Interrupted-System-Calls.html 5.2 KB

123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119
  1. <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
  2. <html>
  3. <!-- Copyright (C) 1988-2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  4. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
  5. under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
  6. any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
  7. Invariant Sections being "Free Software" and "Free Software Needs
  8. Free Documentation", with the Front-Cover Texts being "A GNU Manual,"
  9. and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below.
  10. (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: "You are free to copy and modify
  11. this GNU Manual. Buying copies from GNU Press supports the FSF in
  12. developing GNU and promoting software freedom." -->
  13. <!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 5.1, http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ -->
  14. <head>
  15. <title>Debugging with GDB: Interrupted System Calls</title>
  16. <meta name="description" content="Debugging with GDB: Interrupted System Calls">
  17. <meta name="keywords" content="Debugging with GDB: Interrupted System Calls">
  18. <meta name="resource-type" content="document">
  19. <meta name="distribution" content="global">
  20. <meta name="Generator" content="makeinfo">
  21. <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
  22. <link href="index.html#Top" rel="start" title="Top">
  23. <link href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" rel="index" title="Concept Index">
  24. <link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents">
  25. <link href="Thread-Stops.html#Thread-Stops" rel="up" title="Thread Stops">
  26. <link href="Observer-Mode.html#Observer-Mode" rel="next" title="Observer Mode">
  27. <link href="Thread_002dSpecific-Breakpoints.html#Thread_002dSpecific-Breakpoints" rel="previous" title="Thread-Specific Breakpoints">
  28. <style type="text/css">
  29. <!--
  30. a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none}
  31. blockquote.smallquotation {font-size: smaller}
  32. div.display {margin-left: 3.2em}
  33. div.example {margin-left: 3.2em}
  34. div.indentedblock {margin-left: 3.2em}
  35. div.lisp {margin-left: 3.2em}
  36. div.smalldisplay {margin-left: 3.2em}
  37. div.smallexample {margin-left: 3.2em}
  38. div.smallindentedblock {margin-left: 3.2em; font-size: smaller}
  39. div.smalllisp {margin-left: 3.2em}
  40. kbd {font-style:oblique}
  41. pre.display {font-family: inherit}
  42. pre.format {font-family: inherit}
  43. pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif}
  44. pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif}
  45. pre.smalldisplay {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller}
  46. pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller}
  47. pre.smallformat {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller}
  48. pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller}
  49. span.nocodebreak {white-space:nowrap}
  50. span.nolinebreak {white-space:nowrap}
  51. span.roman {font-family:serif; font-weight:normal}
  52. span.sansserif {font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal}
  53. ul.no-bullet {list-style: none}
  54. -->
  55. </style>
  56. </head>
  57. <body lang="en" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#800080" alink="#FF0000">
  58. <a name="Interrupted-System-Calls"></a>
  59. <div class="header">
  60. <p>
  61. Next: <a href="Observer-Mode.html#Observer-Mode" accesskey="n" rel="next">Observer Mode</a>, Previous: <a href="Thread_002dSpecific-Breakpoints.html#Thread_002dSpecific-Breakpoints" accesskey="p" rel="previous">Thread-Specific Breakpoints</a>, Up: <a href="Thread-Stops.html#Thread-Stops" accesskey="u" rel="up">Thread Stops</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
  62. </div>
  63. <hr>
  64. <a name="Interrupted-System-Calls-1"></a>
  65. <h4 class="subsection">5.5.5 Interrupted System Calls</h4>
  66. <a name="index-thread-breakpoints-and-system-calls"></a>
  67. <a name="index-system-calls-and-thread-breakpoints"></a>
  68. <a name="index-premature-return-from-system-calls"></a>
  69. <p>There is an unfortunate side effect when using <small>GDB</small> to debug
  70. multi-threaded programs. If one thread stops for a
  71. breakpoint, or for some other reason, and another thread is blocked in a
  72. system call, then the system call may return prematurely. This is a
  73. consequence of the interaction between multiple threads and the signals
  74. that <small>GDB</small> uses to implement breakpoints and other events that
  75. stop execution.
  76. </p>
  77. <p>To handle this problem, your program should check the return value of
  78. each system call and react appropriately. This is good programming
  79. style anyways.
  80. </p>
  81. <p>For example, do not write code like this:
  82. </p>
  83. <div class="smallexample">
  84. <pre class="smallexample"> sleep (10);
  85. </pre></div>
  86. <p>The call to <code>sleep</code> will return early if a different thread stops
  87. at a breakpoint or for some other reason.
  88. </p>
  89. <p>Instead, write this:
  90. </p>
  91. <div class="smallexample">
  92. <pre class="smallexample"> int unslept = 10;
  93. while (unslept &gt; 0)
  94. unslept = sleep (unslept);
  95. </pre></div>
  96. <p>A system call is allowed to return early, so the system is still
  97. conforming to its specification. But <small>GDB</small> does cause your
  98. multi-threaded program to behave differently than it would without
  99. <small>GDB</small>.
  100. </p>
  101. <p>Also, <small>GDB</small> uses internal breakpoints in the thread library to
  102. monitor certain events such as thread creation and thread destruction.
  103. When such an event happens, a system call in another thread may return
  104. prematurely, even though your program does not appear to stop.
  105. </p>
  106. </body>
  107. </html>