SIGEMT

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SIGEMT (non-POSIX)
Description Emulator trap
Default action Abnormal termination of the process
SA_SIGINFO macros
None

On some Unix-like platforms, SIGEMT is the signal sent to computer programs when an emulator trap occurs. The symbolic constant for SIGEMT is defined in signal.h. Symbolic signal names are used because signal numbers can vary across platforms.

[edit] Etymology

SIG is a common prefix for signal names. EMT is an abbreviation for emulator trap; it is the name of an instruction on the highly influential PDP-11 architecture.

[edit] Usage

On the PDP-11 architecture, EMT, TRAP, BPT and IOT were instructions used for program traps. EMT was for system software, TRAP for programmer use, BPT for debugging, and IOT for I/O routines. Currently EMT does not have a standardised usage.

Solaris sends SIGEMT to new lightweight processes to enable them to reset hardware performance counters.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ cpc_bind_curlwp(3CPC). Solaris man pages. Sun Microsystems, Inc. (October 26, 2005). Retrieved on 2007-01-24.