man2/prctl.2

.\" Hey Emacs! This file is -*- nroff -*- source.
.\"
.\" Copyright (C) 1998 Andries Brouwer (aeb@cwi.nl)
.\" and Copyright (C) 2002 Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
.\" and Copyright Guillem Jover <guillem@hadrons.org>
.\"
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.\" manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
.\" preserved on all copies.
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.\" Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
.\" manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
.\" entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
.\" permission notice identical to this one.
.\"
.\" Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this
.\" manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date.  The author(s) assume no
.\" responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from
.\" the use of the information contained herein.  The author(s) may not
.\" have taken the same level of care in the production of this manual,
.\" which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working
.\" professionally.
.\"
.\" Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by
.\" the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work.
.\"
.\" Modified Thu Nov 11 04:19:42 MET 1999, aeb: added PR_GET_PDEATHSIG
.\" Modified 27 Jun 02, Michael Kerrisk
.\" 	Added PR_SET_DUMPABLE, PR_GET_DUMPABLE,
.\"	PR_SET_KEEPCAPS, PR_GET_KEEPCAPS
.\" Modified 2006-08-30 Guillem Jover <guillem@hadrons.org>
.\"	Updated Linux versions where the options where introduced.
.\"	Added PR_SET_TIMING, PR_GET_TIMING, PR_SET_NAME, PR_GET_NAME,
.\"	PR_SET_UNALIGN, PR_GET_UNALIGN, PR_SET_FPEMU, PR_GET_FPEMU,
.\"	PR_SET_FPEXC, PR_GET_FPEXC
.\" 2008-04-29 Serge Hallyn, Document PR_CAPBSET_READ and PR_CAPBSET_DROP
.\" 2008-06-13 Erik Bosman, <ejbosman@cs.vu.nl>
.\"     Document PR_GET_TSC and PR_SET_TSC.
.\" 2008-06-15 mtk, Document PR_SET_SECCOMP, PR_GET_SECCOMP
.\" 2009-10-03 Andi Kleen, document PR_MCE_KILL
.\" 2012-04 Cyrill Gorcunov, Document PR_SET_MM
.\" 2012-04-25 Michael Kerrisk, Document PR_TASK_PERF_EVENTS_DISABLE and
.\"				PR_TASK_PERF_EVENTS_ENABLE
.\" 2012-09-20 Kees Cook, update PR_SET_SECCOMP for mode 2
.\" 2012-09-20 Kees Cook, document PR_SET_NO_NEW_PRIVS, PR_GET_NO_NEW_PRIVS
.\" 2012-10-25 Michael Kerrisk, Document PR_SET_TIMERSLACK and
.\"                             PR_GET_TIMERSLACK
.\" 2013-01-10 Kees Cook, document PR_SET_PTRACER
.\"
.\"
.TH PRCTL 2 2013-01-10 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.SH NAME
prctl \- operations on a process
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B #include <sys/prctl.h>
.sp
.BI "int prctl(int " option ", unsigned long " arg2 ", unsigned long " arg3 ,
.BI "          unsigned long " arg4 ", unsigned long " arg5 );
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
.BR prctl ()
is called with a first argument describing what to do
(with values defined in \fI<linux/prctl.h>\fP), and further
arguments with a significance depending on the first one.
The first argument can be:
.TP
.BR PR_CAPBSET_READ " (since Linux 2.6.25)"
Return (as the function result) 1 if the capability specified in
.I arg2
is in the calling thread's capability bounding set,
or 0 if it is not.
(The capability constants are defined in
.IR <linux/capability.h> .)
The capability bounding set dictates
whether the process can receive the capability through a
file's permitted capability set on a subsequent call to
.BR execve (2).

If the capability specified in
.I arg2
is not valid, then the call fails with the error
.BR EINVAL .
.TP
.BR PR_CAPBSET_DROP " (since Linux 2.6.25)"
If the calling thread has the
.B CAP_SETPCAP
capability, then drop the capability specified by
.I arg2
from the calling thread's capability bounding set.
