man(1) Manual page archive


     NOTIFY(2)                                               NOTIFY(2)

     NAME
          notify, noted, atnotify - handle asynchronous process
          notification

     SYNOPSIS
          int notify(void (*f)(void*, char*))

          int noted(int v)

          int atnotify(int (*f)(void*, char*), int in)

     DESCRIPTION
          When a process raises an exceptional condition such as
          dividing by zero or writing on a closed pipe, a note is
          posted to communicate the exception.  A note may also be
          posted by a write(see read(2)) to the process's /proc/n/note
          file or to the /proc/m/notepg file of a process in the same
          process group (see proc(3)). When the note is received the
          behavior of the process depends on the origin of the note.
          If the note was posted by an external process, the process
          receiving the note exits; if generated by the system the
          note string, preceded by the name and id of the process and
          the string "suicide: ", is printed on the process's standard
          error file and the process is suspended in the Broken state
          for debugging.

          These default actions may be overridden.  The notify func-
          tion registers a notification handler to be called within
          the process when a note is received.  The argument to notify
          replaces the previous handler, if any.  An argument of zero
          cancels a previous handler, restoring the default action.  A
          fork(2) system call leaves the handler registered in both
          the parent and the child; exec(2) restores the default
          behavior.

          After a note is posted, the handler is called with two argu-
          ments: the first is a pointer to a Ureg structure (defined
          in /$objtype/include/ureg.h) giving the current values of
          registers; the second is a pointer to the note itself, a
          null-terminated string with no more than `ERRLEN' characters
          in it including the terminal NUL.  The Ureg argument is usu-
          ally not needed; it is provided to help recover from traps
          such as floating point exceptions.  Its use and layout are
          machine- and system-specific.

          A notification handler must finish by calling noted; if the
          handler returns the behavior is undefined and probably erro-
          neous.  The argument to noted defines the action to take:
          NDFLT instructs the system to perform the default action as
          if the handler had never been registered; NCONT instructs

     NOTIFY(2)                                               NOTIFY(2)

          the system to resume the process at the point it was noti-
          fied.  In neither case does noted return to the handler.  If
          the note interrupted an incomplete system call, that call
          returns an error (with error string interrupted) after the
          process resumes.  A notification handler can also jump out
          to an environment set up with setjmp using the notejmp func-
          tion (see setjmp(2)).

          Regardless of the origin of the note or the presence of a
          handler, if the process is being debugged (see proc(3)) the
          arrival of a note puts the process in the Stopped state and
          awakens the debugger.

          Rather than using the system calls notify and noted, most
          programs should use atnotify to register notification han-
          dlers.  The parameter in is non-zero to register the func-
          tion f, and zero to cancel registration.  A handler must
          return a non-zero number if the note was recognized (and
          resolved); otherwise it must return zero.  When the system
          posts a note to the process, each handler registered with
          atnotify is called with arguments as described above until
          one of the handlers returns non-zero.  Then noted is called
          with argument NCONT. If no registered function returns non-
          zero, atnotify calls noted with argument NDFLT.

          The set of notes a process may receive is system-dependent,
          but there is a common set that includes:

             Note                       Meaning
             interrupt                  user interrupt (DEL key)
             hangup                     I/O connection closed
             alarm                      alarm expired
             sys: breakpoint            breakpoint instruction
             sys: bad address           system call address argument out of range
             sys: odd address           system call address argument unaligned
             sys: bad sys call          system call number out of range
             sys: odd stack             system call user stack unaligned
             sys: write on closed pipe  write on closed pipe
             sys: fp: fptrap            floating point exception
             sys: trap: trap            other exception (see below)

          The notes prefixed sys: are generated by the operating sys-
          tem.  They are suffixed by the user program counter in for-
          mat pc=0x1234.  If the note is due to a floating point
          exception, just before the pc is the address of the offend-
          ing instruction in format fppc=0x1234.  Notes are limited to
          ERRLEN bytes; if they would be longer they are truncated but
          the pc is always reported correctly.

          The types and syntax of the trap and fptrap portions of the
          notes are machine-dependent.

     NOTIFY(2)                                               NOTIFY(2)

     SEE ALSO
          intro(2), notejmp in setjmp(2)

     BUGS
          Since exec(2) discards the notification handler, there is a
          window of vulnerability to notes in a new process.