man2/prctl.2

   1 .\" Copyright (C) 1998 Andries Brouwer (aeb@cwi.nl)
   2 .\" and Copyright (C) 2002, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2013 Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
   3 .\" and Copyright Guillem Jover <guillem@hadrons.org>
   4 .\" and Copyright (C) 2014 Dave Hansen / Intel
   5 .\"
   6 .\" %%%LICENSE_START(VERBATIM)
   7 .\" Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
   8 .\" manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
   9 .\" preserved on all copies.
  10 .\"
  11 .\" Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
  12 .\" manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
  13 .\" entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
  14 .\" permission notice identical to this one.
  15 .\"
  16 .\" Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this
  17 .\" manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date.  The author(s) assume no
  18 .\" responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from
  19 .\" the use of the information contained herein.  The author(s) may not
  20 .\" have taken the same level of care in the production of this manual,
  21 .\" which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working
  22 .\" professionally.
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  24 .\" Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by
  25 .\" the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work.
  26 .\" %%%LICENSE_END
  27 .\"
  28 .\" Modified Thu Nov 11 04:19:42 MET 1999, aeb: added PR_GET_PDEATHSIG
  29 .\" Modified 27 Jun 02, Michael Kerrisk
  30 .\"     Added PR_SET_DUMPABLE, PR_GET_DUMPABLE,
  31 .\"     PR_SET_KEEPCAPS, PR_GET_KEEPCAPS
  32 .\" Modified 2006-08-30 Guillem Jover <guillem@hadrons.org>
  33 .\"     Updated Linux versions where the options where introduced.
  34 .\"     Added PR_SET_TIMING, PR_GET_TIMING, PR_SET_NAME, PR_GET_NAME,
  35 .\"     PR_SET_UNALIGN, PR_GET_UNALIGN, PR_SET_FPEMU, PR_GET_FPEMU,
  36 .\"     PR_SET_FPEXC, PR_GET_FPEXC
  37 .\" 2008-04-29 Serge Hallyn, Document PR_CAPBSET_READ and PR_CAPBSET_DROP
  38 .\" 2008-06-13 Erik Bosman, <ejbosman@cs.vu.nl>
  39 .\"     Document PR_GET_TSC and PR_SET_TSC.
  40 .\" 2008-06-15 mtk, Document PR_SET_SECCOMP, PR_GET_SECCOMP
  41 .\" 2009-10-03 Andi Kleen, document PR_MCE_KILL
  42 .\" 2012-04 Cyrill Gorcunov, Document PR_SET_MM
  43 .\" 2012-04-25 Michael Kerrisk, Document PR_TASK_PERF_EVENTS_DISABLE and
  44 .\"                             PR_TASK_PERF_EVENTS_ENABLE
  45 .\" 2012-09-20 Kees Cook, update PR_SET_SECCOMP for mode 2
  46 .\" 2012-09-20 Kees Cook, document PR_SET_NO_NEW_PRIVS, PR_GET_NO_NEW_PRIVS
  47 .\" 2012-10-25 Michael Kerrisk, Document PR_SET_TIMERSLACK and
  48 .\"                             PR_GET_TIMERSLACK
  49 .\" 2013-01-10 Kees Cook, document PR_SET_PTRACER
  50 .\" 2012-02-04 Michael kerrisk, document PR_{SET,GET}_CHILD_SUBREAPER
  51 .\" 2014-11-10 Dave Hansen, document PR_MPX_{EN,DIS}ABLE_MANAGEMENT
  52 .\"
  53 .\"
  54 .TH PRCTL 2 2015-05-07 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
  55 .SH NAME
  56 prctl \- operations on a process
  57 .SH SYNOPSIS
  58 .nf
  59 .B #include <sys/prctl.h>
  60 .sp
  61 .BI "int prctl(int " option ", unsigned long " arg2 ", unsigned long " arg3 ,
  62 .BI "          unsigned long " arg4 ", unsigned long " arg5 );
  63 .fi
  64 .SH DESCRIPTION
  65 .BR prctl ()
  66 is called with a first argument describing what to do
  67 (with values defined in \fI<linux/prctl.h>\fP), and further
  68 arguments with a significance depending on the first one.
  69 The first argument can be:
  70 .TP
  71 .BR PR_CAPBSET_READ " (since Linux 2.6.25)"
  72 Return (as the function result) 1 if the capability specified in
  73 .I arg2
  74 is in the calling thread's capability bounding set,
  75 or 0 if it is not.
  76 (The capability constants are defined in
  77 .IR <linux/capability.h> .)
  78 The capability bounding set dictates
  79 whether the process can receive the capability through a
  80 file's permitted capability set on a subsequent call to
  81 .BR execve (2).
  82
  83 If the capability specified in
  84 .I arg2
  85 is not valid, then the call fails with the error
  86 .BR EINVAL .
  87 .TP
  88 .BR PR_CAPBSET_DROP " (since Linux 2.6.25)"
  89 If the calling thread has the
  90 .B CAP_SETPCAP
  91 capability, then drop the capability specified by
  92 .I arg2
  93 from the calling thread's capability bounding set.
  94 Any children of the calling thread will inherit the newly
  95 reduced bounding set.
  96
  97 The call fails with the error:
  98 .B EPERM
  99 if the calling thread does not have the
 100 .BR CAP_SETPCAP ;
 101 .BR EINVAL
 102 if
 103 .I arg2
 104 does not represent a valid capability; or
 105 .BR EINVAL
 106 if file capabilities are not enabled in the kernel,
 107 in which case bounding sets are not supported.
 108 .TP
 109 .BR PR_SET_CHILD_SUBREAPER " (since Linux 3.4)"
 110 .\" commit ebec18a6d3aa1e7d84aab16225e87fd25170ec2b
 111 If
 112 .I arg2
 113 is nonzero,
 114 set the "child subreaper" attribute of the calling process;
 115 if
 116 .I arg2
 117 is zero, unset the attribute.
 118 When a process is marked as a child subreaper,
 119 all of the children that it creates, and their descendants,
 120 will be marked as having a subreaper.
 121 In effect, a subreaper fulfills the role of
 122 .BR init (1)
 123 for its descendant processes.
 124 Upon termination of a process
 125 that is orphaned (i.e., its immediate parent has already terminated)
 126 and marked as having a subreaper,
 127 the nearest still living ancestor subreaper
 128 will receive a
 129 .BR SIGCHLD
 130 signal and be able to
 131 .BR wait (2)
 132 on the process to discover its termination status.
