From 5f913c1135b14efec9b51e3e45fca432421847bd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Lijuan Tang <tang.lij@northeastern.edu>
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2026 17:43:27 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] [Fix] Emulate PDEATHSIG on macOS to prevent orphaned worker
 processes (#27190)

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 .../hardware_backend/mlx/parent_watchdog.py   | 60 +++++++++++++++++++
 python/sglang/srt/utils/common.py             | 12 +++-
 2 files changed, 71 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 python/sglang/srt/hardware_backend/mlx/parent_watchdog.py

diff --git a/python/sglang/srt/hardware_backend/mlx/parent_watchdog.py b/python/sglang/srt/hardware_backend/mlx/parent_watchdog.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..dcc81e01e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/sglang/srt/hardware_backend/mlx/parent_watchdog.py
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+"""Parent-death watchdog for MLX workers on Apple Silicon.
+
+macOS has no ``PR_SET_PDEATHSIG`` equivalent, so the kernel will not signal a
+worker process when its parent dies; the worker would be reparented to PID 1
+and leak (holding GPU/host memory and ports). This module emulates PDEATHSIG
+with a daemon thread that watches the parent PID via kqueue and SIGKILLs the
+current process once it gets orphaned.
+"""
+
+import os
+import select
+import signal
+import threading
+
+
+def start_parent_death_watcher() -> None:
+    """SIGKILL this process once its current parent exits (macOS only).
+
+    kqueue with an ``EVFILT_PROC`` / ``NOTE_EXIT`` filter is the native,
+    event-driven mechanism on macOS (exposed via ``select.kqueue`` /
+    ``select.kevent``), so the watcher thread blocks until the parent actually
+    exits instead of waking up to poll.
+
+    ``SIGKILL`` is sent from this watcher thread and is uncatchable /
+    unblockable, so it works even when the main thread is stuck inside a
+    blocking native call (e.g. an MLX/Metal ``mx.eval`` / ``.tolist()``).
+    """
+    original_ppid = os.getppid()
+
+    def _watch_parent():
+        kq = select.kqueue()
+        kev = select.kevent(
+            original_ppid,
+            filter=select.KQ_FILTER_PROC,
+            flags=select.KQ_EV_ADD,
+            fflags=select.KQ_NOTE_EXIT,
+        )
+        try:
+            # Register the EVFILT_PROC / NOTE_EXIT watch on the parent PID.
+            kq.control([kev], 0, None)
+        except (ProcessLookupError, OSError):
+            # The parent already exited before we could register the watch
+            # (ESRCH); we are already orphaned.
+            os.kill(os.getpid(), signal.SIGKILL)
+            return
+        # Guard against the race where the parent exits between reading
+        # original_ppid and registering the watch above.
+        if os.getppid() != original_ppid:
+            os.kill(os.getpid(), signal.SIGKILL)
+            return
+        # Block until the parent exits, then terminate ourselves.
+        kq.control(None, 1, None)
+        os.kill(os.getpid(), signal.SIGKILL)
+
+    watcher = threading.Thread(
+        target=_watch_parent,
+        name="parent-death-watcher",
+        daemon=True,
+    )
+    watcher.start()
diff --git a/python/sglang/srt/utils/common.py b/python/sglang/srt/utils/common.py
index d2650cbb8..bebf16672 100644
--- a/python/sglang/srt/utils/common.py
+++ b/python/sglang/srt/utils/common.py
@@ -2523,8 +2523,18 @@ def kill_itself_when_parent_died():
         PR_SET_PDEATHSIG = 1
         libc = ctypes.CDLL("libc.so.6")
         libc.prctl(PR_SET_PDEATHSIG, signal.SIGKILL)
+    elif sys.platform == "darwin":
+        # macOS has no PR_SET_PDEATHSIG equivalent; the MLX backend provides a
+        # kqueue-based watchdog that SIGKILLs this worker once it is orphaned.
+        from sglang.srt.hardware_backend.mlx.parent_watchdog import (
+            start_parent_death_watcher,
+        )
+
+        start_parent_death_watcher()
     else:
-        logger.warning("kill_itself_when_parent_died is only supported in linux.")
+        logger.warning(
+            "kill_itself_when_parent_died is only supported on linux and macOS."
+        )
 
 
 class UvicornAccessLogFilter(logging.Filter):