.\" -*-nroff-*-
.TH daemonize 3 "6 January 2007" "Straylight/Edgeware" "mLib utilities library"
.SH NAME
daemonize \- become a background process
.\" @detachtty
.\" @daemonize
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B "#include <mLib/daemonize.h>"

.B "void detachtty(void);"
.B "int daemonize(void);"
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.B daemonize
function causes the current process to become a background process.  It
detaches from its controlling terminal and arranges never to acquire
another controlling terminal.  If it fails for some reason (probably
because
.BR fork (2)
failed),
.B daemonize
returns \-1 and sets
.BR errno ;
on success, it returns 0.
.PP
The
.B detachtty
does half of the job of
.BR daemonize :
it detaches from its controlling terminal, and calls
.BR setsid (2)
and
.BR fork (2)
so that it can't acquire a new controlling terminal in future.  Errors
are ignored.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR mLib (3).
.SH AUTHOR
Mark Wooding, <mdw@distorted.org.uk>