setsid(3p) — Linux manual page
SETSID(3P) POSIX Programmer's Manual SETSID(3P)
PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The
Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the
corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
setsid — create session and set process group ID
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
pid_t setsid(void);
DESCRIPTION
The setsid() function shall create a new session, if the calling
process is not a process group leader. Upon return the calling
process shall be the session leader of this new session, shall be
the process group leader of a new process group, and shall have
no controlling terminal. The process group ID of the calling
process shall be set equal to the process ID of the calling
process. The calling process shall be the only process in the new
process group and the only process in the new session.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, setsid() shall return the value of
the new process group ID of the calling process. Otherwise, it
shall return -1 and set errno to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The setsid() function shall fail if:
EPERM The calling process is already a process group leader, or
the process group ID of a process other than the calling
process matches the process ID of the calling process.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
None.
APPLICATION USAGE
None.
RATIONALE
The setsid() function is similar to the setpgrp() function of
System V. System V, without job control, groups processes into
process groups and creates new process groups via setpgrp(); only
one process group may be part of a login session.
Job control allows multiple process groups within a login
session. In order to limit job control actions so that they can
only affect processes in the same login session, this volume of
POSIX.1‐2017 adds the concept of a session that is created via
setsid(). The setsid() function also creates the initial process
group contained in the session. Additional process groups can be
created via the setpgid() function. A System V process group
would correspond to a POSIX System Interfaces session containing
a single POSIX process group. Note that this function requires
that the calling process not be a process group leader. The usual
way to ensure this is true is to create a new process with fork()
and have it call setsid(). The fork() function guarantees that
the process ID of the new process does not match any existing
process group ID.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
getsid(3p), setpgid(3p), setpgrp(3p)
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, sys_types.h(0p),
unistd.h(0p)
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic
form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information
Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The
Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright
(C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any
discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The
Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group
Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be
obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page
are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of
the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2017 SETSID(3P)
Pages that refer to this page: unistd.h(0p), _Exit(3p), getpgid(3p), getpgrp(3p), getpid(3p), getppid(3p), getsid(3p), kill(3p), setpgid(3p), setpgrp(3p), tcgetpgrp(3p)