OPENSOURCE SOFTWARE IIIBCA, VI SEMESTER

UNIT-2
Open source operating systems
LINUX:
Introduction: Linux is an Operating System that was first created at the University
of Helsinki in Finland by a young student named Linus Torvalds. At this time the
student was working on a UNIX system that was running on an expensive
platform. Because of his low budget, and his need to work at home, he decided to
create a copy of the UNIX system in order to run it on a less expensive platform,
such as an IBM PC.
He began his work in 1991 when he released version 0.02 and worked steadily
until 1994 when version 1.0 of the Linux Kernel was released. The current full-
featured version at this time is 2.2.X; released January 25, 1999, and development
continues.

Reasons to use Linux

 Configurability
Linux distributions give the user full access to configure just about any
aspect of their system. Options range from the simple and straightforward.
 Convenience
While Linux takes some effort to get set up, once it is set up, it is
surprisingly low-maintenance.
 Stability
Linux is based on the UNIX kernel. It provides preemptive multitasking
and protected memory.
 Community
Linux is part of the greater open-source community. This consists of
thousands of developers and many more users world-wide who support open
software. This user and developer base is also a support base.
 Freedom
Linux is free. This means more than just costing nothing. This means that
you are allowed to do whatever you want to with the software. This is why
Redhat, Mandrake, and Suse are all allowed to sell
their own distributions of Linux
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General Overview:

The Linux Kernel

The Linux Kernel is an operating system, which runs on a wide variety of

hardware and for a variety of purposes. Linux is capable of running on devices as
simple as a wrist watch, or a cell phone, but it can also run on a home computer
using, for example Intel, or AMD processors, and its even capable of running on
high end servers using Sun Sparc CPU’s or IBM power PC processors. Some
Linux distro’s can only run one processor, while others can run many at once.

The Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of
Unix-likeoperating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and
open source software. The Linux kernel was initially conceived and created by
Finnishcomputer science student Linus Torvalds in 1991. Linux rapidly
accumulated developers and users who adopted code from other free software
projects for use with the new operating system. The Linux kernel has received
contributions from thousands of programmers. Many Linux distributions have been
released based upon the Linux kernel.
Properties of Linux:
Linux Pros
A lot of the advantages of Linux are a consequence of Linux' origins, deeply
rooted in UNIX, except for the first advantage, of course:

-times:
Linux Cons
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Linux vs. Windows

Topic Linux windows

Price The majority of Linux variants Microsoft Windows can run
are available between $20.00
for free or at a much lower - $150.00 US dollars per each
price than license copy.
Windows

Reliability The majority of Linux variants Although Microsoft Windows

and versions has made
are notoriously reliable and can great improvements in
often run for reliability over the
months and years without last few versions of Windows,
needing to be it still cannot
rebooted. match the reliability of Linux.
Software Linux has a large variety of Because of the large amount of
available software Microsoft
programs, utilities, and games. Windows users, there is a much
However, larger
Windows has a much larger selection of available software
selection of available software. programs utilities, and games
for Windows.
Software Many of the available software Although Windows does have
Cost programs, software
utilities, and games available programs, utilities, and games
on Linux are for free, the
freeware and/or open source. majority of the programs will
Even such cost anywhere
complex programs such as between $20.00 - $200.00+ US
Gimp, OpenOffice, dollars per
StarOffice, and wine are copy.
available for free or
at a low cost.
Hardware Linux companies and hardware Because of the amount of
manufacturers Microsoft
have made great advancements Windows users and the broader
in hardware driver
support for Linux and today support, Windows has a much
Linux will larger support
support most hardware devices. for hardware devices and a
However, good majority of
many companies still do not hardware manufacturers will
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offer drivers or support their

support for their hardware in products in Microsoft
Linux. Windows.
Security Linux is and has always been a Although Microsoft has made
very secure great
operating system. Although it improvements over the years
still can be with security
attacked when compared to on their operating system, their
Windows, it much operating
more secure. system continues to be the most
vulnerable
to viruses and other attacks.
Open Many of the Linux variants and Microsoft Windows is not open
Source many Linux source and
programs are open source and the majority of Windows
enable users to programs are not
customize or modify the code open source.
however they
wish to.
Support Although it may be more Microsoft Windows is not open
difficult to find users source and
familiar with all Linux variants, the majority of Windows
there are vast programs are not
amounts of available online open source.
documentation
and help available for Linux.

