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From: cwr@pnet01.cts.com (Will Rose)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Elvis and SIGALRM
Message-ID: <7130@crash.cts.com>
Date: 22 Jan 91 07:16:01 GMT
Sender: root@crash.cts.com
Organization: People-Net [pnet01], El Cajon CA
Lines: 30

Elvis (and vi) use SIGALRM to cope with the ESC character, which may be
either a mode switch or the start of a terminal escape sequence.  (Since
escape seqences are generated by a single keystroke, they arrive quickly.
If ESC isn't followed by anything for, say, one second then it's assumed
to be a mode switch.)
 
It looks as if Elvis getting an alarm when it's not expected, and is failing
to catch it.  Elvis then dies, and the user is left with a tty in raw mode.
(See Rochkind, Advanced Unix Programming, p. 220 et seq.).
 
Why this should be so isn't clear, except that programs on the borderline
of time and space behave oddly.  Do you have enough main memory for all the
processes running, and does each program have enough stack space?  When
compiling Elvis 1.3 under 1.5.10 I got a binary that almost worked, but
which actually crashed and dumped core when I entered any character.  If
you've rebuilt Elvis, you may be facing a similar weird situation.
 
Good luck - Will
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"You think that your career    | Will Rose
 will suffer if Dr. Kenworthy  |
 learns you have the poisoned  | UUCP:{nosc ucsd hplabs!hp-sdd}!crash!pnet01!c
 corpse of our fiancee in the  | ARPA:crash!pnet01!cwr@nosc.mil
 ice box?"                     | INET:cwr@pnet01.cts.com
 Evelyn Waugh, "The Loved One" |

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