NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | CONFORMING TO | NOTES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

ARCH_PRCTL(2)             Linux Programmer's Manual            ARCH_PRCTL(2)

NAME         top

       arch_prctl - set architecture-specific thread state

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <asm/prctl.h>
       #include <sys/prctl.h>
       int arch_prctl(int code, unsigned long addr);
       int arch_prctl(int code, unsigned long *addr);

DESCRIPTION         top

       The arch_prctl() function sets architecture-specific process or
       thread state.  code selects a subfunction and passes argument addr to
       it; addr is interpreted as either an unsigned long for the "set"
       operations, or as an unsigned long *, for the "get" operations.
       Subfunctions for x86-64 are:
       ARCH_SET_FS
              Set the 64-bit base for the FS register to addr.
       ARCH_GET_FS
              Return the 64-bit base value for the FS register of the
              current thread in the unsigned long pointed to by addr.
       ARCH_SET_GS
              Set the 64-bit base for the GS register to addr.
       ARCH_GET_GS
              Return the 64-bit base value for the GS register of the
              current thread in the unsigned long pointed to by addr.

RETURN VALUE         top

       On success, arch_prctl() returns 0; on error, -1 is returned, and
       errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS         top

       EFAULT addr points to an unmapped address or is outside the process
              address space.
       EINVAL code is not a valid subcommand.
       EPERM  addr is outside the process address space.

CONFORMING TO         top

       arch_prctl() is a Linux/x86-64 extension and should not be used in
       programs intended to be portable.

NOTES         top

       arch_prctl() is supported only on Linux/x86-64 for 64-bit programs
       currently.
       The 64-bit base changes when a new 32-bit segment selector is loaded.
       ARCH_SET_GS is disabled in some kernels.
       Context switches for 64-bit segment bases are rather expensive.  As
       an optimization, if a 32-bit TLS base address is used, arch_prctl()
       may use a real TLS entry as if set_thread_area(2) had been called,
       instead of manipulating the segment base register directly.  Memory
       in the first 2GB of address space can be allocated by using mmap(2)
       with the MAP_32BIT flag.
       Because of the aforementioned optimization, using arch_prctl() and
       set_thread_area(2) in the same thread is dangerous, as they may
       overwrite each other's TLS entries.
       As of version 2.7, glibc provides no prototype for arch_prctl().  You
       have to declare it yourself for now.  This may be fixed in future
       glibc versions.
       FS may be already used by the threading library.  Programs that use
       ARCH_SET_FS directly are very likely to crash.

SEE ALSO         top

       mmap(2), modify_ldt(2), prctl(2), set_thread_area(2)
       AMD X86-64 Programmer's manual

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of release 4.12 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
       latest version of this page, can be found at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Linux                            2016-10-08                    ARCH_PRCTL(2)

Pages that refer to this page: clone(2)modify_ldt(2)set_thread_area(2)