Signals in Linux - Catching and Ignoring Signals - sigaction

The sigaction system call has the same basic effect as signal system call: to specify how a signal should be handled by the process.

But sigaction offers more control over the signal mechanism, at the expense of more complexity. In particular, sigaction allows you to specify additional flags to control when the signal is generated and how the handler is invoked.

Hence for reference we can say that sigaction is more like opensource Linux OS flavours more options, more control and complex for normal users than the proprietary stuff.

#include <signal.h>

int sigaction(int signum, const struct sigaction *action,struct sigaction *oldaction);

signum specifies the signal and can be any valid signal except SIGKILL and SIGSTOP.

The action argument is used to set up a new action for the signal signum, while the oldaction argument is used to return information about the action previously associated with this symbol. If action is non-null, the new action for signal signum is installed from action. If oldaction is non-null, the previous action is saved in oldaction.

For more information checkout: man 2 sigaction

struct sigaction {
 void     (*sa_handler)(int);   /*SIG_DFL, SIG_IGN, or
                                a function pointer*/
 void     (*sa_sigaction)(int, siginfo_t *, void *);
 sigset_t   sa_mask;
 int        sa_flags;
 void     (*sa_restorer)(void);
};

Portability Note: The basic signal function is a feature of ISO C, while sigaction is part of the POSIX.1 standard. If you are concerned about portability to non-POSIX systems, then you should use the signal function instead.

static volatile sig_atomic_t doneflag = 0;

int main (void) {
 struct sigaction act;

 act.sa_handler = setdoneflag;/* set up signal handler */
 act.sa_flags = 0;
 if ((sigemptyset(&act.sa_mask) == -1) ||
       (sigaction(SIGINT, &act, NULL) == -1)) {
     perror("Failed to set SIGINT handler");
     return 1;
 }

 while (!doneflag) {
     printf("press CTRL+C to kill the loop\n");
     sleep(1);
 }

 printf("Program terminating ...\n");
 return 0;
}

Output:
$ ./a.out
press CTRL+C to kill the Loop
press CTRL+C to kill the Loop
^C

In SignalHandler - setdoneflag
Program terminating ...

sig_atomic_t is an integer type that is guaranteed by the standard to not be partially written or partially read in the presence of asynchronous interrupts.

If we set act.sa_handler as SIG_DFL then the program simply terminates. If we set act.sa_handler as SIG_IGN then the program simply keeps on looping as we are ignoring the SIG_INT signal.

In the POSIX base standard, a signal handler is an ordinary function that returns void and has one integer parameter. When the operating system delivers the signal, it sets this parameter to the number of the signal that was delivered. Most signal handlers ignore this value, but it is possible to have a single signal handler for many signals. The usefulness of signal handlers is limited by the inability to pass values to them. This capability has been added to the POSIX:RTS and POSIX:XSI Extensions, which can use the alternative sa_sigaction field of the struct sigaction structure to specify a handler.

If SA_SIGINFO is specified in sa_flags, then sa_sigaction (instead of sa_handler) specifies the signal-handling function for signum. This function receives the signal number as its first argument, a pointer to a siginfo_t as its second argument and a pointer to ucontext_t (cast to void *) as its third argument. The siginfo_t argument to sa_sigaction is a struct with the following elements:

siginfo_t {
   int      si_signo;    /* Signal number */
   int      si_errno;    /* An errno value */
   int      si_code;     /* Signal code */
   int      si_trapno;   /* Trap number that caused
                       hardware-generated signal
                       (unused on most architectures)*/
   pid_t    si_pid;      /* Sending process ID */
   uid_t    si_uid;      /* Real user ID of sending
                         process */
   int      si_status;   /* Exit value or signal */
   clock_t  si_utime;    /* User time consumed */
   clock_t  si_stime;    /* System time consumed */
   sigval_t si_value;    /* Signal value */
   int      si_int;      /* POSIX.1b signal */
   void    *si_ptr;      /* POSIX.1b signal */
   int      si_overrun;  /* Timer overrun count;
                         POSIX.1b timers */
   int      si_timerid;  /* Timer ID; POSIX.1b timers */
   void    *si_addr;     /* Memory location which
                         caused fault */
   int      si_band;     /* Band event */
   int      si_fd;       /* File descriptor */
}

NOTE: si_signo, si_errno and si_code are defined for all signals (si_errno is generally unused on Linux). The rest of the struct may be a union, so that one should only read the fields that are meaningful for the given signal.

static volatile sig_atomic_t doneflag = 0;

static void setdoneflag(int sig, siginfo_t *siginfo, void *context)
{
  printf ("Signo     -  %d\n",siginfo->si_signo);
  printf ("SigCode   -  %d\n",siginfo->si_code);
  doneflag = 1;
}

int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
  struct sigaction act;

  memset (&act, '\0', sizeof(act));

  act.sa_sigaction = &setdoneflag;

  act.sa_flags = SA_SIGINFO;

  if (sigaction(SIGINT, &act, NULL) < 0) {
      perror ("sigaction");
      return 1;
  }

  while (!doneflag) {
      printf("press CTRL+C to kill the Loop\n");
      sleep(1);
  }

  printf("Program terminating ...\n");
  return 0;
}

Output:

$ ./a.out
press CTRL+C to kill the Loop
press CTRL+C to kill the Loop
^C
Signo     -  2
SigCode   -  128
Program terminating ...
$ 

Signals in Linux - Catching and Ignoring Signals - signal

The simplest way to change the action for a signal is to use the signal system call. You can specify a built-in action (such as to ignore the signal), or you can establish a handler.

#include <signal.h>

typedef void (*sighandler_t)(int);

sighandler_t signal(int signum, sighandler_t handler)

signal sets the disposition of the signal signum to handler, which is either SIG_IGN, SIG_DFL, or the address of a programmer-defined function (a "signal handler").

NOTE: The signals SIGKILL and SIGSTOP cannot be caught or ignored. The effects of signal system call in a multithreaded process are unspecified.

For more information checkout: man 2 signal

NOTE: The behavior of signal system call varies across different UNIX versions, and has also varied historically across different versions of Linux. Avoid its use: use sigaction system call instead. Check man 2 signal for detailed information about various portability issues.

#include <signal.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

static volatile sig_atomic_t doneflag = 0;

static void setdoneflag(int signo) {
    printf("\nIn SignalHandler - setdoneflag\n");
    doneflag = 1;
}

int main (void) {

    signal(SIGINT, setdoneflag);

    while (!doneflag) {
        printf("press CTRL+C to kill the Loop\n");
        sleep(1);
    }

    printf("Program terminating ...\n");
    return 0;
}

Output:

$ ./a.out
press CTRL+C to kill the Loop
press CTRL+C to kill the Loop
press CTRL+C to kill the Loop
^C
In SignalHandler - setdoneflag
Program terminating ...
$ 

Reading a string of length 'n' from Standard Input [STDIN]

We know how to read a string from STDIN in C by using library functions like scanf, fgets and so on. By using these functions there is a chance for memory corruption and strange behaviour. For example while using scanf if we try to save a string of length more than the variable size there is a chance of memory corruption.

So here in this post I am just trying to implement a function capable to read a string of length 'n' from STDIN without memory corruption and other bugs.

Do help me by checking the code if there is a chance for further improvements.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

#define BUF_SIZE 6
#define STRING_SIZE 4

/*
 * void getStringStdin(char *, int , int );
 *
 * 1: BUF        :Pointer to the array of characters where input string 
is to be stored.
 * 2: BUF_LEN    :Is the length of the array of characters where the 
string is stored.buffer where we save the string.
 * 3: STRING_LEN :Is the length of the string.
 *
 * NOTE: STRING_LEN < BUF_LEN
 *
*/

getStringStdin(char *buf, int buf_len, int str_len)
{
  int ch, len;
  char *s;

  if(str_len>=buf_len)
  len=buf_len-1;
  else
  len=str_len;

  printf ("\nEnter string of length %d(Remaining is ignored): ",len);

  if( (fgets(buf, len+1, stdin)) != NULL )
  {
    s=my_strchr(buf,'\n');

    if(s!=NULL)
    {
      *s='\0';
    }
    else
    {
       while ((ch = getchar()) != '\n' && ch != EOF);
    }
  }
}

int main(void)
{
  int i=0;
  char buf[BUF_SIZE];

  do
  {
    getString(buf, BUF_SIZE, STRING_SIZE);
    printf ("\nString : %s\n", buf);
    i++;
  }while(i<2);

  return 0;
}

How to: Listing all users in a Linux machine

TO list all the users who can access a Linux machine we have to access the /etc/passwd file, which stores information about all registered users of that machine. But it is not really so easy as told above since the file contains many other fields & machine trust accounts & inbuilt accounts.

We'll start by

cat /etc/passwd 

As we all know that by default all the users created will have their home directories in /home share so we'll modify our command a bit by using grep. Now it'll be

cat /etc/passwd | grep "/home"

Now we'll get all the user accounts which have their home share in /home.But the only output we need is the list of users & nothing else. So we'll modify our command again

cat /etc/passwd | grep "/home" |cut -d: -f1

Now what we have done is that we have piped the output of previous command to another variable "cut"

What we have done here is we have added cut -d: -f1
-d: means delimiter :
-f1 means display first field of line i.e. username.

So final command is

cat /etc/passwd | grep "/home" |cut -d: -f1

This works until all your users have their home share in /home. If you have defined their home share to some other destination. Modify the above command accordingly.

Signals in Linux - Generating Signals

Besides signals that are generated as a result of a hardware trap or interrupt, your program can explicitly send signals to itself or to another process.

The kill system call can be used to send any signal to any process group or process.

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <signal.h>

int kill(pid_t pid, int sig);

For more information checkout: man 2 kill

There are restrictions that prevent you from using kill to send signals to any random process. These are intended to prevent antisocial behavior such as arbitrarily killing off processes belonging to another user. In typical use, kill is used to pass signals between parent, child, and sibling processes, and in these situations you normally do have permission to send signals. The only common exception is when you run a setuid program in a child process; if the program changes its real UID as well as its effective UID, you may not have permission to send a signal. The su program does this.

A process or thread can send a signal to itself with the raise function. The raise function takes just one parameter, a signal number.

In a single-threaded program it is equivalent to kill(getpid(), sig). In a multithreaded program it is equivalent to pthread_kill(pthread_self(), sig). If the signal causes a handler to be called, raise will only return after the signal handler has returned.

#include <signal.h>

int raise(int sig);

For more information checkout: man 3 raise

#include <signal.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

static volatile sig_atomic_t doneflag = 10;

static void setdoneflag(int signo) {
    printf("\nIn SignalHandler - setdoneflag\n");
    doneflag=0;
}

int main (void) {

    signal(SIGINT, setdoneflag);

    while(doneflag--)
    {
        printf("In While loop - %d\n",doneflag);
        if(doneflag==5)
        raise(2);
        else
        sleep(1);
    }

    printf("Program terminating ...\n");
    return 0;
}