why SIGHUP signal not received when becoming an Orphaned Process Group - c

In the manual for GNU libc about orphaned process groups, it mentioned :
“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
(see 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. ”
I write a test program, but when the process group becomes an orphan, its process didn't receive the SIGHUP signal. I am wondering why?
#include <errno.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <unistd.h>
static void
sig_hup(int signo) //**never get called ???**
{
printf("SIGHUP received, pid = %ld\n", (long)getpid());
}
static void
pr_ids(char *name)
{
printf("%s: pid = %ld, ppid = %ld, pgrp = %ld, tpgrp = %ld\n",
name, (long)getpid(), (long)getppid(), (long)getpgrp(),
(long)tcgetpgrp(STDIN_FILENO));
fflush(stdout);
}
int
main(void)
{
char c;
pid_t pid;
pr_ids("parent");
pid = fork();
if (pid > 0) { // parent
sleep(5);
exit(0); // parent exit;
} else {
pr_ids("child");
setsid(); //create new session, and "child" becomes the session leader
pid = fork();
if(pid>0) {
sleep(20);
exit(0); // "child" exit
// so the process group become an orphan process group
}
else{
pr_ids("grandson");
signal(SIGHUP, sig_hup); // establish signal handler
sleep(60); // now becoming orphan process group
printf("end\n");
}
}
exit(0);
}

Orphaned process groups get SIGHUP followed by SIGCONT if they're stopped when they become orphaned.
Sleep is not enough, you need:
kill(getpid(), SIGSTOP); //or raise(SIGSTOP);
In addition to that, POSIX doesn't require that SIGHUP and SIGCONT be sent if the orphaning was caused by setsid() or setprgrp() because then it wasn't caused by an exiting process innocently unaware of job control (see http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/_exit.html ).
However, with kill(getpid(), SIGSTOP) instead of that sleep(60) in the child, you will get a stopped orphan with your program even if you don't call setsid().
#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <errno.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <signal.h>
static void
sig_hup(int signo) //**never get called ???**
{
printf("SIGHUP received, pid = %ld\n", (long)getpid());
}
static void
pr_ids(char *name)
{
printf("%s: pid = %ld, ppid = %ld, pgrp = %ld, tpgrp = %ld\n",
name, (long)getpid(), (long)getppid(), (long)getpgrp(),
(long)tcgetpgrp(STDIN_FILENO));
fflush(stdout);
}
int
main(void)
{
pid_t pid;
pr_ids("parent");
pid = fork();
if (pid > 0) { // parent
sleep(5);
_exit(0); // parent exit;
} else {
pr_ids("child");
/*setsid(); //create new session, and "child" becomes the session leader*/
pid = fork();
if(pid>0) {
sleep(2);
exit(0); // "child" exit
// so the process group become an orphan process group
}
else{
pr_ids("grandson");
signal(SIGHUP, sig_hup); // establish signal handler
kill(getpid(), SIGSTOP);
printf("end\n");
}
}
exit(0);
}
should get you a SIGHUP in the child after the parent dies (5s).

That document section is talking specifically about the loss of a controlling terminal of a process that had one—usually by a modem hangup, or the virtual equivalent (ending an ssh session, etc). (I think the phrasing in the document could be improved here). When you use setsid() here, you give up access to the controlling terminal by the time setsid() returns, so there is no controlling terminal to lose from there forward.
You could open() a tty device (such as a pty slave) to gain a controlling terminal (note that you may have to do some additional operation as well—FreeBSD requires a TIOCSCTTY ioctl), then lose it again, and then you should get the SIGHUP signal.

Related

Continue output after parent child termination , i am unable to perform the operation

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <signal.h>
static void sigusr(int iSig) //SIGUSER are the user defined signals
{
if (iSig == SIGUSR1)
{
printf("Received SIGUSR1 signal, going to sleep for 2 seconds\n");
sleep(2);
}
}
int main ()
{
int pid;
signal(SIGUSR1, sigusr);
pid = fork();
if (pid > 0) //Parent process created
{
for(int i=0; i<=1000;i++)
{
printf("%d\n",i);
usleep(70);
}
}
else //Child process created
{
sleep(5);
kill(pid,SIGUSR1);
exit(0);
}
}
Create 2 processes, a parent and a child using fork().
The parent prints the value of ‘i’ from 0 to 1000 and then exits.
Meanwhile the child process sleeps for 5 seconds after it is created,
sends a SIGUSR1 signal to the parent and then exits.
The parent should catch that signal, print on standard output “Received SIGUSR1 signal,
going to sleep for 2 seconds”, sleep for two seconds and then continueprinting the numbers.
But i am unable to continue the process after child process termination.
For me everything works fine if I increase usleep time, without it parent process terminates before child process send signal.
The problem is with kill call, else statement is executed only in child process, so it means that pid value is 0, kill with pid 0 sends signal to whole group, in this case to parent and a child, you should change it to
kill(getppid(), SIGUSR1);
In addition to the #complikator 's answer, you shoudl print and sleep outside the signal handler.
There are remaining questions like "main finishes before the signal is received", but this is really depending on you use case...
would look like this:
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
volatile static bool called = false;
static void sigusr(int iSig)
{
called = true;
}
void check_signaled(void) {
if (called) {
called = false;
printf("Received SIGUSR1 signal, going to sleep for 2 seconds\n");
sleep(2);
}
}
int main(void)
{
int pid;
pid = fork();
if (pid > 0) //Parent process created
{
signal(SIGUSR1, sigusr);
for(int i=0; i<=1000;i++)
{
check_signaled(); /* if signal come while iterating */
printf("%d\n",i);
usleep(70);
}
wait(NULL); /* wait child completion */
check_signaled(); /* signal may happen "too late" */
}
else //Child process created
{
sleep(1);
kill(getppid(),SIGUSR1);
}
}