 133 .TP
 134 .BR PR_GET_CHILD_SUBREAPER " (since Linux 3.4)"
 135 Return the "child subreaper" setting of the caller,
 136 in the location pointed to by
 137 .IR "(int\ *) arg2" .
 138 .TP
 139 .BR PR_SET_DUMPABLE " (since Linux 2.3.20)"
 140 Set the state of the "dumpable" flag,
 141 which determines whether core dumps are produced for the calling process
 142 upon delivery of a signal whose default behavior is to produce a core dump.
 143
 144 In kernels up to and including 2.6.12,
 145 .I arg2
 146 must be either 0
 147 .RB ( SUID_DUMP_DISABLE ,
 148 process is not dumpable) or 1
 149 .RB ( SUID_DUMP_USER ,
 150 process is dumpable).
 151 Between kernels 2.6.13 and 2.6.17,
 152 .\" commit abf75a5033d4da7b8a7e92321d74021d1fcfb502
 153 the value 2 was also permitted,
 154 which caused any binary which normally would not be dumped
 155 to be dumped readable by root only;
 156 for security reasons, this feature has been removed.
 157 .\" See http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=115270289030630&w=2
 158 .\" Subject:    Fix prctl privilege escalation (CVE-2006-2451)
 159 .\" From:       Marcel Holtmann <marcel () holtmann ! org>
 160 .\" Date:       2006-07-12 11:12:00
 161 (See also the description of
 162 .I /proc/sys/fs/\:suid_dumpable
 163 in
 164 .BR proc (5).)
 165
 166 Normally, this flag is set to 1.
 167 However, it is reset to the current value contained in the file
 168 .IR /proc/sys/fs/\:suid_dumpable
 169 (which by default has the value 0),
 170 if any of the following attributes of the process
 171 are changed by the operations listed below:
 172 .\" See kernel/cred.c::commit_creds() (Linux 3.18 sources)
 173 .RS
 174 .IP * 3
 175 The effective user or group ID is changed.
 176 .IP *
 177 The filesystem user or group ID is changed (see
 178 .BR credentials (7)).
 179 .IP *
 180 The process's set of permitted capabilities (see
 181 .BR capabilities (7))
 182 is changed such that its new set of capabilities is
 183 not a subset of its previous set of capabilities.
 184 .RE
 185 .IP
 186 The operations that may trigger changes to the dumpable flag include:
 187 .\" Look for uses of commit_creds() in the kernel source code
 188 .RS
 189 .IP * 3
 190 execution
 191 .RB ( execve (2))
 192 of a set-user-ID or set-group-ID program,
 193 or a program that has capabilities (see
 194 .BR capabilities (7));
 195 .IP *
 196 .BR capset (2);
 197 and
 198 .IP *
 199 system calls that change process credentials
 200 .RB ( setuid (2)
 201 .BR setgid (2),
 202 .BR setresuid (2),
 203 .BR setresgid (2),
 204 .BR setgroups (2),
 205 and so on).
 206 .\" Also certain namespace operations;
 207 .RE
 208 .IP
 209 Processes that are not dumpable can not be attached via
 210 .BR ptrace (2)
 211 .BR PTRACE_ATTACH .
 212 .TP
 213 .BR PR_GET_DUMPABLE " (since Linux 2.3.20)"
 214 Return (as the function result) the current state of the calling
 215 process's dumpable flag.
 216 .\" Since Linux 2.6.13, the dumpable flag can have the value 2,
 217 .\" but in 2.6.13 PR_GET_DUMPABLE simply returns 1 if the dumpable
 218 .\" flags has a nonzero value.  This was fixed in 2.6.14.
 219 .TP
 220 .BR PR_SET_ENDIAN " (since Linux 2.6.18, PowerPC only)"
 221 Set the endian-ness of the calling process to the value given
 222 in \fIarg2\fP, which should be one of the following:
 223 .\" Respectively 0, 1, 2
 224 .BR PR_ENDIAN_BIG ,
 225 .BR PR_ENDIAN_LITTLE ,
 226 or
 227 .B PR_ENDIAN_PPC_LITTLE
 228 (PowerPC pseudo little endian).
 229 .TP
 230 .BR PR_GET_ENDIAN " (since Linux 2.6.18, PowerPC only)"
 231 Return the endian-ness of the calling process,
 232 in the location pointed to by
 233 .IR "(int\ *) arg2" .
 234 .TP
 235 .BR PR_SET_FPEMU " (since Linux 2.4.18, 2.5.9, only on ia64)"
 236 Set floating-point emulation control bits to \fIarg2\fP.
 237 Pass
 238 .B PR_FPEMU_NOPRINT
 239 to silently emulate floating-point operation accesses, or
 240 .B PR_FPEMU_SIGFPE
 241 to not emulate floating-point operations and send
 242 .B SIGFPE
 243 instead.
 244 .TP
 245 .BR PR_GET_FPEMU " (since Linux 2.4.18, 2.5.9, only on ia64)"
 246 Return floating-point emulation control bits,
 247 in the location pointed to by
 248 .IR "(int\ *) arg2" .
 249 .TP
 250 .BR PR_SET_FPEXC " (since Linux 2.4.21, 2.5.32, only on PowerPC)"
 251 Set floating-point exception mode to \fIarg2\fP.
 252 Pass \fBPR_FP_EXC_SW_ENABLE\fP to use FPEXC for FP exception enables,
 253 \fBPR_FP_EXC_DIV\fP for floating-point divide by zero,
 254 \fBPR_FP_EXC_OVF\fP for floating-point overflow,
 255 \fBPR_FP_EXC_UND\fP for floating-point underflow,
 256 \fBPR_FP_EXC_RES\fP for floating-point inexact result,
 257 \fBPR_FP_EXC_INV\fP for floating-point invalid operation,
 258 \fBPR_FP_EXC_DISABLED\fP for FP exceptions disabled,
 259 \fBPR_FP_EXC_NONRECOV\fP for async nonrecoverable exception mode,
 260 \fBPR_FP_EXC_ASYNC\fP for async recoverable exception mode,
 261 \fBPR_FP_EXC_PRECISE\fP for precise exception mode.
