It appears to me that Bodo Stroesser is correct. The description of sa_mask given in the man page is:
"sa_mask gives a mask of signals which should be blocked during execution of the signal handler. In addition, the signal which triggered the handler will be blocked, unless the SA_NODEFER flag is used." Note that the "unless the SA_NODEFER flag is used" clause applies only to "In addition, the signal which triggered the handler will be blocked." The first sentence of the description, which is unaffected by this clause, states that the signals specified in sa_mask will be blocked while the signal handler being installed executes. The description of sa_mask in no way suggests that if SA_NODEFER is specified, the signals specified in sa_mask will not be blocked. The description of SA_NODEFER given in the man page is: "SA_NODEFER Do not prevent the signal from being received from within its own signal handler. SA_NOMASK is an obsolete, non-standard synonym for this flag." Clearly, the first sentence of this description is the only one which specifies any behavior at all, so the second sentence can be ignored. This description only states that SA_NODEFER will block the signal for which a signal handler is being installed while the signal handler being installed executes. It does not indicate that SA_NODEFER has any effect on the blocking of signals other than the one for which a handler is being installed, and thus it should be assumed that it has no such effect. The source code indicates, though, that SA_NODEFER has precisely this effect; specifying SA_NODEFER prevents the signals specified in sa_mask from being blocked (an exception to the normal behavior of sa_mask, described by the first sentence of the sa_mask man page description included above), when neither the description of sa_mask nor the description of SA_NODEFER specifies such an exception. -- Jeremy Maitin-Shepard - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