Any children of the calling thread will inherit the newly
reduced bounding set.

The call fails with the error:
.B EPERM
if the calling thread does not have the
.BR CAP_SETPCAP ;
.BR EINVAL
if
.I arg2
does not represent a valid capability; or
.BR EINVAL
if file capabilities are not enabled in the kernel,
in which case bounding sets are not supported.
.TP
.BR PR_SET_DUMPABLE " (since Linux 2.3.20)"
Set the state of the flag determining whether core dumps are produced
for this process upon delivery of a signal whose default behavior is
to produce a core dump.
(Normally this flag is set for a process by default, but it is cleared
when a set-user-ID or set-group-ID program is executed and also by
various system calls that manipulate process UIDs and GIDs).
In kernels up to and including 2.6.12,
.I arg2
must be either 0 (process is not dumpable) or 1 (process is dumpable).
Between kernels 2.6.13 and 2.6.17, the value 2 was also permitted,
which caused any binary which normally would not be dumped
to be dumped readable by root only;
for security reasons, this feature has been removed.
.\" See http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=115270289030630&w=2
.\" Subject:    Fix prctl privilege escalation (CVE-2006-2451)
.\" From:       Marcel Holtmann <marcel () holtmann ! org>
.\" Date:       2006-07-12 11:12:00
(See also the description of
.I /proc/sys/fs/suid_dumpable
in
.BR proc (5).)
Processes that are not dumpable can not be attached via
.BR ptrace (2)
.BR PTRACE_ATTACH .
.TP
.BR PR_GET_DUMPABLE " (since Linux 2.3.20)"
Return (as the function result) the current state of the calling
process's dumpable flag.
.\" Since Linux 2.6.13, the dumpable flag can have the value 2,
.\" but in 2.6.13 PR_GET_DUMPABLE simply returns 1 if the dumpable
.\" flags has a nonzero value.  This was fixed in 2.6.14.
.TP
.BR PR_SET_ENDIAN " (since Linux 2.6.18, PowerPC only)"
Set the endian-ness of the calling process to the value given
in \fIarg2\fP, which should be one of the following:
.\" Respectively 0, 1, 2
.BR PR_ENDIAN_BIG ,
.BR PR_ENDIAN_LITTLE ,
or
.B PR_ENDIAN_PPC_LITTLE
(PowerPC pseudo little endian).
.TP
.BR PR_GET_ENDIAN " (since Linux 2.6.18, PowerPC only)"
Return the endian-ness of the calling process,
in the location pointed to by
.IR "(int\ *) arg2" .
.TP
.BR PR_SET_FPEMU " (since Linux 2.4.18, 2.5.9, only on ia64)"
Set floating-point emulation control bits to \fIarg2\fP.
Pass \fBPR_FPEMU_NOPRINT\fP to silently emulate fp operations accesses, or
\fBPR_FPEMU_SIGFPE\fP to not emulate fp operations and send
.B SIGFPE
instead.
.TP
.BR PR_GET_FPEMU " (since Linux 2.4.18, 2.5.9, only on ia64)"
Return floating-point emulation control bits,
in the location pointed to by
.IR "(int\ *) arg2" .
.TP
.BR PR_SET_FPEXC " (since Linux 2.4.21, 2.5.32, only on PowerPC)"
Set floating-point exception mode to \fIarg2\fP.
Pass \fBPR_FP_EXC_SW_ENABLE\fP to use FPEXC for FP exception enables,
\fBPR_FP_EXC_DIV\fP for floating-point divide by zero,
\fBPR_FP_EXC_OVF\fP for floating-point overflow,
\fBPR_FP_EXC_UND\fP for floating-point underflow,
\fBPR_FP_EXC_RES\fP for floating-point inexact result,
\fBPR_FP_EXC_INV\fP for floating-point invalid operation,
\fBPR_FP_EXC_DISABLED\fP for FP exceptions disabled,
\fBPR_FP_EXC_NONRECOV\fP for async nonrecoverable exception mode,
\fBPR_FP_EXC_ASYNC\fP for async recoverable exception mode,
\fBPR_FP_EXC_PRECISE\fP for precise exception mode.
