PRCTL(2)            Linux Programmer's Manual            PRCTL(2)

NAME
       prctl - operations on a process

SYNOPSIS
       #include <linux/prctl.h>

       int  prctl(int  option,  unsigned long arg2, unsigned long
       arg3 , unsigned long arg4, unsigned long arg5);

DESCRIPTION
       prctl is called with a first argument describing  what  to
       do  (with  values defined in <linux/prctl.h>), and further
       parameters with a significance depending on the first one.
       At present the only option value defined is PR_SET_PDEATH-
       SIG, and the corresponding call sets  the  parent  process
       death signal of the current process to arg2 (either a sig-
       nal value in the range 1..maxsig, or 0 to clear).  This is
       the signal that the current process will get when its par-
       ent dies. This value is cleared upon a fork().

RETURN VALUE
       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1  is  returned,
       and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS
       EINVAL The  value  of  option  is not recognized, or it is
              PR_SET_PDEATHSIG and arg2 is not zero or  a  signal
              number.

CONFORMING TO
       This call is Linux-specific.  IRIX has a ptctl system call
       (also introduced in Linux 2.1.44 as irix_prctl on the MIPS
       architecture), with prototype

       ptrdiff_t prctl(int option, int arg2, int arg3);

       and  options  to  get  the maximum number of processes per
       user, get the maximum number  of  processors  the  calling
       process  can  use, find out whether a specified process is
       currently blocked, get or  set  the  maximum  stack  size,
       etc., etc.

AVAILABILITY
       The  ptctl()  systemcall  was  introduced in Linux 2.1.57.
       There is no ptctl() library call as yet.

SEE ALSO
       signal(2)

Linux 2.1.57             3 February 1998                        1