man(1) Manual page archive


     KPROC(10.2)                                           KPROC(10.2)

     NAME
          kproc, setpri, swiproc, pexit - kernel process creation,
          priority change, interrupt and termination

     SYNOPSIS
          void  kproc(char *name, void (*func)(void*), void *arg, int
          flags);

          int   setpri(int pri);

          void  swiproc(Proc *p, int interp);

          void  pexit(char*, int);

     DESCRIPTION
          Kproc creates a new Inferno kernel process to run the func-
          tion func, which is invoked as (*func)(arg).  The string
          name is copied into the text field of the Proc structure of
          the new process; although the value is not visible to Limbo
          applications, it can appear in system messages written to
          the console.  The process is made runnable; it will run when
          selected by the scheduler.

          The new process always acquires the following attributes
          from the creating process:

               owner (Inferno user name)
               host user and group IDs (in emu only)
               floating-point attributes

          Several resources can be shared with the creating process on
          request, as determined by flags, which is the logical OR of
          a subset of the following:

          KPDUPPG    If set, the new process shares the caller's pro-
                     cess group, which includes its process group ID
                     (for killgrp), name space (mounts, root and cur-
                     rent directory), and PIN for /dev/pin (see
                     cons(3)).
          KPDUPFDG   If set, the new process shares the caller's file
                     descriptor group; otherwise, it has no file
                     descriptor group, and (if it intends to open
                     files) must call newfgrp(10.2) to obtain an empty
                     file descriptor group.
          KPDUPENVG  If set, the new process shares the caller's envi-
                     ronment group (currently applies in emu only).
          KPDUP      Equivalent to all of the above.

          If a particular option is not set, the new process will have
          a nil reference for the corresponding resource.

     KPROC(10.2)                                           KPROC(10.2)

          Setpri sets the priority of the calling process to pri and
          returns its previous priority level.  If a (now) higher pri-
          ority process is ready to run, the system will reschedule.
          The available priority levels are shown below, arranged from
          highest to lowest priority, with examples of the type of
          processes intended to use them:

          PriLock        The highest priority, used by lock(10.2) for
                         a process entering a critical section
          PriRealtime    Intended for processes supporting applica-
                         tions with real-time constraints, such as
                         video telephony.
          PriHicodec     MPEG codec
          PriLocodec     Audio codec
          PriHi          Any task with keen time constraints.
          PriNormal      The priority of most processes in the system.
          PriLo
          PriBackground

          Swiproc sends a software interrupt to process p, causing it
          to wake from sleep(10.2) with an error(10.2) `interrupted'.
          Unless interp is non-zero (ie, the Dis interpreter is the
          caller), the process is also marked `killed'.

          An Inferno process terminates only when it calls pexit,
          thereby terminating itself.  There is no mechanism for one
          process to force the termination of another, although it can
          send a software interrupt using swiproc. The arguments to
          pexit are ignored in Inferno, but are included for compati-
          bility with kernel components of Plan 9; use

               pexit("", 0);