.TP
.BR PR_GET_FPEXC " (since Linux 2.4.21, 2.5.32, only on PowerPC)"
Return floating-point exception mode,
in the location pointed to by
.IR "(int\ *) arg2" .
.TP
.BR PR_SET_KEEPCAPS " (since Linux 2.2.18)"
Set the state of the thread's "keep capabilities" flag,
which determines whether the threads's permitted
capability set is cleared when a change is made to the threads's user IDs
such that the threads's real UID, effective UID, and saved set-user-ID
all become nonzero when at least one of them previously had the value 0.
By default, the permitted capability set is cleared when such a change is made;
setting the "keep capabilities" flag prevents it from being cleared.
.I arg2
must be either 0 (permitted capabilities are cleared)
or 1 (permitted capabilities are kept).
(A thread's
.I effective
capability set is always cleared when such a credential change is made,
regardless of the setting of the "keep capabilities" flag.)
The "keep capabilities" value will be reset to 0 on subsequent calls to
.BR execve (2).
.TP
.BR PR_GET_KEEPCAPS " (since Linux 2.2.18)"
Return (as the function result) the current state of the calling threads's
"keep capabilities" flag.
.TP
.BR PR_SET_NAME " (since Linux 2.6.9)"
Set the process name for the calling thread,
using the value in the location pointed to by
.IR "(char\ *) arg2" .
The name can be up to 16 bytes long,
.\" TASK_COMM_LEN in include/linux/sched.h
and should be null-terminated if it contains fewer bytes.
.TP
.BR PR_GET_NAME " (since Linux 2.6.11)"
Return the name for the calling thread,
in the buffer pointed to by
.IR "(char\ *) arg2" .
The buffer should allow space for up to 16 bytes;
the returned string will be null-terminated if it is shorter than that.
.TP
.BR PR_SET_NO_NEW_PRIVS " (since Linux 3.5)"
Set the calling process's
.I no_new_privs
bit to the value in
.IR arg2 .
With
.I no_new_privs
set to 1,
.BR execve (2)
promises not to grant privileges to do anything
that could not have been done without the
.BR execve (2)
call (for example,
rendering the set-user-ID and set-group-ID permission bits,
and file capabilities non-functional).
Once set, this bit cannot be unset.
The setting of this bit is inherited by children created by
.BR fork (2)
and
.BR clone (2),
and preserved across
.BR execve (2).

For more information, see the kernel source file
.IR Documentation/prctl/no_new_privs.txt .
.TP
.BR PR_GET_NO_NEW_PRIVS " (since Linux 3.5)"
Return the value of the
.I no_new_privs
bit for the current process.
A value of 0 indicates the regular
.BR execve (2)
behavior.
A value of 1 indicates
.BR execve (2)
will operate in the privilege-restricting mode described above.
.TP
.BR PR_SET_PDEATHSIG " (since Linux 2.1.57)"
Set the parent process death signal
of the calling process to \fIarg2\fP (either a signal value
in the range 1..maxsig, or 0 to clear).
This is the signal that the calling process will get when its
parent dies.
This value is cleared for the child of a
.BR fork (2)
and (since Linux 2.4.36 / 2.6.23)
when executing a set-user-ID or set-group-ID binary.
.TP
.BR PR_GET_PDEATHSIG " (since Linux 2.3.15)"
Return the current value of the parent process death signal,
in the location pointed to by
.IR "(int\ *) arg2" .
.TP
.BR PR_SET_PTRACER " (since Linux 3.4)"
.\" commit 2d514487faf188938a4ee4fb3464eeecfbdcf8eb
.\" commit bf06189e4d14641c0148bea16e9dd24943862215
This is only meaningful when the Yama LSM is enabled and in mode 1
("restricted ptrace", visible via
.IR /proc/sys/kernel/yama/ptrace_scope ).
