Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5

MODULE-5
Chapter 11 Signals and Daemon Processes
Topics
Signals:
The UNIX kernel support for signals, signal, signal mask, sigaction, the SIGCHLD signal and
the waitpid function, the sigsetjmp and siglongjmp functions, kill, alarm, interval timers,
POSIX.1b Timers.
Daemon Processes:
Introduction, Daemon characteristics, coding rules, error logging, client-server model.

Introduction
Signals are software interrupts. Signals provide a way of handling asynchronous events: a user at
a terminal typing the interrupt key to stop a program or the next program in a pipeline terminating
prematurely.

Name Description Default action

SIGABRT abnormal termination (abort) terminate+core
SIGALRM timer expired (alarm) terminate
SIGBUS hardware fault terminate+core
SIGCANCEL threads library internal use ignore
SIGCHLD change in status of child ignore
SIGCONT continue stopped process continue/ignore
SIGEMT hardware fault terminate+core
SIGFPE arithmetic exception terminate+core
SIGFREEZE checkpoint freeze ignore
SIGHUP hangup terminate
SIGILL illegal instruction terminate+core
SIGINFO status request from keyboard ignore
SIGINT terminal interrupt character terminate
SIGIO asynchronous I/O terminate/ignore
SIGIOT hardware fault terminate+core
SIGKILL termination terminate
SIGLWP threads library internal use ignore
SIGPIPE write to pipe with no readers terminate
SIGPOLL pollable event (poll) terminate
SIGPROF profiling time alarm (setitimer) terminate
SIGPWR power fail/restart terminate/ignore
SIGQUIT terminal quit character terminate+core
SIGSEGV invalid memory reference terminate+core
SIGSTKFLT coprocessor stack fault terminate

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 1
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5
SIGSTOP stop stop process
SIGSYS invalid system call terminate+core
SIGTERM termination terminate
SIGTHAW checkpoint thaw ignore
SIGTRAP hardware fault terminate+core
SIGTSTP terminal stop character stop process
SIGTTIN background read from control tty stop process

When a signal is sent to a process, it is pending on the process to handle it. The process can
react to pending signals in one of three ways:
 Accept the default action of the signal, which for most signals will terminate the
process.
 Ignore the signal. The signal will be discarded and it has no affect whatsoever on
the recipient process.
 Invoke a user-defined function. The function is known as a signal handler routine
and the signal is said to be caught when this function is called.

 Process may set up per-signal handling mechanisms – ignores some signals, catches
some other signals and accepts default action from the remaining signals.
 Process may change handling of certain signals in its course of execution.
 Signal is said to have been delivered if it has been reacted to by the recipient process.
 Default action for most signals – terminate a recipient process.
 Some signals will generate a core file for the aborted process – users can trace back the
state of the process when it was aborted.
These signals are usually generated when there is an implied program error in the
aborted process.
 Most signals can be ignored or caught except SIGKILL and SIGSTOP signals.
 Companion signal to SIGSTOP is SIGCONT, which resumes a process execution after it
has been stopped.
 Process is allowed to ignore certain signals so that it is not interrupted while doing
certain mission-critical work.
 Signal handler function cleans up the work environment of a process before
terminating the process gracefully.

11.1 THE UNIX KERNEL SUPPORT OF SIGNALS

 UNIX System V.3 - each entry in kernel process table slot has array of signal flags, one
for each signal defined in the system.
 When a signal is generated for a process, the kernel will set the corresponding signal
flag in the process table slot of the recipient process.
 If the recipient process is asleep, the kernel will awaken the process by scheduling it.
 When the recipient process runs, the kernel will check the process U-area that contains
an array of signal handling specifications.
 If array entry contains a zero value, the process will accept the default action of the
signal.

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 2
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5
 If array entry contains a 1 value, the process will ignore the signal and kernel will
discard it.
 If array entry contains any other value, it is used as the function pointer for a user-
defined signal handler routine.
 UNIX System V.2 - when a signal is caught, kernel will first reset the signal handler in
the recipient process U-area, then call the user signal handling function specified for
that signal.
 Multiple instances of a signal being sent to a process at different points – the process
will catch only the first instance of the signal.
 All subsequent instances of the signal – handled in the default manner.
 Continuously catching multiple occurrences of a signal – process must reinstall the
signal handler function every time the signal is caught.
 Time between signal handler invoking and re-establishment of signal handler method -
another instance of signal may be delivered to the process. Leads to race condition.
 Solving the unreliability of signal handling in UNIX System V.2 - BSD UNIX 4.2 and
POSIX.1 use alternate method.
 When a signal is caught – kernel does not reset the signal handler, so there is no need
for the process to re-establish the signal handling method.
 Kernel will block further delivery of the same signal to the process until the signal
handler function has completed execution.
 Ensures that signal handler function will not be invoked recursively for multiple
instances of the same signal.

