WAITID(3P) POSIX Programmer's Manual WAITID(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.
NAMEwaitid - wait for a child process to change state
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/wait.h>
int waitid(idtype_t idtype, id_t id, siginfo_t *infop, int options);
DESCRIPTION
The waitid() function shall suspend the calling thread until one child
of the process containing the calling thread changes state. It records
the current state of a child in the structure pointed to by infop. If a
child process changed state prior to the call to waitid(), waitid()
shall return immediately. If more than one thread is suspended in
wait() or waitpid() waiting for termination of the same process,
exactly one thread shall return the process status at the time of the
target process termination.
The idtype and id arguments are used to specify which children waitid()
waits for.
If idtype is P_PID, waitid() shall wait for the child with a process ID
equal to (pid_t)id.
If idtype is P_PGID, waitid() shall wait for any child with a process
group ID equal to (pid_t)id.
If idtype is P_ALL, waitid() shall wait for any children and id is
ignored.
The options argument is used to specify which state changes waitid()
shall wait for. It is formed by OR'ing together one or more of the fol‐
lowing flags:
WEXITED
Wait for processes that have exited.
WSTOPPED
Status shall be returned for any child that has stopped upon
receipt of a signal.
WCONTINUED
Status shall be returned for any child that was stopped and has
been continued.
WNOHANG
Return immediately if there are no children to wait for.
WNOWAIT
Keep the process whose status is returned in infop in a waitable
state. This shall not affect the state of the process; the
process may be waited for again after this call completes.
The application shall ensure that the infop argument points to a sig‐
info_t structure. If waitid() returns because a child process was found
that satisfied the conditions indicated by the arguments idtype and
options, then the structure pointed to by infop shall be filled in by
the system with the status of the process. The si_signo member shall
always be equal to SIGCHLD.
RETURN VALUE
If WNOHANG was specified and there are no children to wait for, 0 shall
be returned. If waitid() returns due to the change of state of one of
its children, 0 shall be returned. Otherwise, -1 shall be returned and
errno set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The waitid() function shall fail if:
ECHILD The calling process has no existing unwaited-for child pro‐
cesses.
EINTR The waitid() function was interrupted by a signal.
EINVAL An invalid value was specified for options, or idtype and id
specify an invalid set of processes.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
None.
APPLICATION USAGE
None.
RATIONALE
None.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSOexec(), exit(), wait(), the Base Definitions volume of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <sys/wait.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. 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.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2003 WAITID(3P)