When a "ptracer process ID" is passed in \fIarg2\fP,
the caller is declaring that the ptracer process can
.BR ptrace (2)
the calling process as if it were a direct process ancestor.
Each
.B PR_SET_PTRACER
operation replaces the previous "ptracer process ID".
Employing
.B PR_SET_PTRACER
with
.I arg2
set to 0 clears the caller's "ptracer process ID".
If
.I arg2
is
.BR PR_SET_PTRACER_ANY,
the ptrace restrictions introduced by Yama are effectively disabled for the
calling process.

For further information, see the kernel source file
.IR Documentation/security/Yama.txt .
.TP
.BR PR_SET_SECCOMP " (since Linux 2.6.23)"
.\" See http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/542632
.\" [PATCH 0 of 2] seccomp updates
.\" andrea@cpushare.com
Set the secure computing (seccomp) mode for the calling thread, to limit
the available system calls.
The seccomp mode is selected via
.IR arg2 .
(The seccomp constants are defined in
.IR <linux/seccomp.h> .)

With
.IR arg2
set to
.BR SECCOMP_MODE_STRICT
the only system calls that the thread is permitted to make are
.BR read (2),
.BR write (2),
.BR _exit (2),
and
.BR sigreturn (2).
Other system calls result in the delivery of a
.BR SIGKILL
signal.
Strict secure computing mode is useful for number-crunching applications
that may need to execute untrusted byte code,
perhaps obtained by reading from a pipe or socket.
This operation is only available
if the kernel is configured with
.B CONFIG_SECCOMP
enabled.

With
.IR arg2
set to
.BR SECCOMP_MODE_FILTER " (since Linux 3.5)"
the system calls allowed are defined by a pointer
to a Berkeley Packet Filter passed in
.IR arg3 .
This argument is a pointer to
.IR "struct sock_fprog" ;
it can be designed to filter
arbitrary system calls and system call arguments.
This mode is only available if the kernel is configured with
.B CONFIG_SECCOMP_FILTER
enabled.

If
.BR SECCOMP_MODE_FILTER
filters permit
.BR fork (2),
then the seccomp mode is inherited by children created by
.BR fork (2);
if
.BR execve (2)
is permitted, then the seccomp mode is preserved across
.BR execve (2).
If the filters permit
.BR prctl (0
calls, then additional filters can be added;
they are run in order until the first non-allow result is seen.

For further information, see the kernel source file
.IR Documentation/prctl/seccomp_filter.txt .
.TP
.BR PR_GET_SECCOMP " (since Linux 2.6.23)"
Return the secure computing mode of the calling thread.
If the caller is not in secure computing mode, this operation returns 0;
if the caller is in strict secure computing mode, then the
.BR prctl ()
call will cause a
.B SIGKILL
signal to be sent to the process.
If the caller is in filter mode, and this system call is allowed by the
seccomp filters, it returns 2.
This operation is only available
if the kernel is configured with
.B CONFIG_SECCOMP
enabled.
.TP
.BR PR_SET_SECUREBITS " (since Linux 2.6.26)"
Set the "securebits" flags of the calling thread to the value supplied in
.IR arg2 .
See
.BR capabilities (7).
.TP
.BR PR_GET_SECUREBITS " (since Linux 2.6.26)"
Return (as the function result)
the "securebits" flags of the calling thread.
See
.BR capabilities (7).
.TP
.BR PR_SET_TIMERSLACK " (since Linux 2.6.28)"
.\" See https://lwn.net/Articles/369549/
.\" commit 6976675d94042fbd446231d1bd8b7de71a980ada
Set the current timer slack for the calling thread to the nanosecond value
supplied in
.IR arg2 .
If
.I arg2
is less than or equal to zero,
.\" It seems that it's not possible to set the timer slack to zero;
.\" The minimum value is 1? Seems a little strange.
reset the current timer slack to the thread's default timer slack value.
