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SIGEVENT(7)                   Linux Programmer's Manual                   SIGEVENT(7)

NAME         top

       struct sigevent - structure for notification from asynchronous routines

SYNOPSIS         top

       union sigval {          /* Data passed with notification */
           int     sival_int;         /* Integer value */
           void   *sival_ptr;         /* Pointer value */
       };

       struct sigevent {
           int          sigev_notify; /* Notification method */
           int          sigev_signo;  /* Notification signal */
           union sigval sigev_value;  /* Data passed with
                                         notification */
           void       (*sigev_notify_function) (union sigval);
                            /* Function used for thread
                               notification (SIGEV_THREAD) */
           void        *sigev_notify_attributes;
                            /* Attributes for notification thread
                               (SIGEV_THREAD) */
           pid_t        sigev_notify_thread_id;
                            /* ID of thread to signal (SIGEV_THREAD_ID) */
       };

DESCRIPTION         top

       The sigevent structure is used by various APIs to describe the way a process
       is to be notified about an event (e.g., completion of an asynchronous request,
       expiration of a timer, or the arrival of a message).

       The definition shown in the SYNOPSIS is approximate: some of the fields in the
       sigevent structure may be defined as part of a union.  Programs should only
       employ those fields relevant to the value specified in sigev_notify.

       The sigev_notify field specifies how notification is to be performed.  This
       field can have one of the following values:

       SIGEV_NONE
               A "null" notification: don't do anything when the event occurs.

       SIGEV_SIGNAL
               Notify the process by sending the signal specified in sigev_signo.

               If the signal is caught with a signal handler that was registered
               using the sigaction(2) SA_SIGINFO flag, then the following fields are
               set in the siginfo_t structure that is passed as the second argument
               of the handler:

               si_code   This field is set to a value that depends on the API
                         delivering the notification.

               si_signo  This field is set to the signal number (i.e., the same value
                         as in sigev_signo).

               si_value  This field is set to the value specified in sigev_value.

               Depending on the API, other fields may also be set in the siginfo_t
               structure.

               The same information is also available if the signal is accepted using
               sigwaitinfo(2).

       SIGEV_THREAD
               Notify the process by invoking sigev_notify_function "as if" it were
               the start function of a new thread.  (Among the implementation
               possibilities here are that each timer notification could result in
               the creation of a new thread, or that a single thread is created to
               receive all notifications.)  The function is invoked with sigev_value
               as its sole argument.  If sigev_notify_attributes is not NULL, it
               should point to a pthread_attr_t structure that defines attributes for
               the new thread (see pthread_attr_init(3)).

       SIGEV_THREAD_ID (Linux-specific)
               Currently used only by POSIX timers; see timer_create(2).

CONFORMING TO         top

       POSIX.1-2001.

SEE ALSO         top

       timer_create(2), aio_fsync(3), aio_read(3), aio_write(3), getaddrinfo_a(3),
       lio_listio(3), mq_notify(3), aio(7), pthreads(7)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of release 3.32 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/.

GNU                                   2010-10-04                          SIGEVENT(7)

HTML rendering created 2010-12-03 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface

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