github.com/sean-/go@v0.0.0-20151219100004-97f854cd7bb6/src/os/signal/doc.go

// Copyright 2015 The Go Authors. All rights reserved.
// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.

/*
Package signal implements access to incoming signals.

Signals are primarily used on Unix-like systems. For the use of this
package on Windows and Plan 9, see below.

Types of signals

The signals SIGKILL and SIGSTOP may not be caught by a program, and
therefore can not be affected by this package.

Synchronous signals are signals triggered by errors in program
execution: SIGBUS, SIGFPE, and SIGSEGV. These are only considered
synchronous when caused by program execution, not when sent using
os.Process.Kill or the kill program or some similar mechanism. In
general, except as discussed below, Go programs will convert a
synchronous signal into a run-time panic.

The remaining signals are asynchronous signals. They are not
triggered by program errors, but are instead sent from the kernel or
from some other program.

Of the asynchronous signals, the SIGHUP signal is sent when a program
loses its controlling terminal. The SIGINT signal is sent when the
user at the controlling terminal presses the interrupt character,
which by default is ^C (Control-C). The SIGQUIT signal is sent when
the user at the controlling terminal presses the quit character, which
by default is ^\ (Control-Backslash). In general you can cause a
program to simply exit by pressing ^C, and you can cause it to exit
with a stack dump by pressing ^\.

Default behavior of signals in Go programs

By default, a synchronous signal is converted into a run-time panic. A
SIGHUP, SIGINT, or SIGTERM signal causes the program to exit. A
SIGQUIT, SIGILL, SIGTRAP, SIGABRT, SIGSTKFLT, SIGEMT, or SIGSYS signal
causes the program to exit with a stack dump. A SIGTSTP, SIGTTIN, or
SIGTTOU signal gets the system default behavior (these signals are
used by the shell for job control). The SIGPROF signal is handled
directly by the Go runtime to implement runtime.CPUProfile. Other
signals are ignored.

If the Go program is started with either SIGHUP or SIGINT ignored,
they will remain ignored. Go always registers a handler for the other
signals.

If the Go program is started with a non-empty signal mask, that will
generally be honored. However, some signals are explicitly unblocked:
the synchronous signals, SIGILL, SIGTRAP, SIGSTKFLT, SIGCHLD, SIGPROF,
and, on GNU/Linux, signals 32 (SIGCANCEL) and 33 (SIGSETXID)
(SIGCANCEL and SIGSETXID are used internally by glibc).

Changing the behavior of signals in Go programs

The functions in this package allow a program to change the way Go
programs handle signals.

Notify disables the default behavior for a given set of asynchronous
signals and instead delivers them over one or more registered
channels. Specifically, it applies to the signals SIGHUP, SIGINT,
SIGQUIT, SIGABRT, and SIGTERM. It also applies to the job control
signals SIGTSTP, SIGTTIN, and SIGTTOU, in which case the system
default behavior does not occur. It also applies to some signals that
are otherwise ignored: SIGUSR1, SIGUSR2, SIGPIPE, SIGALRM, SIGCHLD,
SIGURG, SIGXCPU, SIGXFSZ, SIGVTALRM, SIGWINCH, SIGIO, SIGPWR, SIGSYS,
SIGINFO, SIGTHR, SIGWAITING, SIGLWP, SIGFREEZE, SIGTHAW, SIGLOST,
SIGXRES, SIGJVM1, SIGJVM2, and any real time signals used on the
system. Note that not all of these signals are available on all
systems.

If the program was started with SIGHUP or SIGINT ignored, and Notify
is called for either signal, a signal handler will be installed for
that signal and it will no longer be ignored. If, later, Reset or
Ignore is called for that signal, or Stop is called on all channels
passed to Notify for that signal, the signal will once again be
ignored. Reset will restore the system default behavior for the
signal, while Ignore will cause the system to ignore the signal
entirely.

If the program is started with a non-empty signal mask, some signals
will be explicitly unblocked as described above. If Notify is called
for a blocked signal, it will be unblocked. If, later, Reset is
called for that signal, or Stop is called on all channels passed to
Notify for that signal, the signal will once again be blocked.

