6.5.3.1 Signal Handling

As noted above it is not possible to call e.g. SP_query() or even SP_event() from an arbitrary signal handler. That is, from signal handlers installed with signal or sigaction. Instead you need to install the signal handler using SP_signal(). When the OS delivers a signal sig for which SP_signal(sig,func,user_data) has been called SICStus will not call func immediately. Instead the call to func will be delayed until it is safe for Prolog to do so, in much the same way that functions installed by SP_event() are handled (this is an incompatible change as of release 3.9).

Since the signal handling function func will not be called immediately upon delivery of the signal to the process it only makes sense to use SP_signal() to handle certain asynchronous signals such as SIGINT, SIGUSR1, SIGUSR2. Other asynchronous signals handled specially by the OS, such as SIGCHLD are not suitable for handling via SP_signal(). Note that the development system installs a handler for ‘SIGINT’, and, under Windows, ‘SIGBREAK’, to catch keyboard interrupts. Under UNIX, library(timeout) currently uses SIGVTALRM.

When func is called, it cannot call any SICStus API functions except SP_event(). Note that func will be called in the main thread.


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