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%SIG

The hash %SIG contains signal handlers for signals. For example:

sub handler {   # 1st argument is signal name
    my($sig) = @_;
    print "Caught a SIG$sig--shutting down\n";
    close(LOG);
    exit(0);
}

$SIG{'INT'}  = \&handler;
$SIG{'QUIT'} = \&handler;
...
$SIG{'INT'}  = 'DEFAULT';   # restore default action
$SIG{'QUIT'} = 'IGNORE';    # ignore SIGQUIT

Using a value of 'IGNORE' usually has the effect of ignoring the signal, except for the CHLD signal. See perlipc for more about this special case. Using an empty string or undef as the value has the same effect as 'DEFAULT'.

Here are some other examples:

$SIG{"PIPE"} = "Plumber";   # assumes main::Plumber (not
                            # recommended)
$SIG{"PIPE"} = \&Plumber;   # just fine; assume current
                            # Plumber
$SIG{"PIPE"} = *Plumber;    # somewhat esoteric
$SIG{"PIPE"} = Plumber();   # oops, what did Plumber()
                            # return??

Be sure not to use a bareword as the name of a signal handler, lest you inadvertently call it.

Using a string that doesn't correspond to any existing function or a glob that doesn't contain a code slot is equivalent to 'IGNORE', but a warning is emitted when the handler is being called (the warning is not emitted for the internal hooks described below).

If your system has the sigaction() function then signal handlers are installed using it. This means you get reliable signal handling.

The default delivery policy of signals changed in Perl v5.8.0 from immediate (also known as "unsafe") to deferred, also known as "safe signals". See perlipc for more information.

Certain internal hooks can be also set using the %SIG hash. The routine indicated by $SIG{__WARN__} is called when a warning message is about to be printed. The warning message is passed as the first argument. The presence of a __WARN__ hook causes the ordinary printing of warnings to STDERR to be suppressed. You can use this to save warnings in a variable, or turn warnings into fatal errors, like this:

local $SIG{__WARN__} = sub { die $_[0] };
eval $proggie;

As the 'IGNORE' hook is not supported by __WARN__, its effect is the same as using 'DEFAULT'. You can disable warnings using the empty subroutine:

local $SIG{__WARN__} = sub {};

The routine indicated by $SIG{__DIE__} is called when a fatal exception is about to be thrown. The error message is passed as the first argument. When a __DIE__ hook routine returns, the exception processing continues as it would have in the absence of the hook, unless the hook routine itself exits via a goto &sub, a loop exit, or a die(). The __DIE__ handler is explicitly disabled during the call, so that you can die from a __DIE__ handler. Similarly for __WARN__.

The $SIG{__DIE__} hook is called even inside an eval(). It was never intended to happen this way, but an implementation glitch made this possible. This used to be deprecated, as it allowed strange action at a distance like rewriting a pending exception in $@. Plans to rectify this have been scrapped, as users found that rewriting a pending exception is actually a useful feature, and not a bug.

The $SIG{__DIE__} doesn't support 'IGNORE'; it has the same effect as 'DEFAULT'.

__DIE__/__WARN__ handlers are very special in one respect: they may be called to report (probable) errors found by the parser. In such a case the parser may be in inconsistent state, so any attempt to evaluate Perl code from such a handler will probably result in a segfault. This means that warnings or errors that result from parsing Perl should be used with extreme caution, like this:

require Carp if defined $^S;
Carp::confess("Something wrong") if defined &Carp::confess;
die "Something wrong, but could not load Carp to give "
  . "backtrace...\n\t"
  . "To see backtrace try starting Perl with -MCarp switch";

Here the first line will load Carp unless it is the parser who called the handler. The second line will print backtrace and die if Carp was available. The third line will be executed only if Carp was not available.

Having to even think about the $^S variable in your exception handlers is simply wrong. $SIG{__DIE__} as currently implemented invites grievous and difficult to track down errors. Avoid it and use an END{} or CORE::GLOBAL::die override instead.

See "die" in perlfunc, "warn" in perlfunc, "eval" in perlfunc, and warnings for additional information.