Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!oddjob!gargoyle!att!chinet!mcdchg!usenet From: dopey@ihlpe.ATT.COM (James Blasius) Newsgroups: comp.unix Subject: Re: Children's exit() status Message-ID: <7964@mcdchg.UUCP> Date: 20 May 88 15:44:12 GMT References: <4626@mcdchg.UUCP> Sender: usenet@mcdchg.UUCP Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois Lines: 11 Approved: usenet@mcdchg.UUCP It appears from the manual (though I won't swear by it) that a child process can't go away until it's waited for - either by the parent, or process 1 if the parent goes away. So it would seem "wait" would give you thirty responses. The manual does say that if there are no children to wait for, it will fail - so you won't be stuck waiting forever (like you might if you do "alarm" wrong). James Blasius ihnp4!gomez!dopey