11.2 SIGNAL API

 Triggered by events and posted on a process to notify it that something has happened
and requires some action.
 Event can be generated from a process, a user or the UNIX kernel.
 Parent and child processes can send signals to each other for process synchronization.
 Signals are the software version of hardware interrupts.
The function prototype of the signal API is:
#include <signal.h>
void (*signal(int sig_no, void (*handler)(int)))(int);
The formal argument of the API are: sig_no is a signal identifier like SIGINT or SIGTERM.
The handler argument is the function pointer of a user-defined signal handler function.
The following example attempts to catch the SIGTERM signal, ignores the SIGINT signal, and
accepts the default action of the SIGSEGV signal. The pause API suspends the calling process
until it is interrupted by a signal and the corresponding signal handler does a return:
#include<iostream.h>
#include<signal.h>
/*signal handler function*/
void catch_sig(int sig_num)
{
signal (sig_num,catch_sig);
cout<<”catch_sig:”<<sig_num<<endl;
}

/*main function*/

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 3
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5
int main()
{
signal(SIGTERM,catch_sig);
signal(SIGINT,SIG_IGN);
signal(SIGSEGV,SIG_DFL);
pause( ); /*wait for a signal interruption*/
}

The SIG_IGN specifies a signal is to be ignored, which means that if the signal is generated to the
process, it will be discarded without any interruption of the process.
The SIG_DFL specifies to accept the default action of a signal.

11.3 SIGNAL MASK

 Defines which signals are blocked when generated to a process.
 Blocked signal depends on recipient process to unblock it and handle accordingly.
 Signal is specified to be ignored or blocked – implementation-dependent on whether such
a signal will be discarded or left pending when it is sent to the process.
 A process initially inherits the parent’s signal mask when it is created, but any pending
signals for the parent process are not passed on.
 A process may query or set its signal mask via the sigprocmask API:
#include <signal.h>
int sigprocmask(int cmd, const sigset_t *new_mask, sigset_t *old_mask);

Returns: 0 if OK, 1 on error

The new_mask argument defines a set of signals to be set or reset in a calling process signal mask,
and the cmd argument specifies how the new_mask value is to be used by the API. The possible
values of cmd and the corresponding use of the new_mask value are:
Cmd value Meaning
SIG_SETMASK Overrides the calling process signal mask with the value specified in the new_mask argument.
SIG_BLOCK Adds the signals specified in the new_mask argument to the calling process signal mask.
SIG_UNBLOCK Removes the signals specified in the new_mask argument from the calling process signal
mask.

 If the actual argument to new_mask argument is a NULL pointer, the cmd argument will be
ignored, and the current process signal mask will not be altered.
 If the actual argument to old_mask is a NULL pointer, no previous signal mask will be
returned.
 The sigset_t contains a collection of bit flags.
The BSD UNIX and POSIX.1 define a set of API known as sigsetops functions:
#include<signal.h>
int sigemptyset (sigset_t* sigmask);
int sigaddset (sigset_t* sigmask, const int sig_num);
int sigdelset (sigset_t* sigmask, const int sig_num);
int sigfillset (sigset_t* sigmask);
int sigismember (const sigset_t* sigmask, const int sig_num);

 The sigemptyset API clears all signal flags in the sigmask argument.
 The sigaddset API sets the flag corresponding to the signal_num signal in the sigmask
argument.

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 4
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5
 The sigdelset API clears the flag corresponding to the signal_num signal in the sigmask
argument.
 The sigfillset API sets all the signal flags in the sigmask argument.
[ all the above functions return 0 if OK, -1 on error ]
 The sigismember API returns 1 if flag is set, 0 if not set and -1 if the call fails.
The following example checks whether the SIGINT signal is present in a process signal mask
and adds it to the mask if it is not there.
#include<stdio.h>
#include<signal.h> int main()
{
sigset_t sigmask;
sigemptyset(&sigmask); /*initialise set*/

if(sigprocmask(0,0,&sigmask)==-1) /*get current signal mask*/

{
perror(“sigprocmask”);
exit(1);
}
else sigaddset(&sigmask,SIGINT); /*set SIGINT flag*/

sigdelset(&sigmask, SIGSEGV); /*clear SIGSEGV flag*/

if(sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK,&sigmask,0)==-1)
perror(“sigprocmask”);
}

A process can query which signals are pending for it via the sigpending API:
#include<signal.h>
int sigpending(sigset_t* sigmask);

Returns 0 if OK, -1 if fails.