Go programs that use cgo or SWIG

In a Go program that includes non-Go code, typically C/C++ code
accessed using cgo or SWIG, Go's startup code normally runs first. It
configures the signal handlers as expected by the Go runtime, before
the non-Go startup code runs. If the non-Go startup code wishes to
install its own signal handlers, it must take certain steps to keep Go
working well. This section documents those steps and the overall
effect changes to signal handler settings by the non-Go code can have
on Go programs. In rare cases, the non-Go code may run before the Go
code, in which case the next section also applies.

If the non-Go code called by the Go program does not change any signal
handlers or masks, then the behavior is the same as for a pure Go
program.

If the non-Go code installs any signal handlers, it must use the
SA_ONSTACK flag with sigaction. Failing to do so is likely to cause
the program to crash if the signal is received. Go programs routinely
run with a limited stack, and therefore set up an alternate signal
stack. Also, the Go standard library expects that any signal handlers
will use the SA_RESTART flag. Failing to do so may cause some library
calls to return "interrupted system call" errors.

If the non-Go code installs a signal handler for any of the
synchronous signals (SIGBUS, SIGFPE, SIGSEGV), then it should record
the existing Go signal handler. If those signals occur while
executing Go code, it should invoke the Go signal handler (whether the
signal occurs while executing Go code can be determined by looking at
the PC passed to the signal handler). Otherwise some Go run-time
panics will not occur as expected.

If the non-Go code installs a signal handler for any of the
asynchronous signals, it may invoke the Go signal handler or not as it
chooses. Naturally, if it does not invoke the Go signal handler, the
Go behavior described above will not occur. This can be an issue with
the SIGPROF signal in particular.

The non-Go code should not change the signal mask on any threads
created by the Go runtime. If the non-Go code starts new threads of
its own, it may set the signal mask as it pleases.

If the non-Go code starts a new thread, changes the signal mask, and
then invokes a Go function in that thread, the Go runtime will
automatically unblock certain signals: the synchronous signals,
SIGILL, SIGTRAP, SIGSTKFLT, SIGCHLD, SIGPROF, SIGCANCEL, and
SIGSETXID. When the Go function returns, the non-Go signal mask will
be restored.

If the Go signal handler is invoked on a non-Go thread not running Go
code, the handler generally forwards the signal to the non-Go code, as
follows. If the signal is SIGPROF, the Go handler does
nothing. Otherwise, the Go handler removes itself, unblocks the
signal, and raises it again, to invoke any non-Go handler or default
system handler. If the program does not exit, the Go handler then
reinstalls itself and continues execution of the program.

Non-Go programs that call Go code

When Go code is built with options like -buildmode=c-shared, it will
be run as part of an existing non-Go program. The non-Go code may
have already installed signal handlers when the Go code starts (that
may also happen in unusual cases when using cgo or SWIG; in that case,
the discussion here applies).

If the Go runtime sees an existing signal handler for the SIGCANCEL or
SIGSETXID signals (which are used only on GNU/Linux), it will turn on
the SA_ONSTACK flag and otherwise keep the signal handler.

For the synchronous signals, the Go runtime will install a signal
handler. It will save any existing signal handler. If a synchronous
signal arrives while executing non-Go code, the Go runtime will invoke
the existing signal handler instead of the Go signal handler.

Go code built with -buildmode=c-archive or -buildmode=c-shared will
not install any other signal handlers. TODO: Describe Notify behavior.

Go code built otherwise will install a signal handler for the
asynchronous signals listed above, and save any existing signal
handler. If a signal is delivered to a non-Go thread, it will act as
described above, except that if there is an existing non-Go signal
handler, that handler will be installed before raising the signal.

Windows

On Windows a ^C (Control-C) or ^BREAK (Control-Break) normally cause
the program to exit. If Notify is called for os.SIGINT, ^C or ^BREAK
will cause os.SIGINT to be sent on the channel, and the program will
not exit. If Reset is called, or Stop is called on all channels passed
to Notify, then the default behavior will be restored.

Plan 9

On Plan 9, signals have type syscall.Note, which is a string. Calling
Notify with a syscall.Note will cause that value to be sent on the
channel when that string is posted as a note.

*/
package signal