Basic Signal Handling (The GNU C Library)

#### 25.3.1 Basic Signal Handling ¶

The `signal` function provides a simple interface for establishing an action for a particular signal. The function and associated macros are declared in the header file `signal.h`.

Data Type: sighandler_t ¶

  This is the type of signal handler functions. Signal handlers take one integer argument specifying the signal number, and have return type `void`. So, you should define handler functions like this:

      void handler (int signum) { ... }

  The name `sighandler_t` for this data type is a GNU extension.

Function: `sighandler_t` signal `(int signum, sighandler_t action)` ¶

  Preliminary: | MT-Safe sigintr | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  The `signal` function establishes action as the action for the signal signum.

  The first argument, signum, identifies the signal whose behavior you want to control, and should be a signal number. The proper way to specify a signal number is with one of the symbolic signal names (see Standard Signals)—don’t use an explicit number, because the numerical code for a given kind of signal may vary from operating system to operating system.

  The second argument, action, specifies the action to use for the signal signum. This can be one of the following:

  `SIG_DFL` ¶

    `SIG_DFL` specifies the default action for the particular signal. The default actions for various kinds of signals are stated in Standard Signals.

  `SIG_IGN` ¶

    `SIG_IGN` specifies that the signal should be ignored.

    Your program generally should not ignore signals that represent serious events or that are normally used to request termination. You cannot ignore the `SIGKILL` or `SIGSTOP` signals at all. You can ignore program error signals like `SIGSEGV`, but ignoring the error won’t enable the program to continue executing meaningfully. Ignoring user requests such as `SIGINT`, `SIGQUIT`, and `SIGTSTP` is unfriendly.

    When you do not wish signals to be delivered during a certain part of the program, the thing to do is to block them, not ignore them. See Blocking Signals.

  `handler`

    Supply the address of a handler function in your program, to specify running this handler as the way to deliver the signal.

    For more information about defining signal handler functions, see Defining Signal Handlers.

  If you set the action for a signal to `SIG_IGN`, or if you set it to `SIG_DFL` and the default action is to ignore that signal, then any pending signals of that type are discarded (even if they are blocked). Discarding the pending signals means that they will never be delivered, not even if you subsequently specify another action and unblock this kind of signal.

  The `signal` function returns the action that was previously in effect for the specified signum. You can save this value and restore it later by calling `signal` again.

  If `signal` can’t honor the request, it returns `SIG_ERR` instead. The following `errno` error conditions are defined for this function:

  `EINVAL`

    You specified an invalid signum; or you tried to ignore or provide a handler for `SIGKILL` or `SIGSTOP`.

Compatibility Note: A problem encountered when working with the `signal` function is that it has different semantics on BSD and SVID systems. The difference is that on SVID systems the signal handler is deinstalled after signal delivery. On BSD systems the handler must be explicitly deinstalled. In the GNU C Library we use the BSD version by default. To use the SVID version you can either use the function `sysv_signal` (see below) or use the `_XOPEN_SOURCE` feature select macro (see Feature Test Macros). In general, use of these functions should be avoided because of compatibility problems. It is better to use `sigaction` if it is available since the results are much more reliable.

Here is a simple example of setting up a handler to delete temporary files when certain fatal signals happen:

    #include <signal.h>

    void
    termination_handler (int signum)
    {
      struct temp_file *p;

      for (p = temp_file_list; p; p = p->next)
        unlink (p->name);
    }

    int
    main (void)
    {
      ...
      if (signal (SIGINT, termination_handler) == SIG_IGN)
        signal (SIGINT, SIG_IGN);
      if (signal (SIGHUP, termination_handler) == SIG_IGN)
        signal (SIGHUP, SIG_IGN);
      if (signal (SIGTERM, termination_handler) == SIG_IGN)
        signal (SIGTERM, SIG_IGN);
      ...
    }

Note that if a given signal was previously set to be ignored, this code avoids altering that setting. This is because non-job-control shells often ignore certain signals when starting children, and it is important for the children to respect this.

We do not handle `SIGQUIT` or the program error signals in this example because these are designed to provide information for debugging (a core dump), and the temporary files may give useful information.

Function: `sighandler_t` sysv_signal `(int signum, sighandler_t action)` ¶

  Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  The `sysv_signal` implements the behavior of the standard `signal` function as found on SVID systems. The difference to BSD systems is that the handler is deinstalled after a delivery of a signal.

  Compatibility Note: As said above for `signal`, this function should be avoided when possible. `sigaction` is the preferred method.

Function: `sighandler_t` ssignal `(int signum, sighandler_t action)` ¶

  Preliminary: | MT-Safe sigintr | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  The `ssignal` function does the same thing as `signal`; it is provided only for compatibility with SVID.

Macro: `sighandler_t` SIG_ERR ¶

  The value of this macro is used as the return value from `signal` to indicate an error.