 262 .TP
 263 .BR PR_GET_FPEXC " (since Linux 2.4.21, 2.5.32, only on PowerPC)"
 264 Return floating-point exception mode,
 265 in the location pointed to by
 266 .IR "(int\ *) arg2" .
 267 .TP
 268 .BR PR_SET_KEEPCAPS " (since Linux 2.2.18)"
 269 Set the state of the thread's "keep capabilities" flag,
 270 which determines whether the threads's permitted
 271 capability set is cleared when a change is made to the threads's user IDs
 272 such that the threads's real UID, effective UID, and saved set-user-ID
 273 all become nonzero when at least one of them previously had the value 0.
 274 By default, the permitted capability set is cleared when such a change is made;
 275 setting the "keep capabilities" flag prevents it from being cleared.
 276 .I arg2
 277 must be either 0 (permitted capabilities are cleared)
 278 or 1 (permitted capabilities are kept).
 279 (A thread's
 280 .I effective
 281 capability set is always cleared when such a credential change is made,
 282 regardless of the setting of the "keep capabilities" flag.)
 283 The "keep capabilities" value will be reset to 0 on subsequent calls to
 284 .BR execve (2).
 285 .TP
 286 .BR PR_GET_KEEPCAPS " (since Linux 2.2.18)"
 287 Return (as the function result) the current state of the calling threads's
 288 "keep capabilities" flag.
 289 .TP
 290 .BR PR_SET_NAME " (since Linux 2.6.9)"
 291 Set the name of the calling thread,
 292 using the value in the location pointed to by
 293 .IR "(char\ *) arg2" .
 294 The name can be up to 16 bytes long,
 295 .\" TASK_COMM_LEN in include/linux/sched.h
 296 including the terminating null byte.
 297 (If the length of the string, including the terminating null byte,
 298 exceeds 16 bytes, the string is silently truncated.)
 299 This is the same attribute that can be set via
 300 .BR pthread_setname_np (3)
 301 and retrieved using
 302 .BR pthread_getname_np (3).
 303 The attribute is likewise accessible via
 304 .IR /proc/self/task/[tid]/comm ,
 305 where
 306 .I tid
 307 is the name of the calling thread.
 308 .TP
 309 .BR PR_GET_NAME " (since Linux 2.6.11)"
 310 Return the name of the calling thread,
 311 in the buffer pointed to by
 312 .IR "(char\ *) arg2" .
 313 The buffer should allow space for up to 16 bytes;
 314 the returned string will be null-terminated.
 315 .TP
 316 .BR PR_SET_NO_NEW_PRIVS " (since Linux 3.5)"
 317 Set the calling process's
 318 .I no_new_privs
 319 bit to the value in
 320 .IR arg2 .
 321 With
 322 .I no_new_privs
 323 set to 1,
 324 .BR execve (2)
 325 promises not to grant privileges to do anything
 326 that could not have been done without the
 327 .BR execve (2)
 328 call (for example,
 329 rendering the set-user-ID and set-group-ID mode bits,
 330 and file capabilities non-functional).
 331 Once set, this bit cannot be unset.
 332 The setting of this bit is inherited by children created by
 333 .BR fork (2)
 334 and
 335 .BR clone (2),
 336 and preserved across
 337 .BR execve (2).
 338
 339 For more information, see the kernel source file
 340 .IR Documentation/prctl/no_new_privs.txt .
 341 .TP
 342 .BR PR_GET_NO_NEW_PRIVS " (since Linux 3.5)"
 343 Return (as the function result) the value of the
 344 .I no_new_privs
 345 bit for the current process.
 346 A value of 0 indicates the regular
 347 .BR execve (2)
 348 behavior.
 349 A value of 1 indicates
 350 .BR execve (2)
 351 will operate in the privilege-restricting mode described above.
 352 .TP
 353 .BR PR_SET_PDEATHSIG " (since Linux 2.1.57)"
 354 Set the parent death signal
 355 of the calling process to \fIarg2\fP (either a signal value
 356 in the range 1..maxsig, or 0 to clear).
 357 This is the signal that the calling process will get when its
 358 parent dies.
 359 This value is cleared for the child of a
 360 .BR fork (2)
 361 and (since Linux 2.4.36 / 2.6.23)
 362 when executing a set-user-ID or set-group-ID binary,
 363 or a binary that has associated capabilities (see
 364 .BR capabilities (7)).
 365 This value is preserved across
 366 .BR execve (2).
 367
 368 .IR Warning :
 369 .\" https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=43300
 370 the "parent" in this case is considered to be the
 371 .I thread
 372 that created this process.
 373 In other words, the signal will be sent when that thread terminates
 374 (via, for example,
 375 .BR pthread_exit (3)),
 376 rather than after all of the threads in the parent process terminate.
 377 .TP
 378 .BR PR_GET_PDEATHSIG " (since Linux 2.3.15)"
 379 Return the current value of the parent process death signal,
 380 in the location pointed to by
 381 .IR "(int\ *) arg2" .
 382 .TP
 383 .BR PR_SET_PTRACER " (since Linux 3.4)"
 384 .\" commit 2d514487faf188938a4ee4fb3464eeecfbdcf8eb
 385 .\" commit bf06189e4d14641c0148bea16e9dd24943862215
 386 This is meaningful only when the Yama LSM is enabled and in mode 1
 387 ("restricted ptrace", visible via
 388 .IR /proc/sys/kernel/yama/ptrace_scope ).
 389 When a "ptracer process ID" is passed in \fIarg2\fP,
 390 the caller is declaring that the ptracer process can
 391 .BR ptrace (2)
 392 the calling process as if it were a direct process ancestor.
 393 Each
 394 .B PR_SET_PTRACER
 395 operation replaces the previous "ptracer process ID".
 396 Employing
 397 .B PR_SET_PTRACER
 398 with
 399 .I arg2
 400 set to 0 clears the caller's "ptracer process ID".
 401 If
 402 .I arg2
 403 is
 404 .BR PR_SET_PTRACER_ANY ,
 405 the ptrace restrictions introduced by Yama are effectively disabled for the
 406 calling process.
 407
 408 For further information, see the kernel source file
 409 .IR Documentation/security/Yama.txt .
 410 .TP
 411 .BR PR_SET_SECCOMP " (since Linux 2.6.23)"
 412 .\" See http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/542632
 413 .\" [PATCH 0 of 2] seccomp updates
 414 .\" andrea@cpushare.com
 415 Set the secure computing (seccomp) mode for the calling thread, to limit
 416 the available system calls.