1.6 Kernel Mode and user:

A kernel is the main program or component of an operating system, it's the

thing that does all the work, and without it you have no operating system. Linux is
actually nothing more than a kernel; the programs that make up the rest of the
operating system are generally GNU software, so the entire operating system is
usually referred to as GNU/Linux.

User mode is the normal mode of operating for programs. Web browsers,
calculators, etc. will all be in user mode. They don't interact directly with the
kernel, instead, they just give instructions on what needs to be done, and the kernel
takes care of the rest. Kernel mode, on the other hand, is where programs
communicate directly with the kernel. A good example of this would be device
drivers. A device driver must tell the kernel exactly how to interact wih a piece of
hardware, so it must be run in kernel mode. Because of this close interaction with
the kernel, the kernel is also a lot more vulnerable to programs running in this
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mode, so it becomes highly crucial that drivers are properly debugged before being
released to the public.
A process can run in two modes:
1.User Mode.
2.Kernel Mode.

1. User Mode:

A mode of the CPU when running a program. In this mode, the user process
has no access to the memory locations used by the kernel .When a program is
running in User Mode, it cannot directly access the kernel data structures or the
kernel programs. The kernel-mode programs run in the background, making sure
everything runs smoothly – things like printer drivers, display drivers, drivers that
interface with the monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.
These programs all run in such a way that you don't notice them.
When the computer boots up, Windows calls the KERNEL, the main kernel-mode
program that allows all the other programs to run, even the user-mode programs.
User mode is the normal mode of operating for programs, web browsers etc. They
don't interact directly with the kernel, instead, they just give instructions on what
needs to be done, and the kernel takes care of the rest. Kernel mode, on the other
hand, is where programs communicate directly with the kernel.

A good example of this would be device drivers. A device driver must tell
the kernel exactly how to Interact with a piece of hardware, so it must be run in
kernel mode. Because of this close interaction with the kernel, the kernel is also a
lot more vulnerable to programs running in this mode, so it becomes highly crucial
that drivers are properly debugged before being released to the public.
These are the programs that you run when you want specific programs - e.g., MS
Paint, MS Word, and Calculator. These are heavily restricted, as to not crash the
system. Windows uses memory-protection services offered by the processor to
prevent malicious programs from interfering with the rest of the system and
corrupting it.
In User mode, the executing code has no ability to directly access hardware
or reference memory. Code running in user mode must delegate to system APIs to
access hardware or memory. Due to the protection afforded by this sort of
isolation, crashes in user mode are always recoverable. Most of the code running
on your computer will execute in user mode.
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Kernel Mode:
A mode of the CPU when running a program. In this mode, it is the kernel
that is running on behalf of the user process and directly access the kernel data
structures or the kernel programs. Once the system call returns, the CPU switches
back to user mode. The kernel-mode programs run in the background, making sure
everything runs smoothly – things like printer drivers, display drivers, drivers that
interface with the monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. These programs all run in such a
way that you don't notice them. When the computer boots up, Windows calls the
KERNEL, the main kernel-mode program that allows all the other programs to run,
even the user-mode programs. Kernel mode, also referred to as system mode, is
one of the two distinct modes of operation of the CPU in Linux. When the CPU is
in kernel mode, it is assumed to be executing trusted software, and thus it can
execute any instructions and reference any
memory addresses (i.e., locations in memory). The kernel (which is the core of the
operating system and has complete control over everything that occurs in the
system) is trusted software, but all other programs are considered un trusted
software.
In this mode executing code has complete and unrestricted access to the
underlying hardware. It can execute any CPU instruction and reference any
memory address. Kernel mode is generally reserved for the lowest-level, most
trusted functions of the operating system. Crashes in kernel mode are catastrophic;
they will halt the entire PC. When the CPU is in kernel mode, it is assumed to be
executing trusted software, and thus it can execute any instructions and reference
any memory addresses (i.e., locations in memory).
The kernel (which is the core of the operating system and has complete
control over everything that occurs in the system) is trusted software, but all other
programs are considered untrusted software. Thus, all user mode software must
request use of the kernel by means of a system call in order to perform privileged
instructions, such as process creation or input/output operations.

Distinguish Between User Mode and Kernel Mode

priority.
not priority to
interface in
kernal mode.
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g intercepted by the
tracing thread. When it's in the kernel, it's not under system call tracing. This is the
distinction between user mode and kernel mode.

When a process executes a system call or receives a signal, the tracing thread
forces the process to run in the kernel if necessary and continues it without system
call tracing.

