How do I get tcsetpgrp() to work in C?

Question

I\'m trying to give a child process (via fork()) foreground access to the terminal.

After I fork(), I run the following code in the child p

Answer 1

It's the parent rather than child who should invoke tcsetpgrp(). After setpgid() call, the child becomes a background process. A valid case is the foreground group gives up its permission, let another background group become foreground and itself background. A process in background group can't grab controlling terminal. Example code maybe look like:

/* perror_act.h */
#ifndef PERROR_ACT_H
#define PERROR_ACT_H

#define PERROR_ACT(rtn, act) do { \
    perror(rtn);\
    act; \
} while (0)

#define PERROR_EXIT1(rtn) PERROR_ACT(rtn, exit(1))
#define PERROR_RETN1(rtn) PERROR_ACT(rtn, return -1)

#endif

/* invnano.c */
#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 
#include "perror_act.h"

void sig_chld(int chld)
{
    exit(0);
}

int main(void)
{
    pid_t child;
    int p2c[2];
    struct sigaction sa = {.sa_handler = sig_chld};

    if (sigaction(SIGCHLD, &sa, NULL))
        PERROR_EXIT1("sigaction");
    if (pipe(p2c))
        PERROR_EXIT1("pipe");
    if ((child = fork()) < 0)
        PERROR_EXIT1("fork");
    if (child == 0) {
        char buff;
        size_t nread;
        if (close(p2c[1])) /* We must make sure this fd is closed. The reason is explained in following comments. */
                        PERROR_EXIT1("close");
        if ((nread = read(p2c[0], &buff, 1)) < 0) /* Just to receive a message from parent indicating its work is done. Content is not important.  */
            PERROR_EXIT1("read");
        if (nread == 0) /* When all the write ends of a pipe are closed, a read() to the read end of this pipe will get a return value of 0. We've closed the child's write end so if 0 as returned, we can sure the parent have exited because of error. */
            exit(1);
        close(p2c[0]);
        execlp("nano", "nano", (char *) 0);
        PERROR_EXIT1("execlp");
    } else {
        if (close(p2c[0]))
            PERROR_EXIT1("close");
        if (setpgid(child, child))
            PERROR_EXIT1("setpgid");
        if (tcsetpgrp(STDIN_FILENO, child))
            PERROR_EXIT1("tcsetpgrp");
        if (write(p2c[1], &child, 1) != 1) /* If all the read ends of a pipe are close, a write() to the write end of this pipe will let the calling process receive a SIGPIPE whose default deposition is to terminate. */
            PERROR_EXIT1("write");
        while (1) /* If parent exit here, login shell will see the news and grab the controlling terminal */
            pause();
    }
    return 0;
}