Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!usc!jarthur!bridge2!3comvax!tymix!cirrusl!sunstorm!dhesi From: dhesi%cirrusl@oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com (Rahul Dhesi) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: Is System V.4 fork reliable? Message-ID: <2123@cirrusl.UUCP> Date: 3 Aug 90 18:27:35 GMT References: <480@amanue.UUCP> <13426@cbmvax.commodore.com> <573@oglvee.UUCP> <13435@smoke.BRL.MIL> Sender: news@cirrusl.UUCP Organization: Cirrus Logic Inc. Lines: 15 All the applications programs that I know of assume that that there is no point retrying a failed fork(). I've seen quite a few books about programming in a UNIX environment, and I don't recall seeing a recommendation that a failed fork() be retried. (Yet authors usually warn that a failed write() may succeed, and that a failed read() for some types of descriptors should always be retried.) So it seems that if fork() can fail but be likely to succeed if retried, either AT&T needs to hold a MASSIVE publicity campaign telling all these people (including its own staff programmers, who sometimes write books and articles about UNIX programming) that they have been writing buggy code all these years; OR it needs to modify its kernel. -- Rahul Dhesi UUCP: oliveb!cirrusl!dhesi