LINUX:
Process:
Definition: A process is an executing (i.e., running) instance of a program. Process
are frequently referred to as tasks. Process (process ID, PID): All software runs
within an operating system concept known as a process. Each program running on
a system is assigned its own process ID (PID). Users can easily obtain a process
list (using Task Manager on Windows or ps on UNIX) in order to see what is
running.
Processes inside out
Multi-user and multi-tasking:

Multiuser refers to having more than 1 person able to log into the computer
and each person have their own settings (bookmark, desktop, themes, etc)
Multitasking is the ability of the computer to do more than 1 thing (program) at a
time. There was a time when you could not surf, type in word and listen to music
on your computer all at one time.

Process types:
Interactive processes

Interactive processes are initialized and controlled through a terminal

session. In other words, there has to be someone connected to the system to start
these processes; they are not started automatically as part of the system functions
Running a process in the background is only useful for programs that don't need
user input (via the shell).Putting a job in the background is typically done when
execution of a job is expected to take a long time. In the example, using graphical
mode, we open an extra terminal window from the existing one:
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Controlling processes

part of) command Meaning

regular_command Runs this command in the foreground.
command & Run this command in the background (release
the terminal)
Jobs Show commands running in the background.
Ctrl+Z Suspend (stop, but not quit) a process running
in the foreground
(suspend).
Ctrl+C Interrupt (terminate and quit) a process running
in the foreground
Bg Reactivate a suspended program in the
background
Fg Puts the job back in the foreground.
Kill End a process

Automatic processes
Automatic or batch processes are not connected to a terminal. Rather, these
are tasks that can be queued into a spooler area, where they wait to be executed on
a FIFO (first-in, first-out) basis. Such tasks can be executed using one of two
criteria:
at command.

using the batch command.

Daemons
A daemon process has no controlling terminal. It cannot open /dev/tty. Most
daemons tend to last a long time, be owned by root, and do something useful. A
daemon is just a process that runs in the background, usually waiting for something
to happen that it is capable of working with, like a printer daemon is waiting for
print commands.
Daemons are server processes that run continuously. Most of the time, they are
initialized at system startup and then wait in the background until their service is
required.
Process attributes
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A process has a series of characteristics, which can be viewed with the ps

command:
The process ID or PID: a unique identification number used to refer to the process.
The parent process ID or PPID: the number of the process (PID) that started this
process.
 Nice number: the degree of friendliness of this process toward other
processes (not to be confused with process priority, which is calculated
based on this nice number and recent CPU usage of the process).
 .
 User name of the real and effective user (RUID and EUID): the owner of the
process.

of a process is the primary group of the user who started the process.
Displaying process information:
The ps command is one of the tools for visualizing processes. This
command has several options which can be combined to display different process
attributes. With no options specified, ps only gives information about the current
shell and eventual processes:
Life and death of a process:
Process creation
A new process is created because an existing process makes an exact copy of
itself. This child process has the same environment as its parent, only the process
ID number is different. This procedure is called forking. After the forking process,
the address space of the child process is overwritten with the new process data.
This is done through an exec call to the system.
Ending processes
When a process ends normally (it is not killed or otherwise unexpectedly
interrupted), the program returns its exit status to the parent. This exit status is a
number returned by the program providing the results of the program's execution.
Signals:
Processes end because they receive a signal. There are multiple signals that
you can send to a process. Use the kill command to send a signal to a process. The
command kill -l shows a list of signals. Most signals are for internal use by the
system, or for programmers when they write code. As a user, you will need the
following signals:
Common signals
Signal name Signal number Meaning
SIGTERM 15 Terminate the process in an
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orderly way.
SIGINT . 2 Interrupt the process. A
process can ignore this signal.

SIGKILL 9 Interrupt the process. A

process can not ignore this
signal
SIGHUP 1 For daemons: reread the
configuration file.

Boot process, Init and shutdown:

PC Boot and Linux Init Process:
BIOS: The Basic Input/Output System is the lowest level interface between the
computer and peripherals. The BIOS performs integrity checks on memory and
seeks instructions on the Master Boor Record (MBR) on the floppy drive or hard
drive.

ll identify
which kernel to run and where it is located (hard drive and partition specified). The
installation process requires to creation/identification of partitions and where to
install the OS. GRUB/LILO are also configured during this process. The boot
loader then loads the Linux operating system.

of all processes executing on Linux.

