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

SETJMP(3)                 Linux Programmer's Manual                SETJMP(3)

NAME         top

       setjmp, sigsetjmp, longjmp, siglongjmp  - performing a nonlocal goto

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <setjmp.h>
       int setjmp(jmp_buf env);
       int sigsetjmp(sigjmp_buf env, int savesigs);
       void longjmp(jmp_buf env, int val);
       void siglongjmp(sigjmp_buf env, int val);
   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
       setjmp():
           see NOTES.
       sigsetjmp(): _POSIX_C_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION         top

       The functions described on this page are used for performing
       "nonlocal gotos": transferring execution from one function to a
       predetermined location in another function.  The setjmp() function
       dynamically establishes the target to which control will later be
       transferred, and longjmp() performs the transfer of execution.
       The setjmp() function saves various information about the calling
       environment (typically, the stack pointer, the instruction pointer,
       possibly the values of other registers and the signal mask) in the
       buffer env for later use by longjmp().  In this case, setjmp()
       returns 0.
       The longjmp() function uses the information saved in env to transfer
       control back to the point where setjmp() was called and to restore
       ("rewind") the stack to its state at the time of the setjmp() call.
       In addition, and depending on the implementation (see NOTES), the
       values of some other registers and the process signal mask may be
       restored to their state at the time of the setjmp() call.
       Following a successful longjmp(), execution continues as if setjmp()
       had returned for a second time.  This "fake" return can be
       distinguished from a true setjmp() call because the "fake" return
       returns the value provided in val.  If the programmer mistakenly
       passes the value 0 in val, the "fake" return will instead return 1.
   sigsetjmp() and siglongjmp()
       sigsetjmp() and siglongjmp() also perform nonlocal gotos, but provide
       predictable handling of the process signal mask.
       If, and only if, the savesigs argument provided to sigsetjmp() is
       nonzero, the process's current signal mask is saved in env and will
       be restored if a siglongjmp() is later performed with this env.

RETURN VALUE         top

       setjmp() and sigsetjmp() return 0 when called directly; on the "fake"
       return that occurs after longjmp() or siglongjmp(), the nonzero value
       specified in val is returned.
       The longjmp() or siglongjmp() functions do not return.

ATTRIBUTES         top

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
       attributes(7).
       ┌────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │Interface               Attribute     Value   │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │setjmp(), sigsetjmp()   │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │longjmp(), siglongjmp() │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

CONFORMING TO         top

       setjmp(), longjmp(): POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, C89, C99.
       sigsetjmp(), siglongjmp(): POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008.

NOTES         top

       POSIX does not specify whether setjmp() will save the signal mask (to
       be later restored during longjmp()).  In System V it will not.  In
       4.3BSD it will, and there is a function _setjmp() that will not.  The
       behavior under Linux depends on the glibc version and the setting of
       feature test macros.  On Linux with glibc versions before 2.19,
       setjmp() follows the System V behavior by default, but the BSD
       behavior is provided if the _BSD_SOURCE feature test macro is
       explicitly defined and none of _POSIX_SOURCE, _POSIX_C_SOURCE,
       _XOPEN_SOURCE, _GNU_SOURCE, or _SVID_SOURCE is defined.  Since glibc
       2.19, <setjmp.h> exposes only the System V version of setjmp().
       Programs that need the BSD semantics should replace calls to setjmp()
       with calls to sigsetjmp() with a nonzero savesigs argument.
       setjmp() and longjmp() can be useful for dealing with errors inside
       deeply nested function calls or to allow a signal handler to pass
       control to a specific point in the program, rather than returning to
       the point where the handler interrupted the main program.  In the
       latter case, if you want to portably save and restore signal masks,
       use sigsetjmp() and siglongjmp().  See also the discussion of program
       readability below.
       The compiler may optimize variables into registers, and longjmp() may
       restore the values of other registers in addition to the stack
       pointer and program counter.  Consequently, the values of automatic
       variables are unspecified after a call to longjmp() if they meet all
       the following criteria:
       ·  they are local to the function that made the corresponding
          setjmp() call;
       ·  their values are changed between the calls to setjmp() and
          longjmp(); and
       ·  they are not declared as volatile.
       Analogous remarks apply for siglongjmp().
   Nonlocal gotos and program readability
       While it can be abused, the traditional C "goto" statement at least
       has the benefit that lexical cues (the goto statement and the target
       label) allow the programmer to easily perceive the flow of control.
       Nonlocal gotos provide no such cues: multiple setjmp() calls might
       employ the same jmp_buf variable so that the content of the variable
       may change over the lifetime of the application.  Consequently, the
       programmer may be forced to perform detailed reading of the code to
       determine the dynamic target of a particular longjmp() call.  (To
       make the programmer's life easier, each setjmp() call should employ a
       unique jmp_buf variable.)
       Adding further difficulty, the setjmp() and longjmp() calls may not
       even be in the same source code module.
       In summary, nonlocal gotos can make programs harder to understand and
       maintain, and an alternative should be used if possible.
   Caveats
       If the function which called setjmp() returns before longjmp() is
       called, the behavior is undefined.  Some kind of subtle or unsubtle
       chaos is sure to result.
       If, in a multithreaded program, a longjmp() call employs an env
       buffer that was initialized by a call to setjmp() in a different
       thread, the behavior is undefined.
       POSIX.1-2008 Technical Corrigendum 2 adds longjmp() and siglongjmp()
       to the list of async-signal-safe functions.  However, the standard
       recommends avoiding the use of these functions from signal handlers
       and goes on to point out that if these functions are called from a
       signal handler that interrupted a call to a non-async-signal-safe
       function (or some equivalent, such as the steps equivalent to exit(3)
       that occur upon a return from the initial call to main()), the
       behavior is undefined if the program subsequently makes a call to a
       non-async-signal-safe function.  The only way of avoiding undefined
       behavior is to ensure one of the following:
       *  After long jumping from the signal handler, the program does not
          call any non-async-signal-safe functions and does not return from
          the initial call to main().
       *  Any signal whose handler performs a long jump must be blocked
          during every call to a non-async-signal-safe function and no non-
          async-signal-safe functions are called after returning from the
          initial call to main().

SEE ALSO         top

       signal(7), signal-safety(7)

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/.
                                 2017-03-13                        SETJMP(3)

Pages that refer to this page: sigaltstack(2)abort(3)alloca(3)atexit(3)exit(3)ftw(3)getcontext(3)makecontext(3)pthread_cleanup_push(3)sleep(3)signal(7)signal-safety(7)ld.so(8)