The timer slack is used by the kernel to group timer expirations
for the calling thread that are close to one another;
as a consequence, timer expirations for the thread may be
up to the specified number of nanoseconds late (but will never expire early).
Grouping timer expirations can help reduce system power consumption
by minimizing CPU wake-ups.

The timer expirations affected by timer slack are those set by
.BR select (2),
.BR pselect (2),
.BR poll (2),
.BR ppoll (2),
.BR epoll_wait (2),
.BR epoll_pwait (2),
.BR clock_nanosleep (2),
.BR nanosleep (2),
and
.BR futex (2)
(and thus the library functions implemented via futexes, including
.\" List obtained by grepping for futex usage in glibc source
.BR pthread_cond_timedwait (3),
.BR pthread_mutex_timedlock (3),
.BR pthread_rwlock_timedrdlock (3),
.BR pthread_rwlock_timedwrlock (3),
and
.BR sem_timedwait (3)).

Timer slack is not applied to threads that are scheduled under
a realtime scheduling policy (see
.BR sched_setscheduler (2)).

Each thread has two associated timer slack values:
a "default" value, and a "current" value.
The current value is the one that governs grouping
of timer expirations.
When a new thread is created,
the two timer slack values are made the same as the current value
of the creating thread.
Thereafter, a thread can adjust its current timer slack value via
.BR PR_SET_TIMERSLACK
(the default value can't be changed).
The timer slack values of
.IR init
(PID 1), the ancestor of all processes,
are 50,000 nanoseconds (50 microseconds).
The timer slack values are preserved across
.BR execve (2).
.TP
.BR PR_GET_TIMERSLACK " (since Linux 2.6.28)"
Return the current timer slack value of the calling thread.
.TP
.BR PR_SET_TIMING " (since Linux 2.6.0-test4)"
Set whether to use (normal, traditional) statistical process timing or
accurate timestamp-based process timing, by passing
.B PR_TIMING_STATISTICAL
.\" 0
or
.B PR_TIMING_TIMESTAMP
.\" 1
to \fIarg2\fP.
.B PR_TIMING_TIMESTAMP
is not currently implemented
(attempting to set this mode will yield the error
.BR EINVAL ).
.\" PR_TIMING_TIMESTAMP doesn't do anything in 2.6.26-rc8,
.\" and looking at the patch history, it appears
.\" that it never did anything.
.TP
.BR PR_GET_TIMING " (since Linux 2.6.0-test4)"
Return (as the function result) which process timing method is currently
in use.
.TP
.BR PR_TASK_PERF_EVENTS_DISABLE " (since Linux 2.6.31)"
Disable all performance counters attached to the calling process,
regardless of whether the counters were created by
this process or another process.
Performance counters created by the calling process for other
processes are unaffected.
For more information on performance counters, see the Linux kernel source file
.IR tools/perf/design.txt .
.IP
Originally called
.BR PR_TASK_PERF_COUNTERS_DISABLE ;
.\" commit 1d1c7ddbfab358445a542715551301b7fc363e28
renamed (with same numerical value)
in Linux 2.6.32.
.TP
.BR PR_TASK_PERF_EVENTS_ENABLE " (since Linux 2.6.31)"
The converse of
.BR PR_TASK_PERF_EVENTS_DISABLE ;
enable performance counters attached to the calling process.
.IP
Originally called
.BR PR_TASK_PERF_COUNTERS_ENABLE ;
.\" commit 1d1c7ddbfab358445a542715551301b7fc363e28
renamed
.\" commit cdd6c482c9ff9c55475ee7392ec8f672eddb7be6
in Linux 2.6.32.
.TP
.BR PR_SET_TSC " (since Linux 2.6.26, x86 only)"
Set the state of the flag determining whether the timestamp counter
can be read by the process.
