.\" Copyright, the authors of the Linux man-pages project
.\"
.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: Linux-man-pages-copyleft
.\"
.TH PR_SET_CHILD_SUBREAPER 2const 2025-05-17 "Linux man-pages 6.16"
.SH NAME
PR_SET_CHILD_SUBREAPER
\-
set/unset the "child subreaper" attribute of the calling process
.SH LIBRARY
Standard C library
.RI ( libc ,\~ \-lc )
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.BR "#include <linux/prctl.h>" "  /* Definition of " PR_* " constants */"
.B #include <sys/prctl.h>
.P
.BI "int prctl(PR_SET_CHILD_SUBREAPER, long " set );
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
If
.I set
is nonzero,
set the "child subreaper" attribute of the calling process;
if
.I set
is zero, unset the attribute.
.P
A subreaper fulfills the role of
.BR init (1)
for its descendant processes.
When a process becomes orphaned
(i.e., its immediate parent terminates),
then that process will be reparented to
the nearest still living ancestor subreaper.
Subsequently, calls to
.BR getppid (2)
in the orphaned process will now return the PID of the subreaper process,
and when the orphan terminates, it is the subreaper process that
will receive a
.B SIGCHLD
signal and will be able to
.BR wait (2)
on the process to discover its termination status.
.P
The setting of the "child subreaper" attribute
is not inherited by children created by
.BR fork (2)
and
.BR clone (2).
The setting is preserved across
.BR execve (2).
.P
Establishing a subreaper process is useful in session management frameworks
where a hierarchical group of processes is managed by a subreaper process
that needs to be informed when one of the processes\[em]for example,
a double-forked daemon\[em]terminates
(perhaps so that it can restart that process).
Some
.BR init (1)
frameworks (e.g.,
.BR systemd (1))
employ a subreaper process for similar reasons.
.SH RETURN VALUE
On success,
0 is returned.
On error, \-1 is returned, and
.I errno
is set to indicate the error.
.SH STANDARDS
Linux.
.SH HISTORY
Linux 3.4.
.\" commit ebec18a6d3aa1e7d84aab16225e87fd25170ec2b
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR prctl (2),
.BR PR_GET_CHILD_SUBREAPER (2const)