restart_syscall(2) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | STANDARDS | HISTORY | NOTES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

restart_syscall(2)         System Calls Manual        restart_syscall(2)

NAME         top

       restart_syscall - restart a system call after interruption by a
       stop signal

SYNOPSIS         top

       long restart_syscall(void);

       Note: There is no glibc wrapper for this system call; see NOTES.

DESCRIPTION         top

       The restart_syscall() system call is used to restart certain
       system calls after a process that was stopped by a signal (e.g.,
       SIGSTOP or SIGTSTP) is later resumed after receiving a SIGCONT
       signal.  This system call is designed only for internal use by
       the kernel.

       restart_syscall() is used for restarting only those system calls
       that, when restarted, should adjust their time-related
       parameters—namely poll(2) (since Linux 2.6.24), nanosleep(2)
       (since Linux 2.6), clock_nanosleep(2) (since Linux 2.6), and
       futex(2), when employed with the FUTEX_WAIT (since Linux 2.6.22)
       and FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET (since Linux 2.6.31) operations.
       restart_syscall() restarts the interrupted system call with a
       time argument that is suitably adjusted to account for the time
       that has already elapsed (including the time where the process
       was stopped by a signal).  Without the restart_syscall()
       mechanism, restarting these system calls would not correctly
       deduct the already elapsed time when the process continued
       execution.

RETURN VALUE         top

       The return value of restart_syscall() is the return value of
       whatever system call is being restarted.

ERRORS         top

       errno is set as per the errors for whatever system call is being
       restarted by restart_syscall().

STANDARDS         top

       Linux.

HISTORY         top

       Linux 2.6.

NOTES         top

       There is no glibc wrapper for this system call, because it is
       intended for use only by the kernel and should never be called by
       applications.

       The kernel uses restart_syscall() to ensure that when a system
       call is restarted after a process has been stopped by a signal
       and then resumed by SIGCONT, then the time that the process spent
       in the stopped state is counted against the timeout interval
       specified in the original system call.  In the case of system
       calls that take a timeout argument and automatically restart
       after a stop signal plus SIGCONT, but which do not have the
       restart_syscall() mechanism built in, then, after the process
       resumes execution, the time that the process spent in the stop
       state is not counted against the timeout value.  Notable examples
       of system calls that suffer this problem are ppoll(2), select(2),
       and pselect(2).

       From user space, the operation of restart_syscall() is largely
       invisible: to the process that made the system call that is
       restarted, it appears as though that system call executed and
       returned in the usual fashion.

SEE ALSO         top

       sigaction(2), sigreturn(2), signal(7)

COLOPHON         top

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Linux man-pages 6.9.1          2024-05-02             restart_syscall(2)

Pages that refer to this page: lsfd(1)clock_nanosleep(2)futex(2)nanosleep(2)poll(2)ptrace(2)select(2)sigaction(2)sigreturn(2)syscalls(2)signal(7)