Pass
.B PR_TSC_ENABLE
to
.I arg2
to allow it to be read, or
.B PR_TSC_SIGSEGV
to generate a
.B SIGSEGV
when the process tries to read the timestamp counter.
.TP
.BR PR_GET_TSC " (since Linux 2.6.26, x86 only)"
Return the state of the flag determining whether the timestamp counter
can be read,
in the location pointed to by
.IR "(int\ *) arg2" .
.TP
.B PR_SET_UNALIGN
(Only on: ia64, since Linux 2.3.48; parisc, since Linux 2.6.15;
PowerPC, since Linux 2.6.18; Alpha, since Linux 2.6.22)
Set unaligned access control bits to \fIarg2\fP.
Pass
\fBPR_UNALIGN_NOPRINT\fP to silently fix up unaligned user accesses,
or \fBPR_UNALIGN_SIGBUS\fP to generate
.B SIGBUS
on unaligned user access.
.TP
.B PR_GET_UNALIGN
(see
.B PR_SET_UNALIGN
for information on versions and architectures)
Return unaligned access control bits, in the location pointed to by
.IR "(int\ *) arg2" .
.TP
.BR PR_MCE_KILL " (since Linux 2.6.32)"
Set the machine check memory corruption kill policy for the current thread.
If
.I arg2
is
.BR PR_MCE_KILL_CLEAR ,
clear the thread memory corruption kill policy and use the system-wide default.
(The system-wide default is defined by
.IR /proc/sys/vm/memory_failure_early_kill ;
see
.BR proc (5).)
If
.I arg2
is
.BR PR_MCE_KILL_SET ,
use a thread-specific memory corruption kill policy.
In this case,
.I arg3
defines whether the policy is
.I early kill
.RB ( PR_MCE_KILL_EARLY ),
.I late kill
.RB ( PR_MCE_KILL_LATE ),
or the system-wide default
.RB ( PR_MCE_KILL_DEFAULT ).
Early kill means that the thread receives a
.B SIGBUS
signal as soon as hardware memory corruption is detected inside
its address space.
In late kill mode, the process is only killed when it accesses a corrupted page.
See
.BR sigaction (2)
for more information on the
.BR SIGBUS
signal.
The policy is inherited by children.
The remaining unused
.BR prctl ()
arguments must be zero for future compatibility.
.TP
.BR PR_MCE_KILL_GET " (since Linux 2.6.32)"
Return the current per-process machine check kill policy.
All unused
.BR prctl ()
arguments must be zero.
.TP
.BR PR_SET_MM " (since Linux 3.3)"
Modify certain kernel memory map descriptor fields
of the calling process.
Usually these fields are set by the kernel and dynamic loader (see
.BR ld.so (8)
for more information) and a regular application should not use this feature.
However, there are cases, such as self-modifying programs,
where a program might find it useful to change its own memory map.
This feature is available only if the kernel is built with the
.BR CONFIG_CHECKPOINT_RESTORE
option enabled.
The calling process must have the
.BR CAP_SYS_RESOURCE
capability.
The value in
.I arg2
is one of the options below, while
.I arg3
provides a new value for the option.
.RS
.TP
.BR PR_SET_MM_START_CODE
Set the address above which the program text can run.
The corresponding memory area must be readable and executable,
but not writable or sharable (see
.BR mprotect (2)
and
.BR mmap (2)
for more information).
.TP
.BR PR_SET_MM_END_CODE
Set the address below which the program text can run.
The corresponding memory area must be readable and executable,
but not writable or sharable.
.TP
.BR PR_SET_MM_START_DATA
Set the address above which initialized and
uninitialized (bss) data are placed.
The corresponding memory area must be readable and writable,
but not executable or sharable.
.TP
.B PR_SET_MM_END_DATA
Set the address below which initialized and
uninitialized (bss) data are placed.
The corresponding memory area must be readable and writable,
but not executable or sharable.
.TP
.BR PR_SET_MM_START_STACK
Set the start address of the stack.
The corresponding memory area must be readable and writable.
