# phpman > info > process-keyring

[PROCESS-KEYRING(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PROCESS-KEYRING/7/markdown)         Linux Programmer's Manual        [PROCESS-KEYRING(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PROCESS-KEYRING/7/markdown)

NAME
       process-keyring - per-process shared keyring

DESCRIPTION
       The  process  keyring  is  a keyring used to anchor keys on behalf of a
       process.  It is created only when a process requests it.   The  process
       keyring has the name (description) _pid.

       A  special  serial  number  value, KEY_SPEC_PROCESS_KEYRING, is defined
       that can be used in lieu of the actual serial  number  of  the  calling
       process's process keyring.

       From  the  [keyctl(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/keyctl/1/markdown) utility, '@p' can be used instead of a numeric key
       ID in much the same way, but since [keyctl(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/keyctl/1/markdown) is  a  program  run  after
       forking, this is of no utility.

       A  thread  created  using  the  [clone(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/clone/2/markdown) CLONE_THREAD flag has the same
       process keyring as the caller of [clone(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/clone/2/markdown).  When a new process is  cre-
       ated  using  fork()  it  initially has no process keyring.  A process's
       process keyring is cleared on [execve(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/execve/2/markdown).  The process  keyring  is  de-
       stroyed when the last thread that refers to it terminates.

       If  a  process doesn't have a process keyring when it is accessed, then
       the process keyring will be created if the keyring is to  be  modified;
       otherwise, the error ENOKEY results.

SEE ALSO
       [keyctl(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/keyctl/1/markdown), [keyctl(3)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/keyctl/3/markdown), [keyrings(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/keyrings/7/markdown), [persistent-keyring(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/persistent-keyring/7/markdown),
       [session-keyring(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/session-keyring/7/markdown), [thread-keyring(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/thread-keyring/7/markdown), [user-keyring(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/user-keyring/7/markdown),
       [user-session-keyring(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/user-session-keyring/7/markdown)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 5.10 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
       latest version of this page, can be found at
       <https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/>.

Linux                             2020-08-13                [PROCESS-KEYRING(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PROCESS-KEYRING/7/markdown)