How do I receive data sent by sigqueue() syscall

Question

I have 2 process sigserver and sigclient. sigserver waits for a signal to come and sigclient sends data (int+char) to sigserver.

sigserver.c

void sighand(int signo, siginfo_t *info, void *extra)
{
       void *ptr_val = info->si_value.sival_ptr;
       int int_val = info->si_value.sival_int;
       printf("Signal: %d, value: [%d] %s\n", signo, int_val, (char*)ptr_val);
}

int main()
{
        struct sigaction action;

        action.sa_flags = SA_SIGINFO;
        action.sa_sigaction = &sighand;

        if (sigaction(SIGUSR2, &action, NULL) == -1) {
                perror("sigusr: sigaction");
                return 0;
        }

        printf("Signal handler installed, waiting for signal\n");

        while(1) {sleep(2);}

        return 0;
}

sigclient.c

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
        union sigval value;
        int pid = atoi(argv[1]);

        value.sival_int = atoi(argv[2]);
        value.sival_ptr = (void*) strdup(argv[3]);
        if(sigqueue(pid, SIGUSR2, value) == 0) {
                printf("signal sent successfully!!\n");
        } else {
                perror("SIGSENT-ERROR:");
        }
        return 0;
}

now when I run client with below command ./client server_pid 15 teststring

server generates core dump.

My question is, how can a process read string sent by another process(not child).

Be careful: `sigval` is a `union`, which means that you can either set `sival_int` or `sival_ptr`, but not both! See [Purpose of Unions in C and C++](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2310483/purpose-of-unions-in-c-and-c/2313676) and [Unions in C](https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cprogramming/c_unions.htm) for more information. — SRG, Dec 30 '18 at 21:48

score 14 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 31 '13 at 14:41

The address which is sent from one process to the other via the value of sival_ptr is not valid in the receiving process, as the two processes do not share the same address space.

Due to this undefined behaviour is invoked on the receiver side when accessing sival_ptr.

The logic used in the example shown would only work if receiver and sender were the same process and thus use the same address space.

Note: In contrast to sival_ptr the value of sival_int could be used on the receiver side, as its value is the data.

To send data more complex than a single integer from one process to another use different IPC mechanic, like shared memory, sockets, pipes, ...

thts wt I was thinking abt, but not sure, thnx for the confirmation. — JohnG, Aug 31 '13 at 13:55

How do I receive data sent by sigqueue() syscall

1 Answers1