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Date:      Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:35:14 +0800
From:      David Xu <davidxu@freebsd.org>
To:        Maxim Sobolev <sobomax@freebsd.org>
Cc:        Ed Schouten <ed@80386.nl>, src-committers@freebsd.org, cvs-all@freebsd.org, cvs-src@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: cvs commit: src/include Makefile spawn.h unistd.h	src/lib/libc/gen Makefile.inc Symbol.map exec.3 exec.c posix_spawn.c
Message-ID:  <48586652.2070204@freebsd.org>
In-Reply-To: <4857D508.8070907@FreeBSD.org>
References:  <200806170633.m5H6XMJH084600@repoman.freebsd.org> <20080617134828.GA30076@zim.MIT.EDU> <20080617140600.GE1176@hoeg.nl> <4857D508.8070907@FreeBSD.org>

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Maxim Sobolev wrote:
> Ed Schouten wrote:
>> * David Schultz <das@FreeBSD.ORG> wrote:
>>> I have no objections to this, but doesn't it defeat the whole
>>> purpose to implement posix_spawn() as a library function that just
>>> calls fork/exec?
>>
>> When (if?) applications start to use posix_spawn() we may decide to move
>> it into the kernel at any time. It should be okay for now.
> 
> Are there any benefits of doing it in the kernel vs. doing it via 
> fork+exec?
> 
> -Maxim
> 

I just want to make some programs to work, since Linux and Solaris
both have it now. Doing it in kernel is OK, but I don't want to put
it into the kernel until it is necessary since kernel code can not
be swapped out. ;-)

Doing in kernel may have advantages, for example, you may get ride
of zoombie process recycling by hacking kernel, a library version
using vfork will need parent to handle SIGCHLD and recycle zoombie 
process like you use popen() and system() etcs, another advantage
is it won't involve rtld if a symbol needs to resolved, because
vfork shares same vmspace, it might block other threads in
parent process if the child process holding a rtld's
reader lock, I don't know if writer lock will be held in child,
I guess it won't be. if the child process get killed wrongly
by someone, it might hold reader lock forever, this is the race
condition. a kernel version may have trouble if something can not
be easily done in kernel, though I didn't find the one can not
be done in kernel at present.

Regards,
David Xu




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