https://github.com/torvalds/linux
Revision a9dce6679d736cb3d612af39bab9f31f8db66f9b authored by Linus Torvalds on 16 March 2019, 20:47:14 UTC, committed by Linus Torvalds on 16 March 2019, 20:47:14 UTC
Pull pidfd system call from Christian Brauner:
 "This introduces the ability to use file descriptors from /proc/<pid>/
  as stable handles on struct pid. Even if a pid is recycled the handle
  will not change. For a start these fds can be used to send signals to
  the processes they refer to.

  With the ability to use /proc/<pid> fds as stable handles on struct
  pid we can fix a long-standing issue where after a process has exited
  its pid can be reused by another process. If a caller sends a signal
  to a reused pid it will end up signaling the wrong process.

  With this patchset we enable a variety of use cases. One obvious
  example is that we can now safely delegate an important part of
  process management - sending signals - to processes other than the
  parent of a given process by sending file descriptors around via scm
  rights and not fearing that the given process will have been recycled
  in the meantime. It also allows for easy testing whether a given
  process is still alive or not by sending signal 0 to a pidfd which is
  quite handy.

  There has been some interest in this feature e.g. from systems
  management (systemd, glibc) and container managers. I have requested
  and gotten comments from glibc to make sure that this syscall is
  suitable for their needs as well. In the future I expect it to take on
  most other pid-based signal syscalls. But such features are left for
  the future once they are needed.

  This has been sitting in linux-next for quite a while and has not
  caused any issues. It comes with selftests which verify basic
  functionality and also test that a recycled pid cannot be signaled via
  a pidfd.

  Jon has written about a prior version of this patchset. It should
  cover the basic functionality since not a lot has changed since then:

      https://lwn.net/Articles/773459/

  The commit message for the syscall itself is extensively documenting
  the syscall, including it's functionality and extensibility"

* tag 'pidfd-v5.1-rc1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/brauner/linux:
  selftests: add tests for pidfd_send_signal()
  signal: add pidfd_send_signal() syscall
2 parent s f67e3fb + 575a0ae
History
Tip revision: a9dce6679d736cb3d612af39bab9f31f8db66f9b authored by Linus Torvalds on 16 March 2019, 20:47:14 UTC
Merge tag 'pidfd-v5.1-rc1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/brauner/linux
Tip revision: a9dce66
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