the appropriate run-level, scripts are executed to start various

processes to run the system and make it functional.
One of the most powerful aspects of Linux concerns its open method of
starting and stopping the operating system, where it loads specified programs using
their particular configurations, permits you to change those configurations to
control the boot process, and shuts down in a graceful and organized way.
Beyond the question of controlling the boot or shutdown process, the open
nature of Linux makes it much easier to determine the exact source of most
problems associated with starting up or shutting down your system. A basic
understanding of this process is quite beneficial to everybody who uses a Linux
system. A lot of Linux systems use lilo, the LInux LOader for booting operating
systems. We will only discuss GRUB, however, which is easier to use and more
flexible.
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Init:
The kernel, once it is loaded, finds init in sbin and executes it.When init starts, it
becomes the parent or grandparent of all of the processes that start up
automatically on your Linux system. The first thing
init does, is reading its initialization file, /etc/inittab. This instructs init to read an
initial configuration script for the environment, which sets the path, starts
swapping, checks the file systems, and so on. Basically, this step takes care of
everything that your system needs to have done at system initialization: setting the
clock, initializing serial ports and so forth.
Then init continues to read the /etc/init tab file, which describes how the
system should be set up in each run level and sets the default run level. A run level
is a configuration of processes. All UNIX-like systems can be run in different
process configurations, such as the single user mode, which is referred to as run
level 1 or run level S (or s). In this mode, only the system administrator can
connect to the system. It is used to perform maintenance tasks without risks of
damaging the system or user data. Naturally, in this configuration we don't need to
offer user services, so they will all be disabled. Another run level is the reboot run
level, or run level 6, which shuts down all running services according to the
appropriate
procedures and then restarts the system.

Advanced Concepts
Scheduling – Personalities – Cloning – Signals – Development with Linux
Scheduling:
A Linux system can have a lot to suffer from, but it usually suffers only during
office hours. Whether in an office environment, a server room or at home, most
Linux systems are just idling away during the morning, the evening, the nights and
weekends. Using this idle time can be a lot cheaper than buying those machines
you'd absolutely need if you want everything done at the same time.

There are three types of delayed execution:

sleep
command. Execution time depends on
the system time at the moment of submission.
at command. Execution of
the job(s) depends on system

using the cron facilities.

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The at command:
The at command executes commands at a given time, using your default
shell unless you tell the command.The options to at are rather user-friendly
The at command is used to schedule one or more programs for a single execution
at some later time.
There are actually four client commands:
1. at: Runs commands at specified time
2. atq: Lists pending commands
3. atrm: Cancels pending jobs
4. batch: Runs commands when system load permits
The Linux at command accepts a number of time specifications, considerably
extending the POSIX.2 standard.
Cron and crontab:
The cron system is managed by the cron daemon. It gets information about
which programs and when they should run from the system's and users' crontab
entries. Only the root user has access to the system crontabs, while each user
should only have access to his own crontabs. On some systems (some) users may
not have access to the cron facility. At system startup the cron daemon searches
/var/spool/cron/ for crontab entries which are named after accounts in /etc/passwd,
it searches /etc/cron.d/ and it searches /etc/crontab, then uses this information every
minute to check if there is something to be done. It executes commands as the user
who owns the crontab file and mails any output of commands to the owner.
Syntax
crontab [-e] [-l] [-r] [filename]

-e edit a copy of the current user's crontab

file, or creates an empty file to edit if
crontab
does not exist.
-l list the crontab file for the invoking
user.
-r remove a user's crontab from the
crontab
Filename The filename that contains the
commands to run.
Lines that can be in the crontab file.
minute (0-59),
hour (0-23),
day of the month (1-31),
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month of the year (1-12),

day of the week (0-6 with 0=Sunday).

Example:
crontab –e
fields,

Min Hour Day of Month of Day of Command

month year week
0 12 14 2 * Echo “hai”

Options Explanation
* Is treated as a wild card. Meaning any
possible value.
*/5 Is treated as ever 5 minutes, hours, days,
or months. Replacing the 5 with another
numerical value
will change this option.
2,4,6 Treated as an OR, so if placed in the
hours, this could mean at 2, 4, or 6 o-
clock.
9-17 Treats for any value between 9 and 17.
So if placed in day of month this would
be days 9 through
17. Or if put in hours it would be
between 9 and 5.

