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waitid(2)

What

General-purpose system call for waiting for status of a child process.

When

Linux 2.6.9 (glibc had a broken implementation)

Where

System V derived; now in SUSv3; available on many implementations (not on BSDs!).

Why

More flexible than wait(2) and waitpid(2).

How

Main functional difference from waitpid(2) is in options argument:

• Can select which exactly which transitions to wait for, by ORing:

  WEXITED (terminated child)
  WSTOPPED (stopped child)
  WCONTINUED (child resumed by SIGCONT)
  
  waitpid(2) always returns tor "terminated" transition.

• can specify WNOWAIT to leave child in waitable state.

Further information

Manual page: waitid(2)

(C) 2006, Michael Kerrisk