.\" $OpenBSD: pthread_atfork.3,v 1.10 2013/06/05 03:44:50 tedu Exp $ .\" .\" David Leonard , 1999. Public domain. .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: June 5 2013 $ .Dt PTHREAD_ATFORK 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm pthread_atfork .Nd specify handler functions to call when the process forks .Sh SYNOPSIS .In pthread.h .Ft int .Fn pthread_atfork "void (*prepare)(void)" "void (*parent)(void)" "void (*child)(void)" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn pthread_atfork function declares fork handlers to be called before and after .Fn fork , in the context of the thread that called .Fn fork . The .Fa prepare fork handler will be called before .Fn fork processing commences. The .Fa parent fork handler will be called after .Fn fork processing completes in the parent process. The .Fa child fork handler will be called after .Fn fork processing completes in the child process. If no handling is desired at one or more of these three points, the corresponding fork handler address(es) may be set to .Dv NULL . .Pp The order of calls to .Fn pthread_atfork is significant. The .Fa parent and .Fa child fork handlers will be called in the order in which they were established by calls to .Fn pthread_atfork . The .Fa prepare fork handlers will be called in the opposite order. .Sh RETURN VALUES Upon successful completion, .Fn pthread_atfork will return a value of zero. Otherwise, an error number will be returned to indicate the error. .Sh ERRORS .Fn pthread_atfork will fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er ENOMEM Insufficient table space exists to record the fork handler addresses. None of the handler lists are modified. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr fork 2 , .Xr atexit 3 .Sh STANDARDS .Fn pthread_atfork conforms to .St -p1003.1-2004 .