BSD Wait Functions - The GNU C Library

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### 26.8 BSD Process Wait Functions

The GNU library also provides these related facilities for compatibility with BSD Unix. BSD uses the `union wait` data type to represent status values rather than an `int`. The two representations are actually interchangeable; they describe the same bit patterns. The GNU C Library defines macros such as `WEXITSTATUS` so that they will work on either kind of object, and the `wait` function is defined to accept either type of pointer as its status-ptr argument.

These functions are declared in `sys/wait.h`.

— Data Type: union wait

> This data type represents program termination status values. It has the following members:

> `int w_termsig`
>   The value of this member is the same as that of the `WTERMSIG` macro.
> `int w_coredump`
>   The value of this member is the same as that of the `WCOREDUMP` macro.
> `int w_retcode`
>   The value of this member is the same as that of the `WEXITSTATUS` macro.
> `int w_stopsig`
>   The value of this member is the same as that of the `WSTOPSIG` macro.

> Instead of accessing these members directly, you should use the equivalent macros.

The `wait3` function is the predecessor to `wait4`, which is more flexible. `wait3` is now obsolete.

— Function: pid_t wait3 (union wait *status-ptr, int options, struct rusage *usage)

> If usage is a null pointer, `wait3` is equivalent to `waitpid (-1,` status-ptr`,` options`)`.

> If usage is not null, `wait3` stores usage figures for the child process in `*`rusage (but only if the child has terminated, not if it has stopped). See Resource Usage.