The sigpending API can be useful to find out whether one or more signals are pending for a
process and to set up special signal handling methods for these signals before the process calls
the sigprocmask API to unblock them.
The following example reports to the console whether the SIGTERM signal is pending for the
process:
#include<iostream.h>
#include<stdio.h>
#include<signal.h>
int main()
{
sigset_t sigmask;
sigemptyset(&sigmask);
if(sigpending(&sigmask)==-1)
perror(“sigpending”);
else
cout << “SIGTERM signal is:” << (sigismember(&sigmask,SIGTERM) ? “Set” :
“No Set”) << endl;
}

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 5
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5
In addition to the above, UNIX also supports following APIs for signal mask manipulation:
#include<signal.h>
int sighold(int signal_num);
int sigrelse(int signal_num);
int sigignore(int signal_num);
int sigpause(int signal_num);

11.4 SIGACTION
 Replacement for signal API in the latest UNIX and POSIX systems.
 sigaction API - called by a process to set up a signal handling method for each signal it
wants to deal with.
 Passes back the previous signal handling method for a given signal.
 The sigaction API blocks the signal it is catching allowing a process to specify additional
signals to be blocked when the API is handling a signal.
The sigaction API prototype is:
#include<signal.h>
int sigaction(int signal_num, struct sigaction* action, struct sigaction*
old_action);

Returns: 0 if OK, 1 on error

The struct sigaction data type is defined in the <signal.h> header as:
struct sigaction
{
void (*sa_handler)(int);
sigset_t sa_mask;
int sa_flag;
}

 sa_handler – corresponds to second argument of signal API.

 Can be set to SIG_IGN, SIG_DFL, or user-defined signal handler function.
 sa_mask – specifies additional signals that a process wishes to block when it is handling
the signal_num signal.
 Does not block the signals currently specified in the signal mask of the process and
signal_num signal.
 signal_num - designates which signal handling action is defined in the action argument.
 Previous signal handling method for signal_num will be returned via old_action
 argument if it is not a NULL pointer.
 If action argument is a NULL pointer, existing signal handling method of the calling
process for signal_num will be unchanged.
 sa_flag - used to specify special handling for certain signals.
 POSIX.1 defines two values for sa_flag: 0 and SA_NOCLDSTOP.
 If sa_flag is 0, kernel will send the SIGCHLD signal to the calling process whenever its
child process is either terminated or stopped.
 If sa_flag is SA_NOCLDSTOP, kernel will send the SIGCHLD signal to the calling
process whenever its child process is terminated, but not when it is stopped.
 Additional flags for the sa_flag field in UNIX System V.4 implementation –
 SA_RESETHAND and SA_RESTART
 SA_RESETHAND – If signal_num is caught, sa_handler is set to SIG_DFL before the
signal handler function is called.

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 6
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5
 signal_num will not be added to the process signal mask when the signal handler
 function is executed.
 SA_RESTART – If a signal is caught while a process is executing a system call, kernel
will restart the system call after the signal handler returns.
 If this flag is not set in the sa_flag field, the system call will be aborted with a return
 of -1 after the signal handler returns and errno will be set to EINTR.
The following program illustrates the uses of sigaction:
#include<iostream.h>
#include<stdio.h>
#include<unistd.h>
#include<signal.h>
void callme(int sig_num)
{
cout<<”catch signal:”<<sig_num<<endl;
}
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
sigset_t sigmask;
struct sigaction action,old_action;
sigemptyset(&sigmask);
if(sigaddset(&sigmask,SIGTERM)==-1 || sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK,&sigmask,0)==-1)
perror(“set signal mask”);
sigemptyset(&action.sa_mask);
sigaddset(&action.sa_mask,SIGSEGV);
action.sa_handler=callme;
action.sa_flags=0;
if(sigaction(SIGINT,&action,&old_action)==-1)
perror(“sigaction”);
pause();
cout<<argv[0]<<”exists\n”;
return 0;
}

