trap(*args) public

Specifies the handling of signals. The first parameter is a signal name (a string such as “SIGALRM”, “SIGUSR1”, and so on) or a signal number. The characters “SIG” may be omitted from the signal name. The command or block specifies code to be run when the signal is raised. If the command is the string “IGNORE” or “SIG_IGN”, the signal will be ignored. If the command is “DEFAULT” or “SIG_DFL”, the Ruby’s default handler will be invoked. If the command is “EXIT”, the script will be terminated by the signal. If the command is “SYSTEM_DEFAULT”, the operating system’s default handler will be invoked. Otherwise, the given command or block will be run. The special signal name “EXIT” or signal number zero will be invoked just prior to program termination. trap returns the previous handler for the given signal.

Signal.trap(0, proc { puts "Terminating: #{$$}" })
Signal.trap("CLD")  { puts "Child died" }
fork && Process.wait

produces:

Terminating: 27461
Child died
Terminating: 27460
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November 19, 2013
0 thanks

Return value not correct

It seems like trap returns nil if the handler was “DEFAULT”, but calling trap with nil causes a “IGNORE”

2.0.0-p247 :020 > p trap("CHLD", "DEFAULT")
nil
 => nil 
2.0.0-p247 :021 > p trap("CHLD", nil)
nil
 => nil

So it seems that once you trap a signal, there isn’t a way to reset them back to what they were originally.