 417 The more recent
 418 .BR seccomp (2)
 419 system call provides a superset of the functionality of
 420 .BR PR_SET_SECCOMP .
 421
 422 The seccomp mode is selected via
 423 .IR arg2 .
 424 (The seccomp constants are defined in
 425 .IR <linux/seccomp.h> .)
 426
 427 With
 428 .IR arg2
 429 set to
 430 .BR SECCOMP_MODE_STRICT ,
 431 the only system calls that the thread is permitted to make are
 432 .BR read (2),
 433 .BR write (2),
 434 .BR _exit (2)
 435 (but not
 436 .BR exit_group (2)),
 437 and
 438 .BR sigreturn (2).
 439 Other system calls result in the delivery of a
 440 .BR SIGKILL
 441 signal.
 442 Strict secure computing mode is useful for number-crunching applications
 443 that may need to execute untrusted byte code,
 444 perhaps obtained by reading from a pipe or socket.
 445 This operation is available only
 446 if the kernel is configured with
 447 .B CONFIG_SECCOMP
 448 enabled.
 449
 450 With
 451 .IR arg2
 452 set to
 453 .BR SECCOMP_MODE_FILTER " (since Linux 3.5),"
 454 the system calls allowed are defined by a pointer
 455 to a Berkeley Packet Filter passed in
 456 .IR arg3 .
 457 This argument is a pointer to
 458 .IR "struct sock_fprog" ;
 459 it can be designed to filter
 460 arbitrary system calls and system call arguments.
 461 This mode is available only if the kernel is configured with
 462 .B CONFIG_SECCOMP_FILTER
 463 enabled.
 464
 465 If
 466 .BR SECCOMP_MODE_FILTER
 467 filters permit
 468 .BR fork (2),
 469 then the seccomp mode is inherited by children created by
 470 .BR fork (2);
 471 if
 472 .BR execve (2)
 473 is permitted, then the seccomp mode is preserved across
 474 .BR execve (2).
 475 If the filters permit
 476 .BR prctl ()
 477 calls, then additional filters can be added;
 478 they are run in order until the first non-allow result is seen.
 479
 480 For further information, see the kernel source file
 481 .IR Documentation/prctl/seccomp_filter.txt .
 482 .TP
 483 .BR PR_GET_SECCOMP " (since Linux 2.6.23)"
 484 Return (as the function result)
 485 the secure computing mode of the calling thread.
 486 If the caller is not in secure computing mode, this operation returns 0;
 487 if the caller is in strict secure computing mode, then the
 488 .BR prctl ()
 489 call will cause a
 490 .B SIGKILL
 491 signal to be sent to the process.
 492 If the caller is in filter mode, and this system call is allowed by the
 493 seccomp filters, it returns 2; otherwise, the process is killed with a
 494 .BR SIGKILL
 495 signal.
 496 This operation is available only
 497 if the kernel is configured with
 498 .B CONFIG_SECCOMP
 499 enabled.
 500
 501 Since Linux 3.8, the
 502 .IR Seccomp
 503 field of the
 504 .IR /proc/[pid]/status
 505 file provides a method of obtaining the same information,
 506 without the risk that the process is killed; see
 507 .BR proc (5).
 508 .TP
 509 .BR PR_SET_SECUREBITS " (since Linux 2.6.26)"
 510 Set the "securebits" flags of the calling thread to the value supplied in
 511 .IR arg2 .
 512 See
 513 .BR capabilities (7).
 514 .TP
 515 .BR PR_GET_SECUREBITS " (since Linux 2.6.26)"
 516 Return (as the function result)
 517 the "securebits" flags of the calling thread.
 518 See
 519 .BR capabilities (7).
 520 .TP
 521 .BR PR_SET_THP_DISABLE " (since Linux 3.15)"
 522 .\" commit a0715cc22601e8830ace98366c0c2bd8da52af52
 523 Set the state of the "THP disable" flag for the calling thread.
 524 If
 525 .I arg2
 526 has a nonzero value, the flag is set, otherwise it is cleared.
 527 Setting this flag provides a method
 528 for disabling transparent huge pages
 529 for jobs where the code cannot be modified, and using a malloc hook with
 530 .BR madvise (2)
 531 is not an option (i.e., statically allocated data).
 532 The setting of the "THP disable" flag is inherited by a child created via
 533 .BR fork (2)
 534 and is preserved across
 535 .BR execve (2).
 536 .TP
 537 .BR PR_GET_THP_DISABLE " (since Linux 3.15)"
 538 Return (via the function result) the current setting of the "THP disable"
 539 flag for the calling thread:
 540 either 1, if the flag is set, or 0, if it is not.
 541 .TP
 542 .BR PR_GET_TID_ADDRESS " (since Linux 3.5)"
 543 .\" commit 300f786b2683f8bb1ec0afb6e1851183a479c86d
 544 Retrieve the
 545 .I clear_child_tid
 546 address set by
 547 .BR set_tid_address (2)
 548 and the
 549 .BR clone (2)
 550 .B CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID
 551 flag, in the location pointed to by
 552 .IR "(int\ **)\ arg2" .
 553 This feature is available only if the kernel is built with the
 554 .BR CONFIG_CHECKPOINT_RESTORE
 555 option enabled.
 556 .TP
 557 .BR PR_SET_TIMERSLACK " (since Linux 2.6.28)"
 558 .\" See https://lwn.net/Articles/369549/
 559 .\" commit 6976675d94042fbd446231d1bd8b7de71a980ada
 560 Set the current timer slack for the calling thread to the nanosecond value
 561 supplied in
 562 .IR arg2 .
 563 If
 564 .I arg2
 565 is less than or equal to zero,
 566 .\" It seems that it's not possible to set the timer slack to zero;
 567 .\" The minimum value is 1? Seems a little strange.
 568 reset the current timer slack to the thread's default timer slack value.
 569 The timer slack is used by the kernel to group timer expirations
 570 for the calling thread that are close to one another;
 571 as a consequence, timer expirations for the thread may be
 572 up to the specified number of nanoseconds late (but will never expire early).
 573 Grouping timer expirations can help reduce system power consumption
 574 by minimizing CPU wake-ups.
