You need to either add synchronization in some way, or call signal() before your fork().
With your current code, you have no way to be sure child process call signal() before it receive the signal. Receiving the signal before the instruction to handle it will stop the child process.
Example:
#include <stdio.h> #include <sys/types.h> #include <signal.h> #include <unistd.h> static int received = 0; void readUsual(int sig) { if (sig == SIGUSR1) { received = 1; } } int main() { signal(SIGUSR1,readUsual); pid_t pid2 = fork(); if (pid2 < 0) printf("Can't create child process\n"); else if (pid2==0) { printf("Process2, pid=%d\n",getpid()); while (!received) ; printf("SIGUSR1 received.\n"); } else { kill(pid2,SIGUSR1); printf("%s\n","Proccess1 end"); while (1) ; } return 0; }
Example of output with this code:
Process1 end Process2, pid=1397 SIGUSR1 received