home   contributing   bugs   download   online pages  

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | FILES | CONFORMING TO | NOTES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON


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

NAME         top

       sigreturn - return from signal handler and cleanup stack frame

SYNOPSIS         top

       int sigreturn(unsigned long __unused);

DESCRIPTION         top

       When the Linux kernel creates the stack frame for a signal handler, a call to
       sigreturn() is inserted into the stack frame so that upon return from the
       signal handler, sigreturn() will be called.

       This sigreturn() call undoes everything that was done--changing the process's
       signal mask, switching stacks (see sigaltstack(2))--in order to invoke the
       signal handler: it restores the process's signal mask, switches stacks, and
       restores the process's context (registers, processor flags), so that the
       process directly resumes execution at the point where it was interrupted by
       the signal.

RETURN VALUE         top

       sigreturn() never returns.

FILES         top

       /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/kernel/signal.c
       /usr/src/linux/arch/alpha/kernel/entry.S

CONFORMING TO         top

       sigreturn() is specific to Linux and should not be used in programs intended
       to be portable.

NOTES         top

       The sigreturn() call is used by the kernel to implement signal handlers.  It
       should never be called directly.  Better yet, the specific use of the __unused
       argument varies depending on the architecture.

SEE ALSO         top

       kill(2), sigaltstack(2), signal(2), signal(7)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of release 3.21 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found
       at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux                                 2008-06-26                         SIGRETURN(2)