List of Processes Subroutines

AIX Version 4.3 General Programming Concepts: Writing and Debugging Programs

List of Processes Subroutines

With the introduction of threads in the operating system, several process subroutines have been extended and other subroutines have been added. Threads, not processes, are now the schedulable entity. For signals, the handler exists at the process level, but each thread can define a signal mask. Some examples of changed or new subroutines are: getprocs, getthrds, ptrace, getpri, setpri, yield and sigprocmask.

Initiation

Process Initiation

exec:, execl, execv, execle, execve, execlp, execvp, or exect
	Executes new programs in the calling process.
fork or vfork	Creates a new process.
reboot	Restarts the system.
siginterrupt	Sets subroutines to restart when they are interrupted by specific signals.

Process Suspension

pause	Suspends a process until that process receives a signal.
wait, wait3, waitpid	Suspends a process until a child process stops or terminates.

Process Termination

abort	Terminates current process and produces a memory dump by sending a SIGOT signal.
exit, atexit, or _exit	Terminates a process.
kill or killpg	Terminates current process or group of processes with a signal.

Process and Thread Identification

ctermid	Gets the path name for the terminal that controls the current process.
cuserid	Gets the alphanumeric user name associated with the current process.
getpid, getpgrp, or getppid	Gets the process ID, process group ID, and the parent process ID.
getprocs	Gets process table entries.
getthrds	Gets thread table entries.
setpgid or setpgrp	Sets the process group ID.
setsid	Creates a session and sets process group IDs.
uname or unamex	Gets the names of the current operating system.

Process Accounting

acct	Enables and disables process accounting.
ptrace	Traces the execution of a process.

Process Resource Allocation

brk or sbrk	Changes data segment space allocation.
getdtablesize	Gets the descriptor table size.
getrlimit, setrlimit, or vlimit	Limits the use of system resources by current process.
getrusage, times, or vtimes	Displays information about resource use.
plock	Locks processes, text, and data into memory.
profil	Starts and stops program address sampling for execution profiling.
ulimit	Sets user process limits.

Process Prioritization

getpri	Returns the scheduling priority of a process.
getpriority, setpriority, or nice	Gets or sets the priority value of a process.
setpri	Sets a process scheduling priority to a constant value.
yield	Yields the processor to processes with higher priorities.

Process and Thread Synchronization

compare_and_swap	Conditionally updates or returns a single word variable atomically.
fetch_and_add	Updates a single word variable atomically.
fetch_and_and and fetch_and_or	Sets or clears bits in a single word variable atomically.
semctl	Controls semaphore operations.
semget	Gets a set of semaphores.
semop	Performs semaphore operations.

Process Signals and Masks

raise	Sends a signal to an executing program.
sigaction, sigvec, or signal	Specifies the action to take upon delivery of a signal.
sigemptyset, sigfillset, sigaddset, sigdelset, or sigismember
	Creates and manipulates signal masks.
sigpending	Determines the set of signals that are blocked from delivery.
sigprocmask, sigsetmask, or sigblock	Sets signal masks.
sigset, sighold, sigrelse, or sigignore	Enhances the signal facility and provides signal management.
sigsetjmp or siglongjmp	Saves and restores stack context and signal masks.
sigstack	Sets signal stack context.
sigsuspend	Changes the set of blocked signals.
ssignal or gsignal	Implements a software signal facility.

Process Messages

msgctl	Provides message control operations.
msgget	Displays a message queue identifier.
msgrcv	Reads messages from a queue.
msgsnd	Sends messages to the message queue.
msgxrcv	Receives an extended message.
psignal	Printing system signal messages.