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1.\" Copyright (c) 1993
2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
3.\"
a9cd9cb7 4.\" %%%LICENSE_START(BSD_4_CLAUSE_UCB)
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5.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
6.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
7.\" are met:
8.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
9.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
10.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
11.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
12.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
13.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
14.\" must display the following acknowledgement:
15.\" This product includes software developed by the University of
16.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
17.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
18.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
19.\" without specific prior written permission.
20.\"
21.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
22.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
23.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
24.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
25.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
26.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
27.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
28.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
29.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
30.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
31.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
8c9302dc 32.\" %%%LICENSE_END
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33.\"
34.\" @(#)daemon.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
35.\" Added mentioning of glibc weirdness wrt unistd.h. 5/11/98, Al Viro
1c6f59c2 36.TH DAEMON 3 2017-11-26 "GNU" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
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37.SH NAME
38daemon \- run in the background
39.SH SYNOPSIS
40.B #include <unistd.h>
68e4db0a 41.PP
fea681da 42.BI "int daemon(int " nochdir ", int " noclose );
68e4db0a 43.PP
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44.in -4n
45Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see
46.BR feature_test_macros (7)):
47.in
68e4db0a 48.PP
cc4615cc 49.BR daemon ():
2c767761 50.nf
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51 Since glibc 2.21:
52.\" commit 266865c0e7b79d4196e2cc393693463f03c90bd8
53 _DEFAULT_SOURCE
54 In glibc 2.19 and 2.20:
55 _DEFAULT_SOURCE || (_XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE\ <\ 500)
56 Up to and including glibc 2.19:
57 _BSD_SOURCE || (_XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE\ <\ 500)
58.fi
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59.SH DESCRIPTION
60The
61.BR daemon ()
62function is for programs wishing to detach themselves from the
63controlling terminal and run in the background as system daemons.
64.PP
5a76509a 65If
fea681da 66.I nochdir
5a76509a 67is zero,
fea681da 68.BR daemon ()
614e5d13 69changes the process's current working directory
5a76509a 70to the root directory ("/");
51a492bd 71otherwise, the current working directory is left unchanged.
fea681da 72.PP
5a76509a 73If
fea681da 74.I noclose
5a76509a 75is zero,
fea681da 76.BR daemon ()
5a76509a 77redirects standard input, standard output and standard error
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78to
79.IR /dev/null ;
5a76509a 80otherwise, no changes are made to these file descriptors.
47297adb 81.SH RETURN VALUE
fea681da 82(This function forks, and if the
fb186734 83.BR fork (2)
9fe10273 84succeeds, the parent calls
fea681da 85.\" not .IR in order not to underline _
d4fdff35 86.BR _exit (2),
fea681da 87so that further errors are seen by the child only.)
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88On success
89.BR daemon ()
90returns zero.
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91If an error occurs,
92.BR daemon ()
28d03ce9 93returns \-1 and sets
fea681da 94.I errno
db4bf819 95to any of the errors specified for the
fea681da 96.BR fork (2)
c13182ef 97and
fea681da 98.BR setsid (2).
be63524e 99.SH ATTRIBUTES
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100For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
101.BR attributes (7).
102.TS
103allbox;
104lb lb lb
105l l l.
106Interface Attribute Value
107T{
be63524e 108.BR daemon ()
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109T} Thread safety MT-Safe
110.TE
2b2581ee 111.SH CONFORMING TO
cb85526a 112Not in POSIX.1.
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113A similar function appears on the BSDs.
114The
115.BR daemon ()
116function first appeared in 4.4BSD.
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117.SH NOTES
118The glibc implementation can also return \-1 when
119.I /dev/null
120exists but is not a character device with the expected
c13182ef 121major and minor numbers.
e787ab6d 122In this case,
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123.I errno
124need not be set.
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125.SH BUGS
126The GNU C library implementation of this function was taken from BSD,
127and does not employ the double-fork technique (i.e.,
128.BR fork (2),
129.BR setsid (2),
130.BR fork (2))
131that is necessary to ensure that the resulting daemon process is
132not a session leader.
133Instead, the resulting daemon
134.I is
135a session leader.
dbbdefa5 136.\" FIXME . https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=19144
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137.\" Tested using a program that uses daemon() and then opens an
138.\" otherwise unused console device (/dev/ttyN) that does not
139.\" have an associated getty process.
140On systems that follow System V semantics (e.g., Linux),
141this means that if the daemon opens a terminal that is not
142already a controlling terminal for another session,
143then that terminal will inadvertently become
144the controlling terminal for the daemon.
47297adb 145.SH SEE ALSO
e37e3282 146.BR fork (2),
8f7a89b0 147.BR setsid (2),
940bdd7e 148.BR daemon (7),
8f7a89b0 149.BR logrotate (8)