 575
 576 The timer expirations affected by timer slack are those set by
 577 .BR select (2),
 578 .BR pselect (2),
 579 .BR poll (2),
 580 .BR ppoll (2),
 581 .BR epoll_wait (2),
 582 .BR epoll_pwait (2),
 583 .BR clock_nanosleep (2),
 584 .BR nanosleep (2),
 585 and
 586 .BR futex (2)
 587 (and thus the library functions implemented via futexes, including
 588 .\" List obtained by grepping for futex usage in glibc source
 589 .BR pthread_cond_timedwait (3),
 590 .BR pthread_mutex_timedlock (3),
 591 .BR pthread_rwlock_timedrdlock (3),
 592 .BR pthread_rwlock_timedwrlock (3),
 593 and
 594 .BR sem_timedwait (3)).
 595
 596 Timer slack is not applied to threads that are scheduled under
 597 a real-time scheduling policy (see
 598 .BR sched_setscheduler (2)).
 599
 600 Each thread has two associated timer slack values:
 601 a "default" value, and a "current" value.
 602 The current value is the one that governs grouping
 603 of timer expirations.
 604 When a new thread is created,
 605 the two timer slack values are made the same as the current value
 606 of the creating thread.
 607 Thereafter, a thread can adjust its current timer slack value via
 608 .BR PR_SET_TIMERSLACK
 609 (the default value can't be changed).
 610 The timer slack values of
 611 .IR init
 612 (PID 1), the ancestor of all processes,
 613 are 50,000 nanoseconds (50 microseconds).
 614 The timer slack values are preserved across
 615 .BR execve (2).
 616 .TP
 617 .BR PR_GET_TIMERSLACK " (since Linux 2.6.28)"
 618 Return (as the function result)
 619 the current timer slack value of the calling thread.
 620 .TP
 621 .BR PR_SET_TIMING " (since Linux 2.6.0-test4)"
 622 Set whether to use (normal, traditional) statistical process timing or
 623 accurate timestamp-based process timing, by passing
 624 .B PR_TIMING_STATISTICAL
 625 .\" 0
 626 or
 627 .B PR_TIMING_TIMESTAMP
 628 .\" 1
 629 to \fIarg2\fP.
 630 .B PR_TIMING_TIMESTAMP
 631 is not currently implemented
 632 (attempting to set this mode will yield the error
 633 .BR EINVAL ).
 634 .\" PR_TIMING_TIMESTAMP doesn't do anything in 2.6.26-rc8,
 635 .\" and looking at the patch history, it appears
 636 .\" that it never did anything.
 637 .TP
 638 .BR PR_GET_TIMING " (since Linux 2.6.0-test4)"
 639 Return (as the function result) which process timing method is currently
 640 in use.
 641 .TP
 642 .BR PR_TASK_PERF_EVENTS_DISABLE " (since Linux 2.6.31)"
 643 Disable all performance counters attached to the calling process,
 644 regardless of whether the counters were created by
 645 this process or another process.
 646 Performance counters created by the calling process for other
 647 processes are unaffected.
 648 For more information on performance counters, see the Linux kernel source file
 649 .IR tools/perf/design.txt .
 650 .IP
 651 Originally called
 652 .BR PR_TASK_PERF_COUNTERS_DISABLE ;
 653 .\" commit 1d1c7ddbfab358445a542715551301b7fc363e28
 654 renamed (with same numerical value)
 655 in Linux 2.6.32.
 656 .TP
 657 .BR PR_TASK_PERF_EVENTS_ENABLE " (since Linux 2.6.31)"
 658 The converse of
 659 .BR PR_TASK_PERF_EVENTS_DISABLE ;
 660 enable performance counters attached to the calling process.
 661 .IP
 662 Originally called
 663 .BR PR_TASK_PERF_COUNTERS_ENABLE ;
 664 .\" commit 1d1c7ddbfab358445a542715551301b7fc363e28
 665 renamed
 666 .\" commit cdd6c482c9ff9c55475ee7392ec8f672eddb7be6
 667 in Linux 2.6.32.
 668 .TP
 669 .BR PR_SET_TSC " (since Linux 2.6.26, x86 only)"
 670 Set the state of the flag determining whether the timestamp counter
 671 can be read by the process.
 672 Pass
 673 .B PR_TSC_ENABLE
 674 to
 675 .I arg2
 676 to allow it to be read, or
 677 .B PR_TSC_SIGSEGV
 678 to generate a
 679 .B SIGSEGV
 680 when the process tries to read the timestamp counter.
 681 .TP
 682 .BR PR_GET_TSC " (since Linux 2.6.26, x86 only)"
 683 Return the state of the flag determining whether the timestamp counter
 684 can be read,
 685 in the location pointed to by
 686 .IR "(int\ *) arg2" .
 687 .TP
 688 .B PR_SET_UNALIGN
 689 (Only on: ia64, since Linux 2.3.48; parisc, since Linux 2.6.15;
 690 PowerPC, since Linux 2.6.18; Alpha, since Linux 2.6.22)
 691 Set unaligned access control bits to \fIarg2\fP.
 692 Pass
 693 \fBPR_UNALIGN_NOPRINT\fP to silently fix up unaligned user accesses,
 694 or \fBPR_UNALIGN_SIGBUS\fP to generate
 695 .B SIGBUS
 696 on unaligned user access.
 697 .TP
 698 .B PR_GET_UNALIGN
 699 (see
 700 .B PR_SET_UNALIGN
 701 for information on versions and architectures)
 702 Return unaligned access control bits, in the location pointed to by
 703 .IR "(int\ *) arg2" .
 704 .TP
 705 .BR PR_MCE_KILL " (since Linux 2.6.32)"
 706 Set the machine check memory corruption kill policy for the current thread.
 707 If
 708 .I arg2
 709 is
 710 .BR PR_MCE_KILL_CLEAR ,
 711 clear the thread memory corruption kill policy and use the system-wide default.
 712 (The system-wide default is defined by
 713 .IR /proc/sys/vm/memory_failure_early_kill ;
 714 see
 715 .BR proc (5).)
 716 If
 717 .I arg2
 718 is
 719 .BR PR_MCE_KILL_SET ,
 720 use a thread-specific memory corruption kill policy.
 721 In this case,
 722 .I arg3
 723 defines whether the policy is
 724 .I early kill
 725 .RB ( PR_MCE_KILL_EARLY ),
 726 .I late kill
 727 .RB ( PR_MCE_KILL_LATE ),
 728 or the system-wide default
 729 .RB ( PR_MCE_KILL_DEFAULT ).