.TP
.BR PR_SET_MM_START_BRK
Set the address above which the program heap can be expanded with
.BR brk (2)
call.
The address must be greater than the ending address of
the current program data segment.
In addition, the combined size of the resulting heap and
the size of the data segment can't exceed the
.BR RLIMIT_DATA
resource limit (see
.BR setrlimit (2)).
.TP
.BR PR_SET_MM_BRK
Set the current
.BR brk (2)
value.
The requirements for the address are the same as for the
.BR PR_SET_MM_START_BRK
option.
.\" FIXME The following (until ========) is not yet in mainline kernel,
.\" so commented out for the moment.
.\" .TP
.\" .BR PR_SET_MM_ARG_START
.\" Set the address above which the program command line is placed.
.\" .TP
.\" .BR PR_SET_MM_ARG_END
.\" Set the address below which the program command line is placed.
.\" .TP
.\" .BR PR_SET_MM_ENV_START
.\" Set the address above which the program environment is placed.
.\" .TP
.\" .BR PR_SET_MM_ENV_END
.\" Set the address below which the program environment is placed.
.\" .IP
.\" The address passed with
.\" .BR PR_SET_MM_ARG_START ,
.\" .BR PR_SET_MM_ARG_END ,
.\" .BR PR_SET_MM_ENV_START ,
.\" and
.\" .BR PR_SET_MM_ENV_END
.\" should belong to a process stack area.
.\" Thus, the corresponding memory area must be readable, writable, and
.\" (depending on the kernel configuration) have the
.\" .BR MAP_GROWSDOWN
.\" attribute set (see
.\" .BR mmap (2)).
.\" .TP
.\" .BR PR_SET_MM_AUXV
.\" Set a new auxiliary vector.
.\" The
.\" .I arg3
.\" argument should provide the address of the vector.
.\" The
.\" .I arg4
.\" is the size of the vector.
.\" .TP
.\" .BR PR_SET_MM_EXE_FILE
.\" Supersede the
.\" .IR /proc/pid/exe
.\" symbolic link with a new one pointing to a new executable file
.\" identified by the file descriptor provided in
.\" .I arg3
.\" argument.
.\" The file descriptor should be obtained with a regular
.\" .BR open (2)
.\" call.
.\" .IP
.\" To change the symbolic link, one needs to unmap all existing
.\" executable memory areas, including those created by the kernel itself
.\" (for example the kernel usually creates at least one executable
.\" memory area for the ELF
.\" .IR \.text
.\" section).
.\" .IP
.\" The second limitation is that such transitions can be done only once
.\" in a process life time.
.\" Any further attempts will be rejected.
.\" This should help system administrators to monitor unusual
.\" symbolic-link transitions over all process running in a system.
.\" ========== END FIXME
.RE
.\"
.SH "RETURN VALUE"
On success,
.BR PR_GET_DUMPABLE ,
.BR PR_GET_KEEPCAPS ,
.BR PR_GET_NO_NEW_PRIVS ,
.BR PR_CAPBSET_READ ,
.BR PR_GET_TIMING ,
.BR PR_GET_SECUREBITS ,
.BR PR_MCE_KILL_GET ,
and (if it returns)
.BR PR_GET_SECCOMP
return the nonnegative values described above.
All other
.I option
values return 0 on success.
On error, \-1 is returned, and
.I errno
is set appropriately.
.SH ERRORS
.TP
.B EFAULT
.I arg2
is an invalid address.
.TP
.B EINVAL
The value of
.I option
is not recognized.
.TP
.B EINVAL
.I option
is
.BR PR_MCE_KILL
or
.BR PR_MCE_KILL_GET
or
.BR PR_SET_MM ,
and unused
.BR prctl ()
arguments were not specified as zero.
.TP
.B EINVAL
.I arg2
is not valid value for this
.IR option .
.TP
.B EINVAL
.I option
is
.BR PR_SET_SECCOMP
or
.BR PR_SET_SECCOMP ,
and the kernel was not configured with
.BR CONFIG_SECCOMP .
