfile, STDERR_FILENO);
           close (errfile);
         }
     
       /* Exec the new process.  Make sure we exit.  */
       execvp (p->argv[0], p->argv);
       perror ("execvp");
       exit (1);
     }

   If the shell is not running interactively, this function does not do
anything with process groups or signals.  Remember that a shell not
performing job control must keep all of its subprocesses in the same
process group as the shell itself.

   Next, here is the function that actually launches a complete job.
After creating the child processes, this function calls some other
functions to put the newly created job into the foreground or
background; these are discussed in *Note Foreground and Background::.

     void
     launch_job (job *j, int foreground)
     {
       process *p;
       pid_t pid;
       int mypipe[2], infile, outfile;
     
       infile = j->stdin;
       for (p = j->first_process; p; p = p->next)
         {
           /* Set up pipes, if necessary.  */
           if (p->next)
             {
               if (pipe (mypipe) < 0)
                 {
                   perror ("pipe");
                   exit (1);
                 }
               outfile = mypipe[1];
             }
           else
             outfile = j->stdout;
     
           /* Fork the child processes.  */
           pid = fork ();
           if (pid == 0)
             /* This is the child process.  */
             launch_process (p, j->pgid, infile,
                             outfile, j->stderr, foreground);
           else if (pid < 0)
             {
               /* The fork failed.  */
               perror ("fork");
               exit (1);
             }
           else
             {
               /* This is the parent process.  */
               p->pid = pid;
               if (shell_is_interactive)
                 {
                   if (!j->pgid)
                     j->pgid = pid;
                   setpgid (pid, j->pgid);
                 }
             }
     
           /* Clean up after pipes.  */
           if (infile != j->stdin)
             close (infile);
           if (outfile != j->stdout)
             close (outfile);
           infile = mypipe[0];
         }
     
       format_job_info (j, "launched");
     
       if (!shell_is_interactive)
         wait_for_job (j);
       else if (foreground)
         put_job_in_foreground (j, 0);
       else
         put_job_in_background (j, 0);
     }


File: libc.info,  Node: Foreground and Background,  Next: Stopped and Terminated Jobs,  Prev: Launching Jobs,  Up: Implementing a Shell

Foreground and Background
-------------------------

   Now let's consider what actions must be taken by the shell when it
launches a job into the foreground, and how this differs from what must
be done when a background job is launched.

   When a foreground job is launched, the shell must first give it
access to the controlling terminal by calling `tcsetpgrp'.  Then, the
shell should wait for processes in that process group to terminate or
stop.  This is discussed in more detail in *Note Stopped and Terminated
Jobs::.

   When all of the processes in the group have either completed or
stopped, the shell should regain control of the terminal for its own
process group by calling `tcsetpgrp' again.  Since stop signals caused
by I/O from a background process or a SUSP character typed by the user
are sent to the process group, normally all the processes in the job
stop together.

   The foreground job may have left the terminal in a strange state, so
the shell should restore its own saved terminal modes before
continuing.  In case the job is merely stopped, the shell should first
save the current terminal modes so that it can restore them later if
the job is continued.  The functions for dealing with terminal modes are
`tcgetattr' and `tcsetattr'; these are described in *Note Terminal
Modes::.

   Here is the sample shell's function for doing all of this.

     /* Put job J in the foreground.  If CONT is nonzero,
        restore the saved terminal modes and send the process group a
        `SIGCONT' signal to wake it up before we block.  */
     
     void
     put_job_in_foreground (job *j, int cont)
     {
       /* Put the job into the foreground.  */
       tcsetpgrp (shell_terminal, j->pgid);
     
       /* Send the job a continue signal, if necessary.  */
       if (cont)
         {
           tcsetattr (shell_terminal, TCSADRAIN, &j->tmodes);
           if (kill (- j->pgid, SIGCONT) < 0)
             perror ("kill (SIGCONT)");
         }
     
       /* Wait for it to report.  */
       wait_for_job (j);
     
       /* Put the shell back in the foreground.  */
       tcsetpgrp (shell_terminal, shell_pgid);
     
       /* Restore the shell's terminal modes.  */
       tcgetattr (shell_terminal, &j->tmodes);
       tcsetattr (shell_terminal, TCSADRAIN, &shell_tmodes);
     }

   If the process group is launched as a background job, the shell
should remain in the foreground itself and continue to read commands
from the terminal.

   In the sample shell, there is not much that needs to be done to put
a job into the background.  Here is the function it uses:

     /* Put a job in the background.  If the cont argument is true, send
        the process group a `SIGCONT' signal to wake it up.  */
     
     void
     put_job_in_background (job *j, int cont)
     {
       /* Send the job a continue signal, if necessary.  */
       if (cont)
         if (kill (-j->pgid, SIGCONT) < 0)
           perror ("kill (SIGCONT)");
     }