Should processes in process group terminate together with their parent in Unix/Linux?

I have situation where one parent process may spawn many child processes.
What I want to achieve is that if parent process is killed or if it exits, then all it's children should terminate together with parent.
In the post (link below) I have found suggestion to archive this by making parent process a group leader.
If I understand it right this is also the main purpose of process groups. Am I right?
Post also mentions prctl(PR_SET_PDEATHSIG, SIGHUP); and some other methods, but they are ether OS specific or otherwise don't seam so elegant.
I have written a small demo to try to understand things better, but it doesn't work the way I expect. What am I doing wrong?
//https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/course/15-310/applications/homework/homework4/terminalgroups1.html
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <stddef.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <sys/termios.h>
int main()
{
int status;
int cpid;
int ppid;
ppid = getpid();
printf("parent: %d\n", ppid);
if (!(cpid=fork()))
{
printf("child: %d\n", getpid());
if(setpgid(0,ppid) == -1)
printf("child setpgid errno %s\n", strerror(errno));
else
printf("child gid %d\n", getpgid(0));
pause();
printf("child exited\n");
exit (-1);
}
if (cpid < 0)
exit(-1);
setpgid(0, ppid);
if(setpgid(0,0) == -1)
printf("parent setpgid erno %s\n", strerror(errno));
else
printf("parrent gid %d\n", getpgid(0));
sleep(7);
printf("parent exit\n");
exit(0);
}
This post relates to suggestion made in :
* How to make child process die after parent exits?
Note that a signal is sent to child processes only in a very limited set of circumstances. POSIX says:
If the process is a controlling process, the SIGHUP signal shall be sent to each process in the foreground process group of the controlling terminal belonging to the calling process.
If the process is a controlling process, the controlling terminal associated with the session shall be disassociated from the session, allowing it to be acquired by a new controlling process.
If the exit of the process causes a process group to become orphaned, and if any member of the newly-orphaned process group is stopped, then a SIGHUP signal followed by a SIGCONT signal shall be sent to each process in the newly-orphaned process group.
The definition of controlling process is:
The session leader that established the connection to the controlling terminal. If the terminal subsequently ceases to be a controlling terminal for this session, the session leader ceases to be the controlling process.
In general, your process is not going to be the session leader that established the connection to the controlling terminal (that will normally be your shell).
If there's another part of POSIX that applies, please inform me.
I did some testing with this adaptation of your code (termkids.c):
#include "posixver.h"
#include <errno.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <signal.h>
static void sigcatcher(int signum)
{
printf("%d: Signal caught: %d\n", (int)getpid(), signum);
exit(1);
}
int main(void)
{
int cpid;
int ppid;
ppid = getpid();
printf("Parent PID: %d\n", ppid);
printf("Initial PGID: %d\n", (int)getpgid(0));
if (setpgid(0, 0) != 0)
{
fprintf(stderr, "setpgid() failed (%d: %s)\n", errno, strerror(errno));
return 1;
}
printf("Revised PGID: %d\n", (int)getpgid(0));
if ((cpid=fork()) < 0)
{
fprintf(stderr, "fork() failed (%d: %s)\n", errno, strerror(errno));
return 1;
}
else if (cpid == 0)
{
cpid = getpid();
printf("Child PID: %d\n", cpid);
printf("Child PGID: %d\n", (int)getpgid(0));
(void)signal(SIGTERM, sigcatcher);
(void)signal(SIGHUP, sigcatcher);
pause();
printf("%d: child exited\n", cpid);
return(-1);
}
printf("Parent - sleeping\n");
sleep(7);
printf("Parent exits\n");
return(0);
}
Sample output:
$ ./termkids
Parent PID: 17701
Initial PGID: 17701
Revised PGID: 17701
Parent - sleeping
Child PID: 17702
Child PGID: 17701
Parent exits
$ ps
PID TTY TIME CMD
388 pts/5 00:00:00 bash
17702 pts/5 00:00:00 termkids
17707 pts/5 00:00:00 ps
$ kill 17702
17702: Signal caught: 15
$
Note that the kill 17702 was sent some minutes after the parent process completed.
You can use atexit to register a function that sends a SIGHUP signal to all the processes with the same process group id. That would have the desired effect of sending a signal to all the children when the parent exits. However, note that the SIGHUP signal handler in the children would cause the child to exit immediately, without returning from pause() and printing the child exited message.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <stddef.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <sys/termios.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
void killall()
{
kill(0, SIGHUP);
}
int main()
{
int status;
int cpid;
int ppid;
if (atexit(killall) != 0)
{
fprintf(stderr, "atexit failed with %d", errno);
exit(-1);
}
ppid = getpid();
printf("parent: %d\n", ppid);
if (!(cpid=fork()))
{
printf("child: %d\n", getpid());
if(setpgid(0,ppid) == -1)
printf("child setpgid errno %s\n", strerror(errno));
else
printf("child gid %d\n", getpgid(0));
pause();
printf("child exited\n");
exit (-1);
}
if (cpid < 0)
exit(-1);
setpgid(0, ppid);
if(setpgid(0,0) == -1)
printf("parent setpgid erno %s\n", strerror(errno));
else
printf("parent gid %d\n", getpgid(0));
sleep(7);
printf("parent exit\n");
exit(0);
}

