man pages section 3: Basic Library Functions

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Updated: July 2014
 
 

bsd_signal(3C)

Name

bsd_signal - simplified signal facilities

Synopsis

#include <signal.h>

void (*bsd_signal(int sig, void (*func)(int)))(int);

Description

The bsd_signal() function provides a partially compatible interface for programs written to historical system interfaces (see USAGE below).

The function call bsd_signal(sig, func) has an effect as if implemented as:

void (*bsd_signal(int sig, void (*func) (int))) (int)
{
     struct sigaction act, oact;

     act.sa_handler = func;
     act.sa_flags = SA_RESTART;
     sigemptyset(&act.sa_mask);
     sigaddset(&act.sa_mask, sig);
     if (sigaction(sig, &act, &oact) == −1)
          return(SIG_ERR);
     return(oact.sa_handler);
}

The handler function should be declared:

void handler(int sig);

where sig is the signal number. The behavior is undefined if func is a function that takes more than one argument, or an argument of a different type.

Return Values

Upon successful completion, bsd_signal() returns the previous action for sig. Otherwise, SIG_ERR is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

Errors

Refer to sigaction(2).

Usage

This function is a direct replacement for the BSD signal() function for simple applications that are installing a single-argument signal handler function. If a BSD signal handler function is being installed that expects more than one argument, the application has to be modified to use sigaction(2). The bsd_signal() function differs from signal() in that the SA_RESTART flag is set and the SA_RESETHAND will be clear when bsd_signal() is used. The state of these flags is not specified for signal().

Attributes

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

ATTRIBUTE TYPE
ATTRIBUTE VALUE
Interface Stability
Committed
Standard

See also

sigaction(2), sigaddset(3C), sigemptyset(3C), attributes (5), standards(5)