fork函数man手册原文

  FORK(2)         Linux Programmer's Manual                

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NAME

fork - create a child process

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>

pid_t fork(void);

DESCRIPTION

   fork()  creates a new process by duplicating the calling process.  The
   new process, referred to as the child, is an exact  duplicate  of  the
   calling  process,  referred to as the parent, except for the following
   points:

   *  The child has its own unique process ID,  and  this  PID  does  not
      match the ID of any existing process group (setpgid(2)).

   *  The  child's  parent process ID is the same as the parent's process
      ID.

   *  The child does not inherit its  parent's  memory  locks  (mlock(2),
      mlockall(2)).

   *  Process  resource utilizations (getrusage(2)) and CPU time counters
      (times(2)) are reset to zero in the child.

   *  The child's set of pending signals  is  initially  empty  (sigpend‐
      ing(2)).

   *  The  child  does  not inherit semaphore adjustments from its parent
      (semop(2)).

   *  The child does not inherit record locks from its parent (fcntl(2)).


   *  The child does not inherit timers from  its  parent  (setitimer(2),
      alarm(2), timer_create(2)).

   *  The  child does not inherit outstanding asynchronous I/O operations
      from its parent (aio_read(3), aio_write(3)), nor  does  it  inherit
      any asynchronous I/O contexts from its parent (see io_setup(2)).

The process attributes in the preceding list are all specified in POSIX.1->2001. The parent and child also differ with respect to the following Linux->specific process attributes:

   *  The child does not inherit directory change notifications (dnotify)
      from its parent (see the description of F_NOTIFY in fcntl(2)).

   *  The prctl(2) PR_SET_PDEATHSIG setting is reset so  that  the  child
      does not receive a signal when its parent terminates.

   *  The  default timer slack value is set to the parent's current timer
      slack value.  See the description of PR_SET_TIMERSLACK in prctl(2).

   *  Memory  mappings  that  have  been  marked  with   the   madvise(2)
      MADV_DONTFORK flag are not inherited across a fork().

   *  The  termination  signal  of  the  child  is  always  SIGCHLD  (see
      clone(2)).

   *  The port access permission bits set by ioperm(2) are not  inherited
      by  the  child;  the  child  must turn on any bits that it requires
      using ioperm(2).

Note the following further points:

   *  The child process is created with  a  single  thread—the  one  that
      called  fork().   The entire virtual address space of the parent is
      replicated in the child, including the states of mutexes, condition
      variables, and other pthreads objects; the use of pthread_atfork(3)
      may be helpful for dealing with problems that this can cause.

   *  The child inherits copies of the parent's set of open file descrip‐
      tors.   Each  file  descriptor in the child refers to the same open
      file description (see open(2)) as the corresponding file descriptor
      in the parent.  This means that the two descriptors share open file
      status flags, current file offset, and signal-driven I/O attributes
      (see the description of F_SETOWN and F_SETSIG in fcntl(2)).

   *  The child inherits copies of the parent's set of open message queue
      descriptors (see mq_overview(7)).  Each  descriptor  in  the  child
      refers  to  the  same  open message queue description as the corre‐
      sponding descriptor  in  the  parent.   This  means  that  the  two
      descriptors share the same flags (mq_flags).
   *  The child inherits copies of the parent's set of open message queue
      descriptors (see mq_overview(7)).  Each  descriptor  in  the  child
      refers  to  the  same  open message queue description as the corre‐
      sponding descriptor  in  the  parent.   This  means  that  the  two
      descriptors share the same flags (mq_flags).

   *  The  child  inherits  copies  of the parent's set of open directory
      streams (see opendir(3)).  POSIX.1-2001 says that the corresponding
      directory  streams  in the parent and child may share the directory
      stream positioning; on Linux/glibc they do not.

RETURN VALUE

   On success, the PID of the child process is returned  in  the  parent,
   and  0  is  returned  in the child.  On failure, -1 is returned in the
   parent, no child process is created, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS

   EAGAIN fork() cannot allocate sufficient memory to copy  the  parent's
        page tables and allocate a task structure for the child.

   EAGAIN It  was  not possible to create a new process because the call‐
          er's RLIMIT_NPROC resource limit was  encountered.   To  exceed
          this  limit,  the process must have either the CAP_SYS_ADMIN or
          the CAP_SYS_RESOURCE capability.

   ENOMEM fork() failed  to  allocate  the  necessary  kernel  structures
          because memory is tight.

   ENOSYS fork() is not supported on this platform (for example, hardware
          without a Memory-Management Unit).

NOTES

   Under Linux, fork() is implemented using copy-on-write pages,  so  the
   only  penalty that it incurs is the time and memory required to dupli‐
   cate the parent's page tables, and to create a unique  task  structure
   for the child.

   Since  version  2.3.3, rather than invoking the kernel's fork() system
   call, the glibc fork() wrapper that is provided as part  of  the  NPTL
   threading  implementation invokes clone(2) with flags that provide the
   same effect as the traditional system call.   (A  call  to  fork()  is
   equivalent  to  a  call to clone(2) specifying flags as just SIGCHLD.)
   The glibc wrapper invokes any fork handlers that have been established

EXAMPLE

   See pipe(2) and wait(2).

SEE ALSO

   clone(2),  execve(2),  exit(2),  setrlimit(2),  unshare(2),  vfork(2),
   wait(2), daemon(3), capabilities(7), credentials(7) COLOPHON
   This page is part of release 3.54 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 2013-03-12 FORK(2)