Re: [boost] [gsoc] Boost.Process done

Subject: Re: [boost] [gsoc] Boost.Process done
From: Stewart, Robert (Robert.Stewart_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-09-14 13:58:16

Jeremy Maitin-Shepard
> On 09/14/2010 04:04 AM, Stewart, Robert wrote:
>
> > Indeed, calling waitpid() for each child, in turn, is not a good
> > idea from a scalability perspective.  Putting all of
> > Boost.Process' children into a unique process group and using
> > waitpid(), with WNOHANG, to wait for children in that process
> > group could work though.
>
> The process group approach does have some nice properties, but
> I'm not sure it is reasonable for the library to impose such a
> restriction.  (Maybe it is, I am simply not sufficiently
> familiar with process groups and their intended
> purpose/practical use to know.)  One thing of note is that a
> process can change its own process group id.

>From Wikipedia: "Process groups are used to control the
distribution of signals."

The idea is that you can send a signal to all members of a
process group, but using that to monitor a signal from any member
of the group via waitpid() seems quit within scope, particularly
since that is part of the waitpid() interface.

I'm also not familiar with the behaviors and uses of process
groups so I don't know if this would just shift the problem in
some way, albeit to presumably less common application types.

_____
Rob Stewart                           robert.stewart_at_[hidden]
Software Engineer, Core Software      using std::disclaimer;
Susquehanna International Group, LLP  http://www.sig.com

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