[PATCH v2] sigaction.2: Document SA_EXPOSE_TAGBITS and the flag support detection protocol

[Peter Collingbourne]

Signed-off-by: Peter Collingbourne <pcc at google.com>
---
These features are implemented in this patch series:
  https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/cover.1605235762.git.pcc@google.com/
which is still under review, so the patch should not be applied
yet.

Alejandro, thanks for the review. Since the patch was almost
rewritten I didn't base this on your patch, instead I tried to
use the correct formatting in this patch.

v2:
- fix formatting
- address feedback from Dave

 man2/sigaction.2 | 125 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 125 insertions(+)

diff --git a/man2/sigaction.2 b/man2/sigaction.2
index 6a8142324..0e4236a43 100644
--- a/man2/sigaction.2
+++ b/man2/sigaction.2
@@ -250,6 +250,44 @@ This flag is meaningful only when establishing a signal handler.
 .\" .I sa_sigaction
 .\" field was added in Linux 2.1.86.)
 .\"
+.TP
+.BR SA_UNSUPPORTED
+Used to dynamically probe for flag bit support.
+.IP
+If an attempt to register a handler succeeds with this flag set in
+.I act->sa_flags
+alongside other flags that are potentially unsupported by the kernel,
+and an immediately subsequent
+.BR sigaction ()
+call specifying the same signal number n and with non-NULL
+.I oldact
+yields
+.B SA_UNSUPPORTED
+.I clear
+in
+.IR oldact->sa_flags ,
+then
+.IR oldact->sa_flags
+may be used as a bitmask
+describing which of the potentially unsupported flags are,
+in fact, supported.
+See the section "Dynamically probing for flag bit support"
+below for more details.
+.TP
+.BR SA_EXPOSE_TAGBITS " (since Linux 5.x)"
+Normally, when delivering a signal,
+an architecture-specific set of tag bits are cleared from the
+.I si_addr
+field of
+.IR siginfo_t .
+If this flag is set,
+an architecture-specific subset of the tag bits will be preserved in
+.IR si_addr .
+.IP
+Programs that need to be compatible with Linux versions older than 5.x
+must use
+.B SA_UNSUPPORTED
+to probe for support.
 .SS The siginfo_t argument to a SA_SIGINFO handler
 When the
 .B SA_SIGINFO
@@ -833,6 +871,93 @@ Triggered by a
 .BR seccomp (2)
 filter rule.
 .RE
+.SS Dynamically probing for flag bit support
+The
+.BR sigaction ()
+call on Linux accepts unknown bits set in
+.I act->sa_flags
+without error.
+The behavior of the kernel starting with Linux 5.x is that a second
+.BR sigaction ()
+will clear unknown bits from
+.IR oldact->sa_flags .
+However, historically, a second
+.BR sigaction ()
+call would typically leave those bits set in
+.IR oldact->sa_flags .
+.PP
+This means that support for new flags cannot be detected
+simply by testing for a flag in
+.IR sa_flags ,
+and a program must test that
+.B SA_UNSUPPORTED
+has been cleared before relying on the contents of
+.IR sa_flags .
+.PP
+Since the behavior of the signal handler cannot be guaranteed
+unless the check passes,
+it is wise to either block the affected signal
+while registering the handler and performing the check in this case,
+or where this is not possible,
+for example if the signal is synchronous, to issue the second
+.BR sigaction ()
+in the signal handler itself.
+.PP
+In kernels that do not support a specific flag,
+the kernel's behavior is as if the flag was not set,
+even if the flag was set in
+.IR act->sa_flags .
+.PP
+The flags
+.BR SA_NOCLDSTOP ,
+.BR SA_NOCLDWAIT ,
+.BR SA_SIGINFO ,
+.BR SA_ONSTACK ,
+.BR SA_RESTART ,
+.BR SA_NODEFER ,
+.BR SA_RESETHAND ,
+and, if defined by the architecture,
+.B SA_RESTORER
+may not be reliably probed for using this mechanism,
+because they were introduced before Linux 5.x.
+However, in general, programs may assume that these flags are supported,
+since they have all been supported since Linux 2.6,
+which was released in the year 2003.
+.PP
+The following example program exits with status 0 if
+.B SA_EXPOSE_TAGBITS
+is determined to be supported, and 1 otherwise.
+.PP
+.EX
+#include <signal.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+
+void handler(int signo, siginfo_t *info, void *context) {
+  struct sigaction oldact;
+  if (sigaction(SIGSEGV, 0, &oldact) == 0 &&
+      !(oldact.sa_flags & SA_UNSUPPORTED) &&
+      (oldact.sa_flags & SA_EXPOSE_TAGBITS)) {
+    _exit(0);
+  } else {
+    _exit(1);
+  }
+}
+
+int main(void) {
+  struct sigaction act = {};
+  act.sa_flags = SA_SIGINFO | SA_UNSUPPORTED | SA_EXPOSE_TAGBITS;
+  act.sa_sigaction = handler;
+  if (sigaction(SIGSEGV, &act, 0) != 0) {
+    perror("sigaction");
+    return 1;
+  }
+
+  /* Force a SIGSEGV. */
+  *(volatile int *)0 = 0;
+  return 1;
+}
+.EE
 .SH RETURN VALUE
 .BR sigaction ()
 returns 0 on success; on error, \-1 is returned, and
-- 
2.29.2.299.gdc1121823c-goog