11.5 THE SIGCHLD SIGNAL AND THE waitpid API

When a child process terminates or stops, the kernel will generate a SIGCHLD signal to its
parent process. Depending on how the parent sets up the handling of the SIGCHLD signal,
different events may occur:
 Parent accepts the default action of the SIGCHLD signal:
o SIGCHLD does not terminate the parent process.
o Parent process will be awakened.
o API will return the child’s exit status and process ID to the parent.
o Kernel will clear up the Process Table slot allocated for the child process.
o Parent process can call the waitpid API repeatedly to wait for each child it
created.
 Parent ignores the SIGCHLD signal:
o SIGCHLD signal will be discarded.
o Parent will not be disturbed even if it is executing the waitpid system call.
o If the parent calls the waitpid API, the API will suspend the parent until all its
child processes have terminated.
o Child process table slots will be cleared up by the kernel.
o API will return a -1 value to the parent process.
 Process catches the SIGCHLD signal:

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 7
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5
o The signal handler function will be called in the parent process whenever a
child process terminates.
o If the SIGCHLD arrives while the parent process is executing the waitpid
system call, the waitpid API may be restarted to collect the child exit status and
clear its process table slots.
o Depending on parent setup, the API may be aborted and child process table slot
not freed.
 Interaction between SIGCHLD and wait API is the same as that between SIGCHLD and
waitpid API.
 Earlier versions of UNIX used the SIGCLD signal instead of SIGCHLD.
 SIGCLD signal is now obsolete, but most of the latest UNIX systems have defined SIGCLD
to be the same as SIGCHLD for backward compatibility.

11.6 THE sigsetjmp AND siglongjmp APIs

The function prototypes of the APIs are:
#include <setjmp.h>

int sigsetjmp(sigjmp_buf env, int savemask);

int siglongjmp(sigjmp_buf env, int val);

The sigsetjmp and siglongjmp are created to support signal mask processing. Specifically, it is
implementation- dependent on whether a process signal mask is saved and restored when it
invokes the setjmp and longjmp APIs respectively.
The only difference between these functions and the setjmp and longjmp functions is that
sigsetjmp has an additional argument.
If savemask is nonzero, then sigsetjmp also saves the current signal mask of the process in env.
When siglongjmp is called, if the env argument was saved by a call to sigsetjmp with a nonzero
savemask, then siglongjmp restores the saved signal mask.
The siglongjmp API is usually called from user-defined signal handling functions.
This is because a process signal mask is modified when a signal handler is called, and
siglongjmp should be called to ensure the process signal mask is restored properly when
“jumping out” from a signal handling function.

The following program illustrates the uses of sigsetjmp and siglongjmp APIs.
#include<iostream.h>
#include<stdio.h>
#include<unistd.h>
#include<signal.h>
#include<setjmp.h>
sigjmp_buf env;
void callme(int sig_num)
{
cout<< “catch signal:” <<sig_num <<endl;
siglongjmp(env,2);
}
int main()
{
sigset_t sigmask;
struct sigaction action,old_action;

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 8
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5
sigemptyset(&sigmask);
if(sigaddset(&sigmask,SIGTERM)==-1) ||
sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK,&sigmask,0)==-1)
perror(“set signal mask”);
sigemptyset(&action.sa_mask);
sigaddset(&action.sa_mask,SIGSEGV);
action.sa_handler=(void(*)())callme;
action.sa_flags=0;
if(sigaction(SIGINT,&action,&old_action)==-1)
perror(“sigaction”);
if(sigsetjmp(env,1)!=0)
{
cerr<<”return from signal interruption”;
return 0;
}
else
cerr<<”return from first time sigsetjmp is called”;
pause();
}