 730 Early kill means that the thread receives a
 731 .B SIGBUS
 732 signal as soon as hardware memory corruption is detected inside
 733 its address space.
 734 In late kill mode, the process is killed only when it accesses a corrupted page.
 735 See
 736 .BR sigaction (2)
 737 for more information on the
 738 .BR SIGBUS
 739 signal.
 740 The policy is inherited by children.
 741 The remaining unused
 742 .BR prctl ()
 743 arguments must be zero for future compatibility.
 744 .TP
 745 .BR PR_MCE_KILL_GET " (since Linux 2.6.32)"
 746 Return the current per-process machine check kill policy.
 747 All unused
 748 .BR prctl ()
 749 arguments must be zero.
 750 .TP
 751 .BR PR_SET_MM " (since Linux 3.3)"
 752 .\" commit 028ee4be34a09a6d48bdf30ab991ae933a7bc036
 753 Modify certain kernel memory map descriptor fields
 754 of the calling process.
 755 Usually these fields are set by the kernel and dynamic loader (see
 756 .BR ld.so (8)
 757 for more information) and a regular application should not use this feature.
 758 However, there are cases, such as self-modifying programs,
 759 where a program might find it useful to change its own memory map.
 760 This feature is available only if the kernel is built with the
 761 .BR CONFIG_CHECKPOINT_RESTORE
 762 option enabled.
 763 The calling process must have the
 764 .BR CAP_SYS_RESOURCE
 765 capability.
 766 The value in
 767 .I arg2
 768 is one of the options below, while
 769 .I arg3
 770 provides a new value for the option.
 771 .RS
 772 .TP
 773 .BR PR_SET_MM_START_CODE
 774 Set the address above which the program text can run.
 775 The corresponding memory area must be readable and executable,
 776 but not writable or sharable (see
 777 .BR mprotect (2)
 778 and
 779 .BR mmap (2)
 780 for more information).
 781 .TP
 782 .BR PR_SET_MM_END_CODE
 783 Set the address below which the program text can run.
 784 The corresponding memory area must be readable and executable,
 785 but not writable or sharable.
 786 .TP
 787 .BR PR_SET_MM_START_DATA
 788 Set the address above which initialized and
 789 uninitialized (bss) data are placed.
 790 The corresponding memory area must be readable and writable,
 791 but not executable or sharable.
 792 .TP
 793 .B PR_SET_MM_END_DATA
 794 Set the address below which initialized and
 795 uninitialized (bss) data are placed.
 796 The corresponding memory area must be readable and writable,
 797 but not executable or sharable.
 798 .TP
 799 .BR PR_SET_MM_START_STACK
 800 Set the start address of the stack.
 801 The corresponding memory area must be readable and writable.
 802 .TP
 803 .BR PR_SET_MM_START_BRK
 804 Set the address above which the program heap can be expanded with
 805 .BR brk (2)
 806 call.
 807 The address must be greater than the ending address of
 808 the current program data segment.
 809 In addition, the combined size of the resulting heap and
 810 the size of the data segment can't exceed the
 811 .BR RLIMIT_DATA
 812 resource limit (see
 813 .BR setrlimit (2)).
 814 .TP
 815 .BR PR_SET_MM_BRK
 816 Set the current
 817 .BR brk (2)
 818 value.
 819 The requirements for the address are the same as for the
 820 .BR PR_SET_MM_START_BRK
 821 option.
 822 .P
 823 The following options are available since Linux 3.5.
 824 .\" commit fe8c7f5cbf91124987106faa3bdf0c8b955c4cf7
 825 .TP
 826 .BR PR_SET_MM_ARG_START
 827 Set the address above which the program command line is placed.
 828 .TP
 829 .BR PR_SET_MM_ARG_END
 830 Set the address below which the program command line is placed.
 831 .TP
 832 .BR PR_SET_MM_ENV_START
 833 Set the address above which the program environment is placed.
 834 .TP
 835 .BR PR_SET_MM_ENV_END
 836 Set the address below which the program environment is placed.
 837 .IP
 838 The address passed with
 839 .BR PR_SET_MM_ARG_START ,
 840 .BR PR_SET_MM_ARG_END ,
 841 .BR PR_SET_MM_ENV_START ,
 842 and
 843 .BR PR_SET_MM_ENV_END
 844 should belong to a process stack area.
 845 Thus, the corresponding memory area must be readable, writable, and
 846 (depending on the kernel configuration) have the
 847 .BR MAP_GROWSDOWN
 848 attribute set (see
 849 .BR mmap (2)).
 850 .TP
 851 .BR PR_SET_MM_AUXV
 852 Set a new auxiliary vector.
 853 The
 854 .I arg3
 855 argument should provide the address of the vector.
 856 The
 857 .I arg4
 858 is the size of the vector.
 859 .TP
 860 .BR PR_SET_MM_EXE_FILE
 861 .\" commit b32dfe377102ce668775f8b6b1461f7ad428f8b6
 862 Supersede the
 863 .IR /proc/pid/exe
 864 symbolic link with a new one pointing to a new executable file
 865 identified by the file descriptor provided in
 866 .I arg3
 867 argument.
 868 The file descriptor should be obtained with a regular
 869 .BR open (2)
 870 call.
 871 .IP
 872 To change the symbolic link, one needs to unmap all existing
 873 executable memory areas, including those created by the kernel itself
 874 (for example the kernel usually creates at least one executable
 875 memory area for the ELF
 876 .IR \.text
 877 section).
 878 .IP
 879 The second limitation is that such transitions can be done only once
 880 in a process life time.
 881 Any further attempts will be rejected.
 882 This should help system administrators monitor unusual
 883 symbolic-link transitions over all processes running on a system.
 884 .RE
 885 .TP
 886 .BR PR_MPX_ENABLE_MANAGEMENT ", " PR_MPX_DISABLE_MANAGEMENT " (since Linux 3.19) "
 887 .\" commit fe3d197f84319d3bce379a9c0dc17b1f48ad358c
 888 .\" See also http://lwn.net/Articles/582712/
 889 .\" See also https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/Intel%20MPX%20support%20in%20the%20GCC%20compiler
 890 Enable or disable kernel management of Memory Protection eXtensions (MPX)
 891 bounds tables.
