package Thread::Signal; use Thread qw(async); =head1 NAME Thread::Signal - Start a thread which runs signal handlers reliably =head1 SYNOPSIS use Thread::Signal; $SIG{HUP} = \&some_handler; =head1 DESCRIPTION The C module starts up a special signal handler thread. All signals to the process are delivered to it and it runs the associated C<$SIG{FOO}> handlers for them. Without this module, signals arriving at inopportune moments (such as when perl's internals are in the middle of updating critical structures) cause the perl code of the handler to be run unsafely which can cause memory corruption or worse. =head1 BUGS This module changes the semantics of signal handling slightly in that the signal handler is run separately from the main thread (and in parallel with it). This means that tricks such as calling C from a signal handler behave differently (and, in particular, can't be used to exit directly from a system call). =cut if (!init_thread_signals()) { require Carp; Carp::croak("init_thread_signals failed: $!"); } async { my $sig; while ($sig = await_signal()) { &$sig(); } }; END { kill_sighandler_thread(); } 1;