11.7 KILL
 A process can send a signal to a related process via the kill API. Sender and recipient
processes must be related such that either the sender process real/effective UID matches
that of recipient process, or sender process has superuser privileges.
 Example: parent and child process sending signals to each other.
This is a simple means of inter-process communication or control. The function prototype of the
API is:
#include<signal.h>
int kill(pid_t pid, int signal_num);
Returns: 0 on success, -1 on failure.
The signal_num argument is the integer value of a signal to be sent to one or more processes
designated by pid. The possible values of pid and its use by the kill API are:
pid > 0 The signal is sent to the process whose process ID is pid.
pid == 0 The signal is sent to all processes whose process group ID equals the process group ID of
the sender and for which the sender has permission to send the signal.
pid < 0 The signal is sent to all processes whose process group ID equals the absolute value of pid
and for which the sender has permission to send the signal.
pid == 1 The signal is sent to all processes on the system for which the sender has permission to send
the signal.
The following program illustrates the implementation of the UNIX kill command using the kill
API:
#include<iostream.h>
#include<stdio.h>
#include<unistd.h>
#include<string.h>
#include<signal.h>
int main(int argc,char** argv)
{
int pid, sig = SIGTERM;
if(argc==3)
{

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 9
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5
if(sscanf(argv[1],”%d”,&sig)!=1)
{
cerr<<”invalid number:” << argv[1] << endl; return -1;
}
argv++,argc--;
}
while(--argc>0)
if(sscanf(*++argv, “%d”, &pid)==1)
{
if(kill(pid,sig)==-1)
perror(“kill”);
}
else
cerr<<”invalid pid:” << argv[0] <<endl;
return 0;
}

The UNIX kill command invocation syntax is:

Kill [ -<signal_num> ] <pid>......
Where signal_num can be an integer number or the symbolic name of a signal. <pid> is process ID.

11.8 ALARM
The alarm API can be called by a process to request the kernel to send the SIGALRM signal
after a certain number of real clock seconds. The function prototype of the API is:
#include<signal.h>
Unsigned int alarm(unsigned int time_interval);
Returns: 0 or number of CPU seconds until previously set alarm. time_interval – number of
CPU seconds elapsed time, after which the kernel will send the SIGALRM signal to the calling
process. If time_interval = 0, it turns off the alarm clock.
 Effect of previous alarm is cancelled and process timer is reset with new alarm call.
 Process alarm clock is not passed on to its forked child, but an exceed process retains the
same alarm clock value as was prior to the exec API call.
 alarm API is used to implement sleep API – suspends a calling process for the
specified number of CPU seconds.
 Process will be awakened by either the elapsed time exceeding the timer value or
when the process is interrupted by a signal.
 BSD UNIX – ualarm function.
 Same as that of alarm API, but argument and return values are in microseconds.
 Useful for time-critical applications where the resolution of time must be in microsecond
levels.
 Can be used to implement BSD-specific usleep function – similar to sleep, but its
 argument is in microseconds.
The alarm API can be used to implement the sleep API:
#include<signal.h>
#include<stdio.h>
#include<unistd.h>
void wakeup( )
{ ; }
unsigned int sleep (unsigned int timer )
{

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 10
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5
Struct sigaction action;
action.sa_handler=wakeup;
action.sa_flags=0;
sigemptyset(&action.sa_mask);
if(sigaction(SIGALARM,&action,0)==-1)
{
perror(“sigaction”);
return -1;
}
(void) alarm (timer);
(void) pause( );
return 0;
}

11.9 INTERVAL TIMERS

 The interval timer can be used to schedule a process to do some tasks at a fixed time
interval, to time the execution of some operations, or to limit the time allowed for the
execution of some tasks.
 setitimer API – additional capabilities defined in BSD UNIX. Also available in UNIX
System V.3 and V.4, but not specified by POSIX.
 POSIX.1b has new set of APIs for interval timer manipulation.
 Additional features of setitimer API:
 alarm resolution time is in seconds.
 setitimer resolution time is in microseconds.
 alarm can be used to set up 1 real-time clock timer per process.
 setitimer can set up 3 - real-time clock timer, timer based on user time spent by a
 process, timer based on total user time and system times spent by a process.
The following program illustrates how to set up a real-time clock interval timer using the alarm
API:
#include<stdio.h>
#include<unistd.h>
#include<signal.h>
#define INTERVAL 5
void callme(int sig_no)
{
alarm(INTERVAL);
/*do scheduled tasks*/
}
int main()
{
struct sigaction action;
sigemptyset(&action.sa_mask);
action.sa_handler=(void(*)( )) callme;
action.sa_flags=SA_RESTART;
if(sigaction(SIGALARM,&action,0)==-1)
{
perror(“sigaction”); return 1;
}
if(alarm(INTERVAL)==-1)
perror(“alarm”); else while(1)
{
/*do normal operation*/
}
return 0;

