Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 15 Oct 2002 14:01:58 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 15 Oct 2002 14:01:57 -0400 Received: from adsl-212-59-30-243.takas.lt ([212.59.30.243]:19196 "EHLO mg.homelinux.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Tue, 15 Oct 2002 14:01:57 -0400 Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 20:07:43 +0200 From: Marius Gedminas To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: fork() wait semantics Message-ID: <20021015180743.GD7511@gintaras> Mail-Followup-To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org References: <20021015115517.GA2514@atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz> <34f5602687bbb910752d5becee9c9aa1@alumnos.uc3m.es> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: <34f5602687bbb910752d5becee9c9aa1@alumnos.uc3m.es> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4i X-Message-Flag: If you do not see this message correctly, stop using Outlook. X-GPG-Fingerprint: 8121 AD32 F00A 8094 748A 6CD0 9157 445D E7A6 D78F X-GPG-Key: http://ice.dammit.lt/~mgedmin/mg-pgp-key.txt X-URL: http://ice.dammit.lt/~mgedmin/ Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 913 Lines: 20 On Tue, Oct 15, 2002 at 04:58:44PM +0000, Eduardo P?rez wrote: > As an example consider bash. In case of fork() error the program > isn't even run thus causing a fatal error. If fork() waited for > resources to be available there wouldn't be any problem. No, thank you. This happened to me more than once (runaway fetchmail plugins). An error message about a failing fork() indicates immediatelly that I have too many processes, and I can kill them (thankfully kill is a bash builtin). If bash just waited silently I wouldn't know what to think. Marius Gedminas -- This sentence contradicts itself -- no actually it doesn't. -- Douglas Hofstadter - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/