Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: fork
Message-ID: <1989Mar3.174924.977@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <13428@ncoast.ORG> <85126@felix.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 89 17:49:24 GMT

In article <85126@felix.UUCP> preston@felix.UUCP (Preston Bannister) writes:
>I've never been particularly fond of fork() as a primitive operation...
>...In the "real" world, most fork() calls
>are immediately followed with an exec() call.  The copy of the
>process that fork() creates, exec() discards, so why bother making
>the copy...

This is a common misconception.  The fact is, in the "real" world,
very few fork() calls are *immediately* followed by an exec() call.
There is almost always some manipulation of file descriptors, signals,
etc. in between.
-- 
The Earth is our mother;       |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
our nine months are up.        | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu