System