3 System Calls Related to Scheduling:

We change the scheduling parameters by means of the system calls illustrated in
the Table

System Call Description

nice( ) Change the priority of a conventional
process.
getpriority( ) Get the maximum priority of a group of
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conventional
processes.
setpriority( ) Set the priority of a group of
conventional processes
sched_getscheduler( ) Get the scheduling policy of a process.
sched_setscheduler( ) Set the scheduling policy and priority of
a process
sched_getparam( ) Get the scheduling priority of a process.
sched_setparam( ) Set the priority of a process.
sched_setparam( ) Relinquish the processor voluntarily
without blocking.
sched_get_ priority_min( ) Get the minimum priority value for a policy.
sched_get_ priority_max( ) Get the maximum priority value for a policy.

sched_rr_get_interval( ) Get the time quantum value for the Round

Robin policy.

Personalities:
Linux supports different execution domains, or personalities, for each
process. Among other things, execution domains tell Linux how to map signal
numbers into signal actions. The execution domain system allows Linux to provide
limited support for binaries compiled under other Unix-like operating systems.
This function will return the current personality() when persona equals 0xffffffff.
Otherwise, it will make the execution domain referenced by persona the new
execution domain of the current process.
Name
personality - set the process execution domain
Synopsis
#include <sys/personality.h>
int personality(unsigned long persona);
Return Value
On success, the previous persona is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and
errno is set appropriately.

Cloning:
Making an image copy of your system disk is a great way to create a backup.
With the cost of portable USB drives at all time lows, you could keep a couple
around for rotation purposes. If your main drive does crash, you could be back up
and running in a matter of minutes. Now all that's left is making the actual image
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copy. There are lots of ways to accomplish this task, and we'll spell a few of them
out to help you along. The biggest issue with making an image copy of your
system disk is that you must boot from another device to get a true copy. Options
include a "live" CD or bootable USB. You probably have a copy of your favorite
distribution's installation disk lying around somewhere, so that would be an
obvious choice. For our purposes we'll use the Ubuntu 10.4 distro on a USB disk.
The second option would be to use an actual disk duplication distro like Clonezilla.
This turns out to be one of the easier ways to get the job done, especially if
you're not too comfortable with the command line.

Option One: Bootable Ubuntu USB Disk:

Creating a bootable Ubuntu USB disk is a simple task if you have a running
system. It's really not that hard if you don't either. The one thing you do need is the
distribution ISO file. You should be able to boot straight from the disk once you
have it created. It's possible you might have to change your BIOS setting to allow
the system to boot from USB. Many newer systems (like Dell machines) have an
option to bring up a boot menu when the machine first powers up by pressing the
F12 key. Once you get the system booted you're ready to make your backup image
copy. You might want to run the Disk Utility found under the System
Administration list. This will give you the opportunity to look at the disks attached
to your system and their organization.
The Disk Utility provides a number of utilities including mount / dismount
and format volume. It's a good idea to go ahead and format the drive if you're
reusing an old Windows disk. GParted 0.5.1 comes standard with the basic Ubuntu
10.04 boot disk. It includes an option to copy a partition. Instructions for doing the
work can be found on either the GParted site or on the Ubuntu forums. There's also
a GParted Live CD if you want to go that route. Be prepared to wait a while if you
choose to backup your system to an external USB drive. The total estimated time
in our case was almost four hours. One really good alternative is to use a disk
caddy adapter like the Thermal take Black X ST0005U. It has an eSATA
connector that speeds up the data transfer process tremendously. This is a must
have if you're the type that frequently tears into systems or builds new ones.
Option Two: Clonezilla:
Clonezilla is a Linux distribution specifically created for the purpose of
cloning disk drives. It works for virtually any file system you can think of.
Clonezilla comes in two basic flavors, Live and SE. The live version works in
much the same way as the Ubuntu Live USB disk. You boot your computer from
the Live USB and perform the disk copy operations on any drives connected to the
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computer. Clonezilla uses a number of tools along with a simple menu system to
help guide you through the process. The default partition copy tool is Partclone.
Clonezilla SE (Server Edition) is meant to be used to clone disks over a network.
The latest release of Clonezilla is 1.2.5.17 and comes in either a Debian or Ubuntu
version. You can now download an AMD64 version which includes support for
64-bit versions of all the applications and the imaging of large partitions. All the
applications have been updated to the latest versions along with the 2.6.32-12
version of the Linux kernel. The hardest part of using Clonezilla to image your
hard drives is making sure you know which drive is the master and which drive
will be your copy. Clonezilla also takes care of copying the Master Boot Record
(MBR) while accomplishing the same task with the Ubuntu Live CD method
requires some command line magic.
Option Three: dd:
If you're a command line wizard, you could always use the dd command.
The command to image a drive with dd would be something like the following:
# dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb
This assumes that /dev/sda is the drive you wish to copy and /dev/sdb is the target
drive. You'll find this method to be about the same speed as the GParted method
mentioned in Option One above. It really doesn't matter which method you choose.
The important thing is that you do some kind of system backup. Computers do fail
from time to time, and it seems to be just at the time when you can least afford it.
Save yourself some grief down the road and go backup your system now. Go
ahead, we'll wait.
Signals:
A signal is an event generated by Linux in response to some condition,
which maycause a process to take some action when it receives the signal. “Raise”
is the term that indicates the generation of a signal. “Catch” is the term to indicate
the receipt of a signal. Introduced in UNIX systems to simplify IPC. Used by the
kernel to notify processes of system Events. A signal is a short message sent to a
process, or group of processes, containing the number identifying the
signal.POSIX.4 defines i/f for queuing & ordering RT signals w/ arguments. Linux
supports 31 non-real-time signals. Processes end because they receive a signal.
There are multiple signals that you can send to a process. Use the kill command to
send a signal to a process. The command kill -l shows a list of signals. Most
signals are for internal use by the system or for programmers when they write
code.
Sending signals:
A program can signal a different program using the kill() system call with
prototype
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int kill(pid_t pid, int sig);