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 11
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5
}
In addition to alarm API, UNIX also invented the setitimer API, which can be used to define up to
three different types of timers in a process:
 Real time clock timer
 Timer based on the user time spent by a process
 Timer based on the total user and system times spent by a process
The getitimer API is also defined for users to query the timer values that are set by the setitimer
API. The setitimer and getitimer function prototypes are:
#include<sys/time.h>
int setitimer(int which, const struct itimerval * val, struct itimerval
* old); int getitimer(int which, struct itimerval * old);

The which arguments to the above APIs specify which timer to process. Its possible values and the
corresponding timer types are:

The struct itimerval datatype is defined as:

struct itimerval
{
struct timeval it_value; /*current value*/
struct timeval it_interval; /* time interval*/
};
Example program:
#include<stdio.h>
#include<unistd.h>
#include<signal.h>
#define INTERVAL 5
void callme(int sig_no)
{
/*do scheduled tasks*/
}
int main()
{
struct itimerval val;
struct sigaction action;
sigemptyset(&action.sa_mask);
action.sa_handler=(void(*)( )) callme;
action.sa_flags=SA_RESTART;
if(sigaction(SIGALARM,&action,0)==-1)
{
perror(“sigaction”); return 1;
}
val.it_interval.tv_sec =INTERVAL;
val.it_interval.tv_usec =0;
val.it_value.tv_sec =INTERVAL;
val.it_value.tv_usec =0;

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 12
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5
if(setitimer(ITIMER_REAL, &val , 0)==-1)
perror(“alarm”);

else while(1)
{
/*do normal operation*/
}
return 0;
}

The setitimer and getitimer APIs return a zero value if they succeed or a -1 value if they fail.

11.10 POSIX.1b TIMERS

POSIX.1b defines a set of APIs for interval timer manipulations. The POSIX.1b timers are more
flexible and powerful than are the UNIX timers in the following ways:
 Users may define multiple independent timers per system clock.
 The timer resolution is in nanoseconds.
 Users may specify the signal to be raised when a timer expires.
 The time interval may be specified as either an absolute or a relative time
Limit on maximum number of POSIX timers per process – TIMER_MAX constant defined in
<limits.h> header.
POSIX timers created by a process are not inherited by its child process, but are retained across
the exec system call.
Unlike UNIX timers, POSIX timer can be used safely with sleep API if it does not use the
SIGALRM signal when it expires.
The POSIX.1b APIs for timer manipulations are:
#include<signal.h> #include<time.h>
int timer_create(clockid_t clock, struct sigevent* spec, timer_t* timer_hdrp);
int timer_settime(timer_t timer_hdr, int flag, struct itimerspec* val, struct itimerspec* old);
int timer_gettime(timer_t timer_hdr, struct itimerspec* old);
int timer_getoverrun(timer_t timer_hdr);
int timer_delete(timer_t timer_hdr);

 timer_create API – used to dynamically create a timer and return its handler.
 clock argument – specifies which system clock the new timer should be based on.
 clock value may be CLOCK_REALTIME for creating a real-time clock timer.
 spec argument – defines what action to take when the timer expires.

 timer_settime API – used to start or stop a running timer.

 timer_gettime API – used to query the current values of a timer.
 timer_getoverrun API – returns the number of signals generated by a timer but was
 lost / overrun.
 timer_delete API – used to destroy a timer created by timer_create AP

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 13
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5

Chapter 12 DAEMON PROCESSES

12.1 INTRODUCTION
Daemons are processes that live for a long time. They are often started when the system is
bootstrapped and terminate only when the system is shut down. No controlling terminal – daemons
run in the background. Perform day-to-day activities in the UNIX system. Process names of a
daemon usually end with "d". Examples: syslogd – a daemon that implements system logging
facility, sshd – a daemon that serves incoming SSH connections.

