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From: jimr@hcrvx2.UUCP (Jim Robinson)
Newsgroups: net.unix,net.unix-wizards
Subject: System V and SIGCLD
Message-ID: <2389@hcrvx2.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 16-Sep-86 11:39:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: hcrvx2.2389
Posted: Tue Sep 16 11:39:09 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 17-Sep-86 00:21:26 EDT
Organization: Human Computing Resources, Toronto
Lines: 22

*
Can anyone explain AT&T's rationale in dropping SIGCLD? In my 5.2
manual there is a warning "strongly" discouraging its use in
new programs, and there is no mention of it anywhere in the System V
Interface Definition (at least I couldn't find any).

Seems to me this is a handy signal to have as it provides a reasonably 
elegant means of cleaning up after a process. And, needless to say, 
more than a few programs will have to be changed, including 
*shell layers*, when it disappears. [Since the master layer in shell 
layers cannot remain blocked indefinitely during a 'wait' I would 
imagine that some kind of polling would be necessary. Gag.]

The only other possibility I can think of is that 5.3 has some new
and nifty feature that disallows the need for SIGCLD.

Comments?

J.B. Robinson

PS Thanks to all those who answered my query re the IEEE proposal on 
   System V compatible BSD style job control.