[plt-scheme] subprocess: double fork() to avoid zombies

On Jul 21, Tom Schouten wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I'd like to pick up this thread:
> http://list.cs.brown.edu/pipermail/plt-scheme/2008-July/025637.html
> 
> On Tue Jul 1 2008, Eli Barzilay wrote:
> > My guess would be that the subprocess object gets released, but the
> > process is still alive, which leads to the zombie.  (The main problem
> > being that custodians manage memory & ports, but not processes.)
> 
> I was wondering if it is possible to extend `subprocess' with
> a double fork() mechanism.  I had a look at the code in
> plt/src/mzscheme/src/port.c and it seems it should be
> straightforward.  Something like this:
> 
> [mzscheme]--fork()-+-------wait()-----------------+--------->
>                    |                              |
>                    +--cleanup()--fork()-+--exit()-+
>                                         |
>                                         +--exec()-[child]--->
> 
> in addition to the current behaviour:
> 
> [mzscheme]--fork()-+---------------------------------------->
>                    |
>                    +--cleanup()------------exec()-[child]--->
> 
> 
> The idea being that in a lot of practical cases you don't care about
> a child's exit status.  Doing it like this still allows you to shut
> down a child by closing its input port, which by most tools is
> interpreted as "exit", without ever having to care about zombie
> processes caused by not performing wait().

How is this different?  Specifically, you have wait() synchronising on
the forking subprocess, but you still need a different wait() for the
child that it creates -- no?

-- 
          ((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (x x)))          Eli Barzilay:
                    http://barzilay.org/                   Maze is Life!