Mastering Linux Kernel Development

Signal-generation calls

The kernel provides two separate group of functions for signal generation: one set for generating signals on individual process and another for process thread groups.

• Following is the list of important functions to generate signals on a process: send_sig(): Generates a specified signal on a process; this function is used widely by kernel services
• end_sig_info(): Extends send_sig() with additional siginfo_t instances
• force_sig(): Used to generate priority non-maskable signals which cannot be ignored or blocked
• force_sig_info(): Extends force_sig() with additional siginfo_t instances.

All of these routines eventually invoke the core kernel function send_signal() which is programmed to generate a specified signal.