 892 The
 893 .IR arg2 ,
 894 .IR arg3 ,
 895 .IR arg4 ,
 896 and
 897 .IR arg5
 898 .\" commit e9d1b4f3c60997fe197bf0243cb4a41a44387a88
 899 arguments must be zero.
 900
 901 MPX is a hardware-assisted mechanism for performing bounds checking on
 902 pointers.
 903 It consists of a set of registers storing bounds information
 904 and a set of special instruction prefixes that tell the CPU on which
 905 instructions it should do bounds enforcement.
 906 There is a limited number of these registers and
 907 when there are more pointers than registers,
 908 their contents must be "spilled" into a set of tables.
 909 These tables are called "bounds tables" and the MPX
 910 .BR prctl ()
 911 operations control
 912 whether the kernel manages their allocation and freeing.
 913
 914 When management is enabled, the kernel will take over allocation
 915 and freeing of the bounds tables.
 916 It does this by trapping the #BR exceptions that result
 917 at first use of missing bounds tables and
 918 instead of delivering the exception to user space,
 919 it allocates the table and populates the bounds directory
 920 with the location of the new table.
 921 For freeing, the kernel checks to see if bounds tables are
 922 present for memory which is not allocated, and frees them if so.
 923
 924 Before enabling MPX management using
 925 .BR PR_MPX_ENABLE_MANAGEMENT ,
 926 the application must first have allocated a user-space buffer for
 927 the bounds directory and placed the location of that directory in the
 928 .I bndcfgu
 929 register.
 930
 931 These calls will fail if the CPU or kernel does not support MPX.
 932 Kernel support for MPX is enabled via the
 933 .BR CONFIG_X86_INTEL_MPX
 934 configuration option.
 935 You can check whether the CPU supports MPX by looking for the 'mpx'
 936 CPUID bit, like with the following command:
 937
 938         cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep ' mpx '
 939
 940 A thread may not switch in or out of long (64-bit) mode while MPX is
 941 enabled.
 942
 943 All threads in a process are affected by these calls.
 944
 945 The child of a
 946 .BR fork (2)
 947 inherits the state of MPX management.
 948 During
 949 .BR execve (2),
 950 MPX management is reset to a state as if
 951 .BR PR_MPX_DISABLE_MANAGEMENT
 952 had been called.
 953
 954 For further information on Intel MPX, see the kernel source file
 955 .IR Documentation/x86/intel_mpx.txt .
 956 .\"
 957 .TP
 958 .BR PR_CAP_AMBIENT " (since Linux 4.3)"
 959 .\" commit 58319057b7847667f0c9585b9de0e8932b0fdb08
 960 Reads or changes the ambient capability set, according to the value of
 961 .IR arg2 ,
 962 which must be one of the following:
 963 .RS
 964 .TP
 965 .B PR_CAP_AMBIENT_RAISE
 966 The capability specified in
 967 .I arg3
 968 is added to the ambient set.
 969 This will fail (with the error
 970 .BR EPERM )
 971 if the capability is not already both permitted and inheritable or if the
 972 .B SECBIT_NO_CAP_AMBIENT_RAISE
 973 securebit is set.
 974 .TP
 975 .B PR_CAP_AMBIENT_LOWER
 976 The capability specified in
 977 .I arg3
 978 is removed from the ambient set.
 979 .TP
 980 .B PR_CAP_AMBIENT_IS_SET
 981 The
 982 .BR prctl (2)
 983 call returns 1 if the capability in
 984 .I arg3
 985 is in the ambient set and 0 if it is not.
 986 .TP
 987 .BR PR_CAP_AMBIENT_CLEAR_ALL
 988 All capabilities will be removed from the ambient set.
 989 This operation requires setting
 990 .I arg3
 991 to zero.
 992 .RE
 993 .SH RETURN VALUE
 994 On success,
 995 .BR PR_GET_DUMPABLE ,
 996 .BR PR_GET_KEEPCAPS ,
 997 .BR PR_GET_NO_NEW_PRIVS ,
 998 .BR PR_GET_THP_DISABLE ,
 999 .BR PR_CAPBSET_READ ,
1000 .BR PR_GET_TIMING ,
1001 .BR PR_GET_TIMERSLACK ,
1002 .BR PR_GET_SECUREBITS ,
1003 .BR PR_MCE_KILL_GET ,
1004 and (if it returns)
1005 .BR PR_GET_SECCOMP
1006 return the nonnegative values described above.
1007 All other
1008 .I option
1009 values return 0 on success.
1010 On error, \-1 is returned, and
1011 .I errno
1012 is set appropriately.
1013 .SH ERRORS
1014 .TP
1015 .B EFAULT
1016 .I arg2
1017 is an invalid address.
1018 .TP
1019 .B EFAULT
1020 .I option
1021 is
1022 .BR PR_SET_SECCOMP ,
1023 .I arg2
1024 is
1025 .BR SECCOMP_MODE_FILTER ,
1026 the system was built with
1027 .BR CONFIG_SECCOMP_FILTER ,
1028 and
1029 .I arg3
1030 is an invalid address.
1031 .TP
1032 .B EINVAL
1033 The value of
1034 .I option
1035 is not recognized.
1036 .TP
1037 .B EINVAL
1038 .I option
1039 is
1040 .BR PR_MCE_KILL
1041 or
1042 .BR PR_MCE_KILL_GET
1043 or
1044 .BR PR_SET_MM ,
1045 and unused
1046 .BR prctl ()
1047 arguments were not specified as zero.
1048 .TP
1049 .B EINVAL
1050 .I arg2
1051 is not valid value for this
1052 .IR option .
1053 .TP
1054 .B EINVAL
1055 .I option
1056 is
1057 .BR PR_SET_SECCOMP
1058 or
1059 .BR PR_GET_SECCOMP ,
1060 and the kernel was not configured with
1061 .BR CONFIG_SECCOMP .
1062 .TP
1063 .B EINVAL
1064 .I option
1065 is
1066 .BR PR_SET_SECCOMP ,
1067 .I arg2
1068 is
1069 .BR SECCOMP_MODE_FILTER ,
1070 and the kernel was not configured with
1071 .BR CONFIG_SECCOMP_FILTER .