12.2 DAEMON CHARACTERISTICS

ps command – prints the status of various processes in the system.
Options:
-a: displays the status of process owned by others
-x: displays the processes that do not have a controlling terminal
-j: displays the job-related information – session ID, process group ID, controlling terminal
and terminal process group ID.
Typical output will contain – parent process ID, process ID, process group ID, session ID, terminal
name, terminal process group ID, user ID and command string.
 Kernel processes – any process whose parent process ID is 0.
 Special and generally exist for the entire lifetime of the system.
 Run with superuser privileges and have no controlling terminal and no command line.
 Process 1 – init process.
 System daemon responsible for starting system services specific to various run levels.
 These services are usually implemented with the help of their own daemons.
 keventd daemon – provides process context for running scheduled functions in the kernel.
 kapmd daemon – provides support for the advanced power management features available
with various computer systems.
 kswapd daemon – supports the virtual memory subsystem by writing dirty pages to disk
slowly over time, so the pages can be reclaimed. (a.k.a pageout daemon)
 bdflush daemon – flushes dirty buffers from the buffer cache back to disk when available
memory reaches a low-water mark.
 kupdated daemon – flushes dirty pages back to disk at regular intervals to decrease data
loss in the event of a system failure.
 portmap daemon – portmapper daemon which provides the service of mapping RPC
(Remote Procedure Call) program numbers to network port numbers.
 syslogd daemon – available to any program to log system messages for an operator.
 The messages may be printed on a console device and written to a file.
 inetd daemon – listens on the system's network interfaces for incoming requests for various
network servers.
 nfsd, lockd, rpciod daemons – provide support for the Network File System (NFS).
 cron daemon – executes commands at specified dates and times. Numerous system
administration tasks are handled by having programs executed regularly by cron.
 cupsd daemon – handles print requests on the system (print spooler).
 Most of the daemons run with superuser privilege (a user ID of 0).
 None of the daemons has a controlling terminal: the terminal name is set to a question

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 14
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5
mark, and the terminal foreground process group is -1.
 All the user-level daemons are process group leaders and session leaders and are the only
processes in their process group and session.
 The parent of most of these daemons is the init process.
The characteristics of daemons are:
 Daemons run in background.
 Daemons have super-user privilege.
 Daemons don’t have controlling terminal.
 Daemons are session and group leaders.
12.3 CODING RULES
 Call umask to set the file mode creation mask to 0. The file mode creation mask
that's inherited could be set to deny certain permissions. If the daemon process is
going to create files, it may want to set specific permissions.
 Call fork and have the parent exit. This does several things. First, if the daemon
was started as a simple shell command, having the parent terminate makes the shell
think that the command is done. Second, the child inherits the process group ID of
the parent but gets a new process ID, so we're guaranteed that the child is not a process
group leader.
 Call setsid to create a new session. The process (a) becomes a session leader of a
new session, (b) becomes the process group leader of a new process group, and (c)
has no controlling terminal.
 Change the current working directory to the root directory. The current working
directory inherited from the parent could be on a mounted file system. Since daemons
normally exist until the system is rebooted, if the daemon stays on a mounted file
system, that file system cannot be unmounted.
 Unneeded file descriptors should be closed. This prevents the daemon from holding
open any descriptors that it may have inherited from its parent.
 Some daemons open file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 to /dev/null so that any library
routines that try to read from standard input or write to standard output or
standard error will have no effect. Since the daemon is not associated with a
terminal device, there is nowhere for output to be displayed; nor is there anywhere to
receive input from an interactive user. Even if the daemon was started from an
interactive session, the daemon runs in the background, and the login session can
terminate without affecting the daemon. If other users log in on the same terminal
device, we wouldn't want output from the daemon showing up on the terminal, and
the users wouldn't expect their input to be read by the daemon.
Example Program:
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
int daemon_initialise( )
{
pid_t pid;
if (( pid = for() ) < 0)
return –1;
else
if ( pid != 0)

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 15
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5
exit(0); /* parent exits */
/* child continues */
setsid( );
chdir(“/”);
umask(0);
return 0;
}

12.4 ERROR LOGGING

One problem a daemon has is how to handle error messages. It can't simply write to standard
error, since it shouldn't have a controlling terminal. We don't want all the daemons writing to
the console device, since on many workstations, the console device runs a windowing system.
A central daemon error-logging facility is required .

Fig 12.1 The BSD syslog facility

There are three ways to generate log messages:

 Kernel routines can call the log function. These messages can be read by any user
process that opens and
reads the /dev/klogdevice.
 Most user processes (daemons) call the syslog(3) function to generate log messages.
This causes the message to be sent to the UNIX domain datagram socket /dev/log.
 A user process on this host, or on some other host that is connected to this host by a
TCP/IP network, can send log messages to UDP port 514. Note that the syslog function
never generates these UDP datagrams: they require explicit network programming by
the process generating the log message.
Normally, the syslogd daemon reads all three forms of log messages. On start-up, this daemon
reads a configuration file, usually /etc/syslog.conf, which determines where different classes of
messages are to be sent. For example, urgent messages can be sent to the system administrator
(if logged in) and printed on the console, whereas warnings may be logged to a file. Our
interface to this facility is through the syslog function.