.TP
.B EINVAL
.I option
is
.BR PR_SET_MM ,
and one of the following is true
.RS
.IP * 3
.I arg4
or
.I arg5
is nonzero;
.IP *
.I arg3
is greater than
.B TASK_SIZE
(the limit on the size of the user address space for this architecture);
.IP *
.I arg2
is
.BR PR_SET_MM_START_CODE ,
.BR PR_SET_MM_END_CODE ,
.BR PR_SET_MM_START_DATA ,
.BR PR_SET_MM_END_DATA ,
or
.BR PR_SET_MM_START_STACK,
and the permissions of the corresponding memory area are not as required;
.IP *
.I arg2
is
.BR PR_SET_MM_START_BRK
or
.BR PR_SET_MM_BRK ,
and
.I arg3
is less than or equal to the end of the data segment
or specifies a value that would cause the
.B RLIMIT_DATA
resource limit to be exceeded.
.RE
.TP
.B EINVAL
.I option
is
.BR PR_SET_PTRACER
and
.I arg2
is not 0,
.BR PR_SET_PTRACER_ANY ,
or the PID of an existing process.
.TP
TP
.B EPERM
.I option
is
.BR PR_SET_SECUREBITS ,
and the caller does not have the
.B CAP_SETPCAP
capability,
or tried to unset a "locked" flag,
or tried to set a flag whose corresponding locked flag was set
(see
.BR capabilities (7)).
.TP
.B EPERM
.I option
is
.BR PR_SET_KEEPCAPS ,
and the callers's
.B SECURE_KEEP_CAPS_LOCKED
flag is set
(see
.BR capabilities (7)).
.TP
.B EPERM
.I option
is
.BR PR_CAPBSET_DROP ,
and the caller does not have the
.B CAP_SETPCAP
capability.
.TP
.B EPERM
.I option
is
.BR PR_SET_MM ,
and the caller does not have the
.B CAP_SYS_RESOURCE
capability.
.\" FIXME The following (until ========) is not yet in mainline kernel,
.\" so commented out for the moment.
.\" .TP
.\" .B EACCES
.\" .I option
.\" is
.\" .BR PR_SET_MM ,
.\" and
.\" .I arg3
.\" is
.\" .BR PR_SET_MM_EXE_FILE ,
.\" the file is not executable.
.\" .TP
.\" .B EBUSY
.\" .I option
.\" is
.\" .BR PR_SET_MM ,
.\" .I arg3
.\" is
.\" .BR PR_SET_MM_EXE_FILE ,
.\" and this the second attempt to change the
.\" .I /proc/pid/exe
.\" symbolic link, which is prohibited.
.\" .TP
.\" .B EBADF
.\" .I option
.\" is
.\" .BR PR_SET_MM ,
.\" .I arg3
.\" is
.\" .BR PR_SET_MM_EXE_FILE ,
.\" and the file descriptor passed in
.\" .I arg4
.\" is not valid.
.\" ========== END FIXME
.\" The following can't actually happen, because prctl() in
.\" seccomp mode will cause SIGKILL.
.\" .TP
.\" .B EPERM
.\" .I option
.\" is
.\" .BR PR_SET_SECCOMP ,
.\" and secure computing mode is already 1.
.SH VERSIONS
The
.BR prctl ()
system call was introduced in Linux 2.1.57.
.\" The library interface was added in glibc 2.0.6
.SH "CONFORMING TO"
This call is Linux-specific.
IRIX has a
.BR prctl ()
system call (also introduced in Linux 2.1.44
as irix_prctl on the MIPS architecture),
with prototype
.sp
.BI "ptrdiff_t prctl(int " option ", int " arg2 ", int " arg3 );
.sp
and options to get the maximum number of processes per user,
get the maximum number of processors the calling process can use,
find out whether a specified process is currently blocked,
get or set the maximum stack size, and so on.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR signal (2),
.BR core (5)