How to terminate a child process which is running another program by doing exec

I'm doing fork in my main program,and doing exec in the child process which will run another program. Now i want to terminate the child(i.e., the program invoked by exec) and return back to the main program(or parent program). how could i achieve this.. I tried with ctrl+c but its killing parent process and child also.please help me.
/*This is main.c*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
void sig_int(void);
void sig_term(void);
pid_t pid,ppid;
int main(char argc,char **argv){
int n;
char ch;
printf("***********Application to start or stop services**********\n");
do
{
printf("Enter 1 to start service no.1\n");
printf("Enter 2 to start service no.2\n");
printf("Enter 3 to start service no.3\n");
scanf("%d",&n);
if(fork() == 0)
{
switch(n)
{
case 1: printf("starting service no. 1..\n");
printf("checking whether the given service is already running...\n");
// system("./det.sh ./test")
pid = getpid();
printf("child process pid = %d\n",pid);
// signal(SIGINT,(void *)sig_int);
// signal(SIGTERM,(void *)sig_term);
//execl("/var/vR_main","vR_main",argv[1],argv[2],argv[3],argv[4],NULL);
execl("./test","test",0,0);//will run test.c
break;
case 2: printf("starting service no. 2..\n");
break;
case 3: printf("starting service no. 3..\n");
break;
}
}
else
{
int status;
wait(&status);
if (WIFEXITED(status))
printf("CHILD exited with %d\n", WEXITSTATUS(status));
if (WIFSIGNALED(status))
printf("signaled by %d\n", WTERMSIG(status));
if (WIFSTOPPED(status))
printf("stopped by %d\n", WSTOPSIG(status));
// sleep(2);
ppid = getpid();
printf("%d\n",ppid);
// wait();
printf("\nDo you want to continue...y/n:");
scanf(" %c",&ch);
}
}while(ch == 'y');
return 0;
}
void sig_int(void)
{
printf("caught signal\n");
kill(pid,SIGKILL);
// signal(SIGINT,SIG_DFL);
// exit(0);
}
void sig_term(void)
{
printf("killing the process\n");
signal(SIGINT,SIG_DFL);
// exit(0);
}
/*This is test.c*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <signal.h>
void sig_int(void);
void sig_term(void);
pid_t pid;
int main()
{
// int a=10,b=40,c=50,max;
pid = getpid();
printf("exec pid = %d\n",pid);
while (1)
{
signal(SIGINT,(void *)sig_int);
signal(SIGTERM,(void *)sig_term);
}
// max=a>b?a>c?a:c:b>c?b:c;
// printf("%d\n",max);
}
void sig_int(void)
{
printf("caught signal\n");
// signal(SIGINT,SIG_DFL);
kill(pid,SIGKILL);
// exit(0);
}
void sig_term(void)
{
printf("killing the process\n");
signal(SIGINT,SIG_DFL);
// exit(0);
}
Now I want to kill "test application" (invoked by exec),and return to the parent process or the "else block" to continue the program.
You need to do the following:
Do a kill(pid, SIGTERM) first - this gives the child process an opportunity to terminate gracefully
Wait a period of time (use sleep). The period of time depends on the time the child process takes to close down gracefully.
Use waitpid(pid, &status, WNOHANG) checking the return value. If the process has not aborted do step 4
Do a kill(pid, SIGKILL) then harvest the zombie by doing waitpid(pid, &status, 0).
These steps ensure that you give the child process to have a signal handler to close down and also ensures that you have no zombie processes.
Either in or outside your program, it is possible to use kill. By including <signal.h>, you can kill a process with a given PID (use the fork return value to do this).
#include <signal.h>
int pid;
switch (pid = fork())
{
case -1:
/* some stuff */
break;
case 0:
/* some stuff */
break;
default:
/* some stuff */
kill(pid, SIGTERM);
}
It is also possible to use kill command in the shell. To find the PID of your child process, you can run ps command.
man kill
The kill() function shall send a signal to a process or a group of processes specified by pid. The signal to be sent is specified by sig and is either one from the list given in <signal.h> or 0. If sig is 0 (the null signal), error checking is performed but no signal is actually sent. The null signal can be used to check the validity of pid.
POSIX defines the kill(2) system call for this:
kill(pid, SIGKILL);