This will send the signal with number sig to the process with process ID pid.
Signal numbers are small positive integers. (For the definitions on your machine,
try /usr/include/bits/signum.h. Note thatthese definitions depend on OS and
architecture.) A user can send a signal from the command line using the kill
command. Common uses are kill - 9 N to kill the process with pid N, or kill -1 N to
force process N (maybe init or inetd) to reread its configuration file.
Certain user actions will make the kernel send a signal to a process or group of
processes: typing the interrupt character (probably Ctrl-C) causes SIGINT to be
sent, typing the quit character (probably Ctrl-\) sends SIGQUIT, hanging up the
phone (modem) sends SIGHUP, typing the stop character (probably Ctrl-Z)
sends SIGSTOP.

Certain program actions will make the kernel send a signal to that process: for an
illegal instruction one gets SIGILL, for accessing non existing memory one gets
SIGSEGV, for writing to a pipe while nobody is listening anymore on the other
side one gets SIGPIPE, for reading from the terminal while in the background one
gets SIGTTIN, etc.
Receiving signals:
When a process receives a signal, a default action happens, unless the
process has arranged to handle the signal. For the list of signals and the
corresponding default actions, see signal(7). For example, by default SIGHUP,
SIGINT, SIGKILL will kill the process; SIGQUIT will kill the process and force a
core dump; SIGSTOP, SIGTTIN will stop the process; SIGCONT will continue a
stopped process; SIGCHLD will be ignored. Traditionally, one sets up a handler
for the signal using the signal system call with prototype
typedef void (*sighandler_t)(int);
sighandler_t signal(int sig, sighandler_t handler);
This sets up the routine handler() as handler for signals with number sig. The
return value is (the address of) the old handler. The special values SIG_DFL and
SIG_IGN denote the default action and ignoring, respectively. When a signal
arrives, the process is interrupted, the current registers are saved, and the signal
handler is invoked. When the signal handler returns, the interrupted activity is
continued. It is difficult to do interesting things in a signal handler, because the
process can be interrupted in an arbitrary place, data structures can be in arbitrary
state, etc. The three most common things to do in a signal handler are (i) set a flag
variable and return immediately, and (ii) (messy) throw away all the program was
doing, and restart at some convenient point, perhaps the main command loop or so,
and (iii) clean up and exit.
OPENSOURCE SOFTWARE IIIBCA, VI SEMESTER

Blocking signals:
Each process has a list (bitmask) of currently blocked signals. When a signal
is blocked, it is not delivered (that is, no signal handling routine is called), but
remains pending.
blocked signals.

signal is received.
Linux Common Signals are:
Signal name Signal number Meaning
SIGHUP 1 Hangup (POSIX)
SIGINT 2 Terminal interrupt (ANSI)
SIGQUIT 3 Terminal quit (POSIX)
SIGILL 4 Illegal instruction (ANSI)

SIGTRAP 5 Trace trap (POSIX)

SIGIOT 6 IOT Trap (4.2 BSD)
SIGBUS 7 BUS error (4.2 BSD)
SIGFPE 8 Floating point
exception(ANSI)
SIGKILL 9 Kill(can't be caught or
ignored) (POSIX)
SIGUSR1 10 User defined signal 1 (POSIX)