1072 .TP
1073 .B EINVAL
1074 .I option
1075 is
1076 .BR PR_SET_MM ,
1077 and one of the following is true
1078 .RS
1079 .IP * 3
1080 .I arg4
1081 or
1082 .I arg5
1083 is nonzero;
1084 .IP *
1085 .I arg3
1086 is greater than
1087 .B TASK_SIZE
1088 (the limit on the size of the user address space for this architecture);
1089 .IP *
1090 .I arg2
1091 is
1092 .BR PR_SET_MM_START_CODE ,
1093 .BR PR_SET_MM_END_CODE ,
1094 .BR PR_SET_MM_START_DATA ,
1095 .BR PR_SET_MM_END_DATA ,
1096 or
1097 .BR PR_SET_MM_START_STACK ,
1098 and the permissions of the corresponding memory area are not as required;
1099 .IP *
1100 .I arg2
1101 is
1102 .BR PR_SET_MM_START_BRK
1103 or
1104 .BR PR_SET_MM_BRK ,
1105 and
1106 .I arg3
1107 is less than or equal to the end of the data segment
1108 or specifies a value that would cause the
1109 .B RLIMIT_DATA
1110 resource limit to be exceeded.
1111 .RE
1112 .TP
1113 .B EINVAL
1114 .I option
1115 is
1116 .BR PR_SET_PTRACER
1117 and
1118 .I arg2
1119 is not 0,
1120 .BR PR_SET_PTRACER_ANY ,
1121 or the PID of an existing process.
1122 .TP
1123 .B EINVAL
1124 .I option
1125 is
1126 .B PR_SET_PDEATHSIG
1127 and
1128 .I arg2
1129 is not a valid signal number.
1130 .TP
1131 .B EINVAL
1132 .I option
1133 is
1134 .BR PR_SET_DUMPABLE
1135 and
1136 .I arg2
1137 is neither
1138 .B SUID_DUMP_DISABLE
1139 nor
1140 .BR SUID_DUMP_USER .
1141 .TP
1142 .B EINVAL
1143 .I option
1144 is
1145 .BR PR_SET_TIMING
1146 and
1147 .I arg2
1148 is not
1149 .BR PR_TIMING_STATISTICAL .
1150 .TP
1151 .B EINVAL
1152 .I option
1153 is
1154 .BR PR_SET_NO_NEW_PRIVS
1155 and
1156 .I arg2
1157 is not equal to 1
1158 or
1159 .IR arg3 ,
1160 .IR arg4 ,
1161 or
1162 .IR arg5
1163 is nonzero.
1164 .TP
1165 .B EINVAL
1166 .I option
1167 is
1168 .BR PR_GET_NO_NEW_PRIVS
1169 and
1170 .IR arg2 ,
1171 .IR arg3 ,
1172 .IR arg4 ,
1173 or
1174 .IR arg5
1175 is nonzero.
1176 .TP
1177 .B EINVAL
1178 .I option
1179 is
1180 .BR PR_SET_THP_DISABLE
1181 and
1182 .IR arg3 ,
1183 .IR arg4 ,
1184 or
1185 .IR arg5
1186 is nonzero.
1187 .TP
1188 .B EINVAL
1189 .I option
1190 is
1191 .BR PR_GET_THP_DISABLE
1192 and
1193 .IR arg2 ,
1194 .IR arg3 ,
1195 .IR arg4 ,
1196 or
1197 .IR arg5
1198 is nonzero.
1199 .TP
1200 .B EPERM
1201 .I option
1202 is
1203 .BR PR_SET_SECUREBITS ,
1204 and the caller does not have the
1205 .B CAP_SETPCAP
1206 capability,
1207 or tried to unset a "locked" flag,
1208 or tried to set a flag whose corresponding locked flag was set
1209 (see
1210 .BR capabilities (7)).
1211 .TP
1212 .B EPERM
1213 .I option
1214 is
1215 .BR PR_SET_KEEPCAPS ,
1216 and the callers's
1217 .B SECURE_KEEP_CAPS_LOCKED
1218 flag is set
1219 (see
1220 .BR capabilities (7)).
1221 .TP
1222 .B EPERM
1223 .I option
1224 is
1225 .BR PR_CAPBSET_DROP ,
1226 and the caller does not have the
1227 .B CAP_SETPCAP
1228 capability.
1229 .TP
1230 .B EPERM
1231 .I option
1232 is
1233 .BR PR_SET_MM ,
1234 and the caller does not have the
1235 .B CAP_SYS_RESOURCE
1236 capability.
1237 .TP
1238 .B EACCES
1239 .I option
1240 is
1241 .BR PR_SET_MM ,
1242 and
1243 .I arg3
1244 is
1245 .BR PR_SET_MM_EXE_FILE ,
1246 the file is not executable.
1247 .TP
1248 .B EBUSY
1249 .I option
1250 is
1251 .BR PR_SET_MM ,
1252 .I arg3
1253 is
1254 .BR PR_SET_MM_EXE_FILE ,
1255 and this the second attempt to change the
1256 .I /proc/pid/exe
1257 symbolic link, which is prohibited.
1258 .TP
1259 .B EBADF
1260 .I option
1261 is
1262 .BR PR_SET_MM ,
1263 .I arg3
1264 is
1265 .BR PR_SET_MM_EXE_FILE ,
1266 and the file descriptor passed in
1267 .I arg4
1268 is not valid.
1269 .TP
1270 .B ENXIO
1271 .I option
1272 was
1273 .BR PR_MPX_ENABLE_MANAGEMENT
1274 or
1275 .BR PR_MPX_DISABLE_MANAGEMENT
1276 and the kernel or the CPU does not support MPX management.
1277 Check that the kernel and processor have MPX support.
1278 .SH VERSIONS
1279 The
1280 .BR prctl ()
1281 system call was introduced in Linux 2.1.57.
1282 .\" The library interface was added in glibc 2.0.6
1283 .SH CONFORMING TO
1284 This call is Linux-specific.
1285 IRIX has a
1286 .BR prctl ()
1287 system call (also introduced in Linux 2.1.44
1288 as irix_prctl on the MIPS architecture),
1289 with prototype
1290 .sp
1291 .BI "ptrdiff_t prctl(int " option ", int " arg2 ", int " arg3 );
1292 .sp
1293 and options to get the maximum number of processes per user,
1294 get the maximum number of processors the calling process can use,
1295 find out whether a specified process is currently blocked,
1296 get or set the maximum stack size, and so on.
1297 .SH SEE ALSO
1298 .BR signal (2),
1299 .BR core (5)