Creating a process that is not child of the process that created it

I want to create a process B from process A. However, I don't want B to be the child of A, which will be the case if I simply use fork. How can I achieve that? In other words I want process B to keep on executing even if process A is killed.
You can use the setsid() function.
Alternatively, as you have tagged your question "linux", maybe you want to use daemon() instead of fork() + setsid().
Why do you think that B would not keep executing after A is killed if B is a child of A? That's not true.
But if you still want B to not be a child of A then you can do this by fork()ing twice: once to create a child A½ and once to create B. B is a child of A½ and a grandchild of A. Then have A½ exit immediately. B will be inherited by init and will have no further relationship to A.
If you are concerned about signals like SIGHUP and SIGINT that are generated in response to events like a Control-C keypress that are broadcast to the entire foreground process group, see cnicutar's answer.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
int main(void)
{
pid_t pid;
switch(pid = fork()) {
case -1:
perror("fork");
exit(1);
case 0:
printf(" CHILD: This is the child process!\n");
printf(" CHILD: My PID is %d\n", getpid());
printf(" CHILD: My parent's PID is %d\n", getppid());
/* you can exec another program here if you wish to */
printf(" CHILD: I'm outta here!\n");
break;
default:
printf("PARENT: This is the parent process!\n");
printf("PARENT: My PID is %d\n", getpid());
printf("PARENT: My child's PID is %d\n", pid);
printf("PARENT: I'm not going to wait for my child to exit\n");
signal(SIGCHLD, SIG_IGN);
printf("PARENT: I'm outta here!\n");
}
return 0;
}
If you don't send the signal(), then once after the parents completes the execution (and exits), the child process will be termed as a zombie process. For better understanding, execute the following program.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <unistd.h>
/*
Execute this program and do 'ps ax | grep Z' to see that this
is put in a defunct state or zombie state
*/
int main()
{
pid_t child_pid;
child_pid = fork();
if (child_pid > 0) {
sleep(60);
} else {
return 0;
}
return 0;
}
The only way I see is having the child orphan (then adopted by init).
This may be achieved by terminating the father process before the child (but just take care of signal propagation).
Some nice samples may be found here

wait for children and grand-children

How can you wait until all children and grand-children have exited, without blocking in a signal handler? This is my attempt so far.
#include <signal.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int run = 1;
void handler(int sig, siginfo_t *info, void *uap)
{
int exit_code;
printf("sigchld pid %d\n", info->si_pid);
pid_t pid = waitpid(-1, &exit_code, 0);
if (pid == -1) {
perror("waitpid()\n");
} else {
printf("waitpid returned %d\n", pid);
}
// set run = 0 when all children exit
printf("end of sigchild handler\n");
}
void main() {
struct sigaction chld;
chld.sa_sigaction = handler;
chld.sa_flags = SA_NOCLDSTOP | SA_SIGINFO;
sigaction(SIGCHLD, &chld, NULL);
//procmask sigchld?
if (!fork ()) {
if (!fork ()) {
sleep(2);
printf ("grand-son exit: %d\n", getpid());
exit (0);
}
sleep(1);
printf ("son exit: %d\n", getpid());
exit (0);
}
while(run)
sleep(1);
printf("ciao\n");
}
While it is true that SIGCHLD and waitpid, etc., only work for immediate children, on UNIX systems you can often "cheat" a little bit with inherited resources passed from parent to child to grandchild, and closed upon process termination.
For example, the original process might open a pipe, and perhaps set the read end of it close-on-exec, so that children and grandchildren inherit the write end. When the original process is ready to wait for all descendants to terminate, it closes its write end of the pipe and blockingly reads or selects for readability on the remaining descriptor. When the last descendant has terminated, the read end of the pipe will deliver an EOF.
This tactic is not guaranteed — a child or grandchild might cautiously close inherited file descriptors — but it often works well enough.

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