1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 13.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 14.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 15.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 17.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 18.\" without specific prior written permission. 19.\" 20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 30.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 31.\" 32.\" @(#)fork.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 33.\" $FreeBSD$ 34.\" 35.Dd June 4, 1993 36.Dt FORK 2 37.Os 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm fork 40.Nd create a new process 41.Sh LIBRARY 42.Lb libc 43.Sh SYNOPSIS 44.Fd #include <sys/types.h> 45.Fd #include <unistd.h> 46.Ft pid_t 47.Fn fork void 48.Sh DESCRIPTION 49.Fn Fork 50causes creation of a new process. 51The new process (child process) is an exact copy of the 52calling process (parent process) except for the following: 53.Bl -bullet -offset indent 54.It 55The child process has a unique process ID. 56.It 57The child process has a different parent 58process ID (i.e., the process ID of the parent process). 59.It 60The child process has its own copy of the parent's descriptors. 61These descriptors reference the same underlying objects, so that, 62for instance, file pointers in file objects are shared between 63the child and the parent, so that an 64.Xr lseek 2 65on a descriptor in the child process can affect a subsequent 66.Xr read 2 67or 68.Xr write 2 69by the parent. 70This descriptor copying is also used by the shell to 71establish standard input and output for newly created processes 72as well as to set up pipes. 73.It 74The child process' resource utilizations 75are set to 0; see 76.Xr setrlimit 2 . 77.El 78.Sh RETURN VALUES 79Upon successful completion, 80.Fn fork 81returns a value 82of 0 to the child process and returns the process ID of the child 83process to the parent process. Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned 84to the parent process, no child process is created, and the global 85variable 86.Va errno 87is set to indicate the error. 88.Sh ERRORS 89.Fn Fork 90will fail and no child process will be created if: 91.Bl -tag -width Er 92.It Bq Er EAGAIN 93The system-imposed limit on the total 94number of processes under execution would be exceeded. 95The limit is given by the 96.Xr sysctl 3 97MIB variable 98.Dv KERN_MAXPROC . 99(The limit is actually one less than this 100except for the super user). 101.It Bq Er EAGAIN 102The user is not the super user, and 103the system-imposed limit 104on the total number of 105processes under execution by a single user would be exceeded. 106The limit is given by the 107.Xr sysctl 3 108MIB variable 109.Dv KERN_MAXPROCPERUID . 110.It Bq Er EAGAIN 111The user is not the super user, and 112the soft resource limit corresponding to the resource parameter 113.Dv RLIMIT_NPROC 114would be exceeded (see 115.Xr getrlimit 2 ) . 116.It Bq Er ENOMEM 117There is insufficient swap space for the new process. 118.El 119.Sh SEE ALSO 120.Xr execve 2 , 121.Xr rfork 2 , 122.Xr setrlimit 2 , 123.Xr vfork 2 , 124.Xr wait 2 125.Sh HISTORY 126A 127.Fn fork 128function call appeared in 129.At v6 . 130