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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | CONFORMING TO | NOTES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHONThe Linux Programming Interface

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

NAME         top

       sigprocmask - examine and change blocked signals

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <signal.h>

       int sigprocmask(int how, const sigset_t *set, sigset_t *oldset);

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

       sigprocmask(): _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 1 || _XOPEN_SOURCE || _POSIX_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION         top

       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).

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

RETURN VALUE         top

       sigprocmask() returns 0 on success and -1 on error.

ERRORS         top

       EFAULT the set or oldset argument points outside the process's
              allocated address space.

       EINVAL The value specified in how was invalid.

CONFORMING TO         top

       POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES         top

       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.

SEE ALSO         top

       kill(2), pause(2), sigaction(2), signal(2), sigpending(2),
       sigsuspend(2), pthread_sigmask(3), sigqueue(3), sigsetops(3),
       signal(7)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of release 3.51 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux                            2012-04-15                   SIGPROCMASK(2)

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