I have the following code:
//includes...
#define SIG_INT 0
//prints out <Text> when SIG_INT is received from siginfo_t*
void handler(int, siginfo_t*, void*);
int main()
{
pid_t ambulance1 = 0;
pid_t ambulance2 = 0;
struct sigaction sigact;
sigact.sa_sigaction = handler;
sigemptyset(&sigact.sa_mask);
sigact.sa_flags = SA_SIGINFO;
sigaction(SIGUSR1, &sigact, NULL);
ambulance1 = fork();
if(ambulance1 > 0) {
ambulance2 = fork();
if(ambulance2 > 0) { // parent
int status;
waitpid(ambulance1, &status, 0);
waitpid(ambulance2, &status, 0);
printf("HQ went home!\n");
}
}
if(ambulance1 == 0 || ambulance2 == 0) {
union sigval signalValueInt;
signalValueInt.sival_int = SIG_INT;
sigqueue(getppid(), SIGUSR1, signalValueInt);
printf("Ambulance[%d] ended.\n", getpid());
}
return 0;
}
What happens is: sometimes the second ambulance's sigqueue(getppid(), SIGUSR1, signalValueInt); doesn't get received, and the output is something like the following:
I know that the signal is lost, because the two signals arrived too quickly after one another, and the operating sys. thinks it's an error-duplicate, so it gets ignored.
My question is:
Is there a way to tell the operating system not to do that?
I wouldn't like to use two different signals (ex.: SIGUSR1 and SIGUSR2) for the same purpose, and I also wouldn't like to use delay in one of the child process.
The answer is in the manual page of signal(7). But breafly: if a standard signal arrives (like SIGUSR1) while the handler is running it will get ignored by the operating system. if a real-time signal arrives (like SIGRTMIN) while handler is running it will be processed after the handler is done running.