#include <syslog.h>
void openlog(const char *ident, int option, int facility);

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 16
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5
void syslog(int priority, const char *format, ...);
void closelog(void);
int setlogmask(int maskpri);
 Returns: previous log priority mask value
 Calling openlog is optional.
If it is not called, when syslog is called for the first time, openlog is called automatically.
 Calling closelog is also optional.
It just closes the descriptor that was being used to communicate with the syslogd
daemon.
 ident – added to each log message.
This is normally the name of the program (cron, inetd, etc.)
option – bit mask specifying various options.

option Description

LOG_CONS If the log message cannot be sent to syslogd via the UNIX domain
datagram, the message is written to the console instead.

LOG_NDELAY Open the UNIX domain datagram socket to the syslogd daemon
immediately;do not wait until the first message is logged.
LOG_NOWAIT Do not wait for child processes that might have been created in the process
of logging the message.
LOG_ODELAY Delay the open of the connection to the syslogd daemon until the first
message is logged.
LOG_PERROR Write the log message to standard error in addition to sending it to syslogd.

LOG_PID Log the process ID with each message. This is intended for daemons that
fork a child process to handle different requests.

 facility – lets the configuration file specify that messages from different facilities are to be
handled differently.
 If we do not call openlog, or if we call it with a facility of 0, we can still specify the facility
as part of the priority argument to syslog.
 Single UNIX Specification – defines only a subset of the facility codes typically available
on a given platform.
facility Description

LOG_AUTH Authorization programs such as login, su, getty

LOG_AUTHPRIV Same as LOG_AUTH, but logged to file with restricted

permissions
LOG_CRON cron and at

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 17
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5

LOG_DAEMON System daemons such as inetd, routed

LOG_FTP FTP daemon ftpd
LOG_KERN Messages generated by the kernel

LOG_LOCAL0 to Reserved for local use

LOG_LOCAL7
facility Description

LOG_LPR Line printer system functions such as lpd, lpc

LOG_MAIL Mail system

LOG_NEWS Usenet network news system
LOG_SYSLOG syslogd daemon itself
LOG_USER Messages from other user processes
LOG_UUCP UUCP system

level – ordered by priority, from highest to lowest

level Description

LOG_DEBUG Debug message (lowest priority)

LOG_INFO Informational message

LOG_NOTICE Normal, but significant condition
LOG_WARNING Warning condition
LOG_ERR Error condition
LOG_CRIT Critical condition (such as hard device error)
LOG_ALERT Condition that must be fixed immediately
LOG_EMERG Emergency – system is unusable (highest priority)
priority – combination of facility and level
 The format argument and any remaining arguments are passed to the printf function for
formatting.
 Any occurrence of the two characters %m in the format is first replaced with the error
message string (strerror) corresponding to the value of errno.
 The setlogmask function can be used to set the log priority mask for the process. This
function returns the previous mask.
 When the log priority mask is set, messages are not logged unless their priority is set in
the log priority mask.
 Attempts to set the log priority mask to 0 will have no effect.
 logger program – provided by many systems to send log messages to the syslog facility.
 Optional arguments – specifies the facility, level, and ident.
 Single UNIX Specification does not define any options.

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 18
 Unix Programming (18CS56) V-ISE, MODULE-5
 Intended for a shell script running non-interactively that needs to generate log messages.
 vsyslog – a variant of syslog that handles variable argument lists.

Not included in the Single UNIX Specification

 Most syslogd implementations will queue messages for a short time.
 If a duplicate message arrives during this time – the syslog daemon will not write it to the
log.
 Instead, the daemon will print out a message similar to "last message repeated N times."
11.5 CLIENT-SERVER MODEL
In general, a server is a process that waits for a client to contact it, requesting some type of
service. In Figure 12.1, the service being provided by the syslogd server is the logging of an
error message.
In Figure 12.1, the communication between the client and the server is one-way. The client
sends its service request to the server; the server sends nothing back to the client. In the
upcoming chapters, we'll see numerous examples of two-way communication between a client
and a server. The client sends a request to the server, and the server sends a reply back to the
client.

Dr. PS, Dr. BA, Mrs. CSR Dept of ISE, RNSIT, 2022 Page 19