SIGWAIT(3P)

PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME
sigwait — wait for queued signals

SYNOPSIS

#include <signal.h>

int sigwait(const sigset_t *restrict set, int *restrict sig);

DESCRIPTION
The sigwait() function shall select a pending signal from set, atomically clear it from the system's set of pending signals, and return that signal number in the location referenced by sig. If prior to the call to sigwait() there are multiple pending instances of a single signal number, it is implementation-defined whether upon successful return there are any remaining pending signals for that signal number. If the implementation supports queued signals and there are multiple signals queued for the signal number selected, the first such queued signal shall cause a return from sigwait() and the remainder shall remain queued. If no signal in set is pending at the time of the call, the thread shall be suspended until one or more becomes pending. The signals defined by set shall have been blocked at the time of the call to sigwait(); otherwise, the behavior is undefined. The effect of sigwait() on the signal actions for the signals in set is unspecified.

If more than one thread is using sigwait() to wait for the same signal, no more than one of these threads shall return from sigwait() with the signal number. If more than a single thread is blocked in sigwait() for a signal when that signal is generated for the process, it is unspecified which of the waiting threads returns from sigwait(). If the signal is generated for a specific thread, as by pthread_kill(), only that thread shall return.

Should any of the multiple pending signals in the range SIGRTMIN to SIGRTMAX be selected, it shall be the lowest numbered one. The selection order between realtime and non-realtime signals, or between multiple pending non-realtime signals, is unspecified.

RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, sigwait() shall store the signal number of the received signal at the location referenced by sig and return zero. Otherwise, an error number shall be returned to indicate the error.

ERRORS
The sigwait() function may fail if:

EINVAL
    The set argument contains an invalid or unsupported signal number.

The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES
None.

APPLICATION USAGE
None.

RATIONALE
To provide a convenient way for a thread to wait for a signal, this volume of POSIX.1-2008 provides the sigwait() function. For most cases where a thread has to wait for a signal, the sigwait() function should be quite convenient, efficient, and adequate.

However, requests were made for a lower-level primitive than sigwait() and for semaphores that could be used by threads. After some consideration, threads were allowed to use semaphores and sem_post() was defined to be async-signal-safe.

In summary, when it is necessary for code run in response to an asynchronous signal to notify a thread, sigwait() should be used to handle the signal. Alternatively, if the implementation provides semaphores, they also can be used, either following sigwait() or from within a signal handling routine previously registered with sigaction().

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.

SEE ALSO
Section 2.4, Signal Concepts, Section 2.8.1, Realtime Signals, pause(), pthread_sigmask(), sigaction(), sigpending(), sigsuspend(), sigtimedwait()

The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2008, <signal.h>, <time.h>

COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.unix.org/online.html . Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .