'\" et
.TH POSIX_SPAWN "3P" 2013 "IEEE/The Open Group" "POSIX Programmer's Manual"
.SH 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.

.SH NAME
posix_spawn,
posix_spawnp
\(em spawn a process
(\fBADVANCED REALTIME\fP)
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
.nf
#include <spawn.h>
.P
int posix_spawn(pid_t *restrict \fIpid\fP, const char *restrict \fIpath\fP,
    const posix_spawn_file_actions_t *\fIfile_actions\fP,
    const posix_spawnattr_t *restrict \fIattrp\fP,
    char *const \fIargv\fP[restrict], char *const \fIenvp\fP[restrict]);
int posix_spawnp(pid_t *restrict \fIpid\fP, const char *restrict \fIfile\fP,
    const posix_spawn_file_actions_t *\fIfile_actions\fP,
    const posix_spawnattr_t *restrict \fIattrp\fP,
    char *const \fIargv\fP[restrict], char *const \fIenvp\fP[restrict]);
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
functions shall create a new process (child process) from the specified
process image. The new process image shall be constructed from a regular
executable file called the new process image file.
.P
When a C program is executed as the result of this call, it shall be
entered as a C-language function call as follows:
.sp
.RS 4
.nf
\fB
int main(int \fIargc\fP, char *\fIargv\fP[]);
.fi \fR
.P
.RE
.P
where
.IR argc
is the argument count and
.IR argv
is an array of character pointers to the arguments themselves. In
addition, the following variable:
.sp
.RS 4
.nf
\fB
extern char **environ;
.fi \fR
.P
.RE
.P
shall be initialized as a pointer to an array of character pointers to
the environment strings.
.P
The argument
.IR argv
is an array of character pointers to null-terminated strings. The last
member of this array shall be a null pointer and is not
counted in
.IR argc .
These strings constitute the argument list available to the new process
image. The value in
.IR argv [0]
should point to a filename string that is associated with the process
image being started by the
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
or
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
function.
.P
The argument
.IR envp
is an array of character pointers to null-terminated strings. These
strings constitute the environment for the new process image. The
environment array is terminated by a null pointer.
.P
The number of bytes available for the combined argument
and environment lists of the child process is
{ARG_MAX}.
The implementation shall specify in the system documentation (see the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2008,
.IR "Chapter 2" ", " "Conformance")
whether any list overhead, such as length words, null
terminators, pointers, or alignment bytes, is included in this total.
.P
The
.IR path
argument to
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
is a pathname that identifies the new process image file to execute.
.P
The
.IR file
parameter to
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
shall be used to construct a pathname that identifies the new process
image file. If the
.IR file
parameter contains a
<slash>
character, the
.IR file
parameter shall be used as the pathname for the new process image
file. Otherwise, the path prefix for this file shall be obtained by a
search of the directories passed as the environment variable
.IR PATH
(see the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2008,
.IR "Chapter 8" ", " "Environment Variables").
If this environment variable is not defined, the results of the search
are implementation-defined.
.P
If
.IR file_actions
is a null pointer, then file descriptors open in the calling process
shall remain open in the child process, except for those whose
close-on-\c
.IR exec
flag FD_CLOEXEC is set (see
.IR "\fIfcntl\fR\^(\|)").
For those file descriptors that remain open, all attributes of the
corresponding open file descriptions, including file locks (see
.IR "\fIfcntl\fR\^(\|)"),
shall remain unchanged.
.P
If
.IR file_actions
is not NULL, then the file descriptors open in the child process shall
be those open in the calling process as modified by the spawn file
actions object pointed to by
.IR file_actions
and the FD_CLOEXEC flag of each remaining open file descriptor after
the spawn file actions have been processed. The effective order of
processing the spawn file actions shall be:
.IP " 1." 4
The set of open file descriptors for the child process shall initially
be the same set as is open for the calling process. All attributes of
the corresponding open file descriptions, including file locks (see
.IR "\fIfcntl\fR\^(\|)"),
shall remain unchanged.
.IP " 2." 4
The signal mask, signal default actions, and the effective user and
group IDs for the child process shall be changed as specified in the
attributes object referenced by
.IR attrp .
.IP " 3." 4
The file actions specified by the spawn file actions object shall be
performed in the order in which they were added to the spawn file
actions object.
.IP " 4." 4
Any file descriptor that has its FD_CLOEXEC flag set (see
.IR "\fIfcntl\fR\^(\|)")
shall be closed.
.P
If file descriptor 0, 1, or 2 would otherwise be closed in the new
process image created by
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
or
\fIposix_spawnp\fR(),
implementations may open an unspecified file for the file descriptor in
the new process image. If a standard utility or a conforming application
is executed with file descriptor 0 not open for reading or with file
descriptor 1 or 2 not open for writing, the environment in which the
utility or application is executed shall be deemed non-conforming, and
consequently the utility or application might not behave as described
in this standard.
.P
The
.BR posix_spawnattr_t
spawn attributes object type is defined in
.IR <spawn.h> .
It shall contain at least the attributes defined below.
.P
If the POSIX_SPAWN_SETPGROUP flag is set in the
.IR spawn-flags
attribute
of the object referenced by
.IR attrp ,
and the
.IR spawn-pgroup
attribute of the same object is non-zero, then the child's process
group shall be as specified in the
.IR spawn-pgroup
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp .
.P
As a special case, if the POSIX_SPAWN_SETPGROUP flag is set in the
.IR spawn-flags
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp ,
and the
.IR spawn-pgroup
attribute of the same object is set to zero, then the child shall be in
a new process group with a process group ID equal to its process ID.
.P
If the POSIX_SPAWN_SETPGROUP flag is not set in the
.IR spawn-flags
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp ,
the new child process shall inherit the parent's process group.
.P
If the POSIX_SPAWN_SETSCHEDPARAM flag is set in the
.IR spawn-flags
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp ,
but POSIX_SPAWN_SETSCHEDULER is not set, the new process image shall
initially have the scheduling policy of the calling process with the
scheduling parameters specified in the
.IR spawn-schedparam
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp .
.P
If the POSIX_SPAWN_SETSCHEDULER flag is set in the
.IR spawn-flags
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp
(regardless of the setting of the POSIX_SPAWN_SETSCHEDPARAM flag), the
new process image shall initially have the scheduling policy specified
in the
.IR spawn-schedpolicy
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp
and the scheduling parameters specified in the
.IR spawn-schedparam
attribute of the same object.
.P
The POSIX_SPAWN_RESETIDS flag in the
.IR spawn-flags
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp
governs the effective user ID of the child process. If this flag is
not set, the child process shall inherit the effective user ID of the
parent process. If this flag is set, the effective user ID of the child
process shall be reset to the parent's real user ID. In either case,
if the set-user-ID mode bit of the new process image file is set, the
effective user ID of the child process shall become that file's owner
ID before the new process image begins execution.
.P
The POSIX_SPAWN_RESETIDS flag in the
.IR spawn-flags
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp
also governs the effective group ID of the child process. If this flag
is not set, the child process shall inherit the effective group ID of the
parent process. If this flag is set, the effective group ID of the child
process shall be reset to the parent's real group ID. In either case,
if the set-group-ID mode bit of the new process image file is set, the
effective group ID of the child process shall become that file's group
ID before the new process image begins execution.
.P
If the POSIX_SPAWN_SETSIGMASK flag is set in the
.IR spawn-flags
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp ,
the child process shall initially have the signal mask specified in the
.IR spawn-sigmask
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp .
.P
If the POSIX_SPAWN_SETSIGDEF flag is set in the
.IR spawn-flags
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp ,
the signals specified in the
.IR spawn-sigdefault
attribute of the same object shall be set to their default actions in
the child process. Signals set to the default action in the parent
process shall be set to the default action in the child process.
.P
Signals set to be caught by the calling process shall be set to the
default action in the child process.
.P
Except for SIGCHLD, signals set to be ignored by the calling process
image shall be set to be ignored by the child process, unless otherwise
specified by the POSIX_SPAWN_SETSIGDEF flag being set in the
.IR spawn-flags
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp
and the signals being indicated in the
.IR spawn-sigdefault
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp .
.P
If the SIGCHLD signal is set to be ignored by the calling process, it
is unspecified whether the SIGCHLD signal is set to be ignored or to
the default action in the child process, unless otherwise specified by
the POSIX_SPAWN_SETSIGDEF flag being set in the
.IR spawn_flags
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp
and the SIGCHLD signal being indicated in the
.IR spawn_sigdefault
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp .
.P
If the value of the
.IR attrp
pointer is NULL, then the default values are used.
.P
All process attributes, other than those influenced by the attributes
set in the object referenced by
.IR attrp
as specified above or by the file descriptor manipulations specified in
.IR file_actions ,
shall appear in the new process image as though
\fIfork\fR()
had been called to create a child process and then a member of the
.IR exec
family of functions had been called by the child process to execute the
new process image.
.P
It is implementation-defined whether the fork handlers are run when
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
or
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
is called.
.SH "RETURN VALUE"
Upon successful completion,
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
shall return the process ID of the child process to the parent process,
in the variable pointed to by a non-NULL
.IR pid
argument, and shall return zero as the function return value.
Otherwise, no child process shall be created, the value stored into the
variable pointed to by a non-NULL
.IR pid
is unspecified, and an error number shall be returned as the function
return value to indicate the error. If the
.IR pid
argument is a null pointer, the process ID of the child is not returned
to the caller.
.SH ERRORS
These functions may fail if:
.TP
.BR EINVAL
The value specified by
.IR file_actions
or
.IR attrp
is invalid.
.P
If this error occurs after the calling process successfully returns
from the
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
or
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
function, the child process may exit with exit status 127.
.P
If
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
or
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
fail for any of the reasons that would cause
\fIfork\fR()
or one of the
.IR exec
family of functions to fail, an error value shall be returned as
described by
\fIfork\fR()
and
.IR exec ,
respectively (or, if the error occurs after the calling process
successfully returns, the child process shall exit with exit status 127).
.P
If POSIX_SPAWN_SETPGROUP is set in the
.IR spawn-flags
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp ,
and
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
or
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
fails while changing the child's process group, an error value shall be
returned as described by
\fIsetpgid\fR()
(or, if the error occurs after the calling process successfully
returns, the child process shall exit with exit status 127).
.P
If POSIX_SPAWN_SETSCHEDPARAM is set and POSIX_SPAWN_SETSCHEDULER is not
set in the
.IR spawn-flags
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp ,
then if
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
or
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
fails for any of the reasons that would cause
\fIsched_setparam\fR()
to fail, an error value shall be returned as described by
\fIsched_setparam\fR()
(or, if the error occurs after the calling process successfully
returns, the child process shall exit with exit status 127).
.P
If POSIX_SPAWN_SETSCHEDULER is set in the
.IR spawn-flags
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp ,
and if
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
or
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
fails for any of the reasons that would cause
\fIsched_setscheduler\fR()
to fail, an error value shall be returned as described by
\fIsched_setscheduler\fR()
(or, if the error occurs after the calling process successfully
returns, the child process shall exit with exit status 127).
.P
If the
.IR file_actions
argument is not NULL, and specifies any
.IR close ,
.IR dup2 ,
or
.IR open
actions to be performed, and if
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
or
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
fails for any of the reasons that would cause
\fIclose\fR(),
\fIdup2\fR(),
or
\fIopen\fR()
to fail, an error value shall be returned as described by
\fIclose\fR(),
\fIdup2\fR(),
and
\fIopen\fR(),
respectively (or, if the error occurs after the calling process
successfully returns, the child process shall exit with exit status
127). An open file action may, by itself, result in any of the errors
described by
\fIclose\fR()
or
\fIdup2\fR(),
in addition to those described by
\fIopen\fR().
.LP
.IR "The following sections are informative."
.SH EXAMPLES
None.
.SH "APPLICATION USAGE"
These functions are part of the Spawn option and need not be
provided on all implementations.
.P
See also the APPLICATION USAGE section for
.IR "\fIexec\fR\^".
.SH RATIONALE
The
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
function and its close relation
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
have been introduced to overcome the following perceived difficulties
with
\fIfork\fR():
the
\fIfork\fR()
function is difficult or impossible to implement without swapping or
dynamic address translation.
.IP " *" 4
Swapping is generally too slow for a realtime environment.
.IP " *" 4
Dynamic address translation is not available everywhere that POSIX
might be useful.
.IP " *" 4
Processes are too useful to simply option out of POSIX whenever it must
run without address translation or other MMU services.
.P
Thus, POSIX needs process creation and file execution primitives that
can be efficiently implemented without address translation or other MMU
services.
.P
The
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
function is implementable as a library routine, but both
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
are designed as kernel operations. Also, although they may be an
efficient replacement for many
\fIfork\fR()/\c
.IR exec
pairs, their goal is to provide useful process creation primitives for
systems that have difficulty with
\fIfork\fR(),
not to provide drop-in replacements for
\fIfork\fR()/\c
.IR exec .
.P
This view of the role of
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
influenced the design of their API. It does not attempt to provide the
full functionality of
\fIfork\fR()/\c
.IR exec
in which arbitrary user-specified operations of any sort are permitted
between the creation of the child process and the execution of the new
process image; any attempt to reach that level would need to provide a
programming language as parameters. Instead,
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
are process creation primitives like the
.IR Start_Process
and
.IR Start_Process_Search
Ada language bindings package
.IR POSIX_Process_Primitives
and also like those in many operating systems that are not UNIX
systems, but with some POSIX-specific additions.
.P
To achieve its coverage goals,
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
have control of six types of inheritance: file descriptors, process
group ID, user and group ID, signal mask, scheduling, and whether each
signal ignored in the parent will remain ignored in the child, or be
reset to its default action in the child.
.P
Control of file descriptors is required to allow an independently
written child process image to access data streams opened by and even
generated or read by the parent process without being specifically
coded to know which parent files and file descriptors are to be used.
Control of the process group ID is required to control how the
job control of the child process relates to that of the parent.
.P
Control of the signal mask and signal defaulting is sufficient to
support the implementation of
\fIsystem\fR().
Although support for
\fIsystem\fR()
is not explicitly one of the goals for
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR(),
it is covered under the ``at least 50%'' coverage goal.
.P
The intention is that the normal file descriptor inheritance across
\fIfork\fR(),
the subsequent effect of the specified spawn file actions, and the
normal file descriptor inheritance across one of the
.IR exec
family of functions should fully specify open file inheritance. The
implementation need make no decisions regarding the set of open file
descriptors when the child process image begins execution, those
decisions having already been made by the caller and expressed as the
set of open file descriptors and their FD_CLOEXEC flags at the time of
the call and the spawn file actions object specified in the call. We
have been assured that in cases where the POSIX
.IR Start_Process
Ada primitives have been implemented in a library, this method of
controlling file descriptor inheritance may be implemented very easily.
.P
We can identify several problems with
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR(),
but there does not appear to be a solution that introduces fewer
problems. Environment modification for child process attributes not
specifiable via the
.IR attrp
or
.IR file_actions
arguments must be done in the parent process, and since the parent
generally wants to save its context, it is more costly than similar
functionality with
\fIfork\fR()/\c
.IR exec .
It is also complicated to modify the environment of a multi-threaded
process temporarily, since all threads must agree when it is safe for
the environment to be changed. However, this cost is only borne by
those invocations of
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
that use the additional functionality. Since extensive modifications
are not the usual case, and are particularly unlikely in time-critical
code, keeping much of the environment control out of
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
is appropriate design.
.P
The
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
functions do not have all the power of
\fIfork\fR()/\c
.IR exec .
This is to be expected. The
\fIfork\fR()
function is a wonderfully powerful operation. We do not expect to
duplicate its functionality in a simple, fast function with no special
hardware requirements. It is worth noting that
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
are very similar to the process creation operations on many operating
systems that are not UNIX systems.
.SS "Requirements"
.P
The requirements for
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
are:
.IP " *" 4
They must be implementable without an MMU or unusual hardware.
.IP " *" 4
They must be compatible with existing POSIX standards.
.P
Additional goals are:
.IP " *" 4
They should be efficiently implementable.
.IP " *" 4
They should be able to replace at least 50% of typical executions of
\fIfork\fR().
.IP " *" 4
A system with
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
and without
\fIfork\fR()
should be useful, at least for realtime applications.
.IP " *" 4
A system with
\fIfork\fR()
and the
.IR exec
family should be able to implement
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
as library routines.
.SS "Two-Syntax"
.P
POSIX
.IR exec
has several calling sequences with approximately the same
functionality. These appear to be required for compatibility with
existing practice. Since the existing practice for the
.IR posix_spawn* (\|)
functions is otherwise substantially unlike POSIX, we feel that
simplicity outweighs compatibility. There are, therefore, only two
names for the
.IR posix_spawn* (\|)
functions.
.P
The parameter list does not differ between
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR();
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
interprets the second parameter more elaborately than
\fIposix_spawn\fR().
.SS "Compatibility with POSIX.5 (Ada)"
.P
The
.IR Start_Process
and
.IR Start_Process_Search
procedures from the
.IR POSIX_Process_Primitives
package from the Ada language binding to POSIX.1 encapsulate
\fIfork\fR()
and
.IR exec
functionality in a manner similar to that of
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR().
Originally, in keeping with our simplicity goal, the standard
developers had limited the capabilities of
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
to a subset of the capabilities of
.IR Start_Process
and
.IR Start_Process_Search ;
certain non-default capabilities were not supported. However, based on
suggestions by the ballot group to improve file descriptor mapping or
drop it, and on the advice of an Ada Language Bindings working group
member, the standard developers decided that
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
should be sufficiently powerful to implement
.IR Start_Process
and
.IR Start_Process_Search .
The rationale is that if the Ada language binding to such a primitive
had already been approved as an IEEE standard, there can be little
justification for not approving the functionally-equivalent parts of a
C binding. The only three capabilities provided by
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
that are not provided by
.IR Start_Process
and
.IR Start_Process_Search
are optionally specifying the child's process group ID, the set of
signals to be reset to default signal handling in the child process,
and the child's scheduling policy and parameters.
.P
For the Ada language binding for
.IR Start_Process
to be implemented with
\fIposix_spawn\fR(),
that binding would need to explicitly pass an empty signal mask and the
parent's environment to
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
whenever the caller of
.IR Start_Process
allowed these arguments to default, since
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
does not provide such defaults. The ability of
.IR Start_Process
to mask user-specified signals during its execution is functionally
unique to the Ada language binding and must be dealt with in the
binding separately from the call to
\fIposix_spawn\fR().
.SS "Process Group"
.P
The process group inheritance field can be used to join the child
process with an existing process group. By assigning a value of zero to
the
.IR spawn-pgroup
attribute of the object referenced by
.IR attrp ,
the
\fIsetpgid\fR()
mechanism will place the child process in a new process group.
.SS "Threads"
.P
Without the
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
functions, systems without address translation can still use threads to
give an abstraction of concurrency. In many cases, thread creation
suffices, but it is not always a good substitute. The
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
functions are considerably ``heavier'' than thread creation. Processes
have several important attributes that threads do not. Even without
address translation, a process may have base-and-bound memory
protection. Each process has a process environment including security
attributes and file capabilities, and powerful scheduling attributes.
Processes abstract the behavior of non-uniform-memory-architecture
multi-processors better than threads, and they are more convenient to
use for activities that are not closely linked.
.P
The
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
and
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
functions may not bring support for multiple processes to every
configuration. Process creation is not the only piece of operating
system support required to support multiple processes. The total cost
of support for multiple processes may be quite high in some
circumstances. Existing practice shows that support for multiple
processes is uncommon and threads are common among ``tiny kernels''.
There should, therefore, probably continue to be AEPs for operating
systems with only one process.
.SS "Asynchronous Error Notification"
.P
A library implementation of
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
or
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
may not be able to detect all possible errors before it forks the child
process. POSIX.1\(hy2008 provides for an error indication returned from a child
process which could not successfully complete the spawn operation via a
special exit status which may be detected using the status value
returned by
\fIwait\fR(),
\fIwaitid\fR(),
and
\fIwaitpid\fR().
.P
The
.IR stat_val
interface and the macros used to interpret it are not well suited to
the purpose of returning API errors, but they are the only path
available to a library implementation. Thus, an implementation may
cause the child process to exit with exit status 127 for any error
detected during the spawn process after the
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
or
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
function has successfully returned.
.P
The standard developers had proposed using two additional macros to
interpret
.IR stat_val .
The first, WIFSPAWNFAIL, would have detected a status that indicated
that the child exited because of an error detected during the
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
or
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
operations rather than during actual execution of the child process
image; the second, WSPAWNERRNO, would have extracted the error value if
WIFSPAWNFAIL indicated a failure. Unfortunately, the ballot group
strongly opposed this because it would make a library implementation of
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
or
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
dependent on kernel modifications to
\fIwaitpid\fR()
to be able to embed special information in
.IR stat_val
to indicate a spawn failure.
.P
The 8 bits of child process exit status that are guaranteed by POSIX.1\(hy2008 to
be accessible to the waiting parent process are insufficient to
disambiguate a spawn error from any other kind of error that may be
returned by an arbitrary process image. No other bits of the exit
status are required to be visible in
.IR stat_val ,
so these macros could not be strictly implemented at the library level.
Reserving an exit status of 127 for such spawn errors is consistent
with the use of this value by
\fIsystem\fR()
and
\fIpopen\fR()
to signal failures in these operations that occur after the function
has returned but before a shell is able to execute. The exit status of
127 does not uniquely identify this class of error, nor does it provide
any detailed information on the nature of the failure. Note that a
kernel implementation of
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
or
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
is permitted (and encouraged) to return any possible error as the
function value, thus providing more detailed failure information to the
parent process.
.P
Thus, no special macros are available to isolate asynchronous
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
or
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
errors. Instead, errors detected by the
\fIposix_spawn\fR()
or
\fIposix_spawnp\fR()
operations in the context of the child process before the new process
image executes are reported by setting the child's exit status to 127.
The calling process may use the WIFEXITED and WEXITSTATUS macros on the
.IR stat_val
stored by the
\fIwait\fR()
or
\fIwaitpid\fR()
functions to detect spawn failures to the extent that other status
values with which the child process image may exit (before the parent
can conclusively determine that the child process image has begun
execution) are distinct from exit status 127.
.SH "FUTURE DIRECTIONS"
None.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.ad l
.IR "\fIalarm\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIchmod\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIclose\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIdup\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIexec\fR\^",
.IR "\fIexit\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIfcntl\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIfork\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIfstatat\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIkill\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIopen\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIposix_spawn_file_actions_addclose\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIposix_spawn_file_actions_adddup2\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIposix_spawn_file_actions_destroy\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIposix_spawnattr_destroy\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIposix_spawnattr_getsigdefault\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIposix_spawnattr_getflags\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIposix_spawnattr_getpgroup\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIposix_spawnattr_getschedparam\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIposix_spawnattr_getschedpolicy\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIposix_spawnattr_getsigmask\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIsched_setparam\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIsched_setscheduler\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIsetpgid\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIsetuid\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fItimes\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIwait\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIwaitid\fR\^(\|)"
.ad b
.P
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2008,
.IR "Chapter 8" ", " "Environment Variables",
.IR "\fB<spawn.h>\fP"
.SH COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.
(This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) 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.unix.org/online.html .

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