raise(3)

✨ raise(3) ✨

okay bestie come CLOSER 💖 we're talking about raise(3) today, a lil libc function from the Library Functions Manual and she is lowkey iconic for how much she does with so few letters.

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🫶 NAME 🫶

raise — send a signal to the caller. that's it, that's the whole job, and she does it flawlessly. no cap. 💅

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📚 LIBRARY 📚

Standard C library (libc, -lc) — so yes, you get her for free, you just have to actually link her. 🎀

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <signal.h>

int raise(int sig);

one header, one function, one int going in, one int coming out. it's giving minimalism. it's giving main character energy. ✨

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so here's the vibe: raise() sends a signal to the calling process or thread. meaning you raise your hand and you get the signal. it's self-care, but make it a signal. 💀

in a single-threaded program it is equivalent to:

kill(getpid(), sig);

in a multithreaded program it is equivalent to:

pthread_kill(pthread_self(), sig);

so like, if you're in a thread, the signal goes to your thread specifically — not the whole squad. very "this is about ME" of her. 👑

and the important part: if the signal causes a handler to be called, raise() will return only after the signal handler has returned. so she waits. she's polite. she's not leaving until the handler finishes its little monologue. 🎤

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💜 RETURN VALUE 💜

• 0 — success, we ate, no crumbs. 🍓
• nonzero — failure, and honestly? not the vibe. 😭

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🧚 ATTRIBUTES 🧚

for an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

• raise() — Thread safety — MT-Safe 🔥

translation: she's safe to call from multiple threads at once. she will NOT start drama. periodt.

💡 MT-Safe means multithread-safe, bestie — different from MT-Safe env or race conditions, but for this one she's plain old MT-Safe and we love that for her.

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🌈 STANDARDS 🌈

• C11
• POSIX.1-2008

certified, official, on the list. 💅

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👑 HISTORY 👑

• POSIX.1-2001
• C89

so she's been around. she's a legacy queen and she's still slaying.

• Since glibc 2.3.3, raise() is implemented by calling tgkill(2), if the kernel supports that system call.
• Older glibc versions implemented raise() using kill(2).

glow-up arc fr fr — she traded kill(2) for tgkill(2) and never looked back. 🌟

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🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

• getpid(2)
• kill(2)
• sigaction(2)
• signal(2)
• pthread_kill(3)
• signal(7)

go read those next, bestie, iykyk 🫶

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mwah 💋 that's the whole page. this was Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2026-02-08, for raise(3) — and honestly? she understood the assignment. go send yourself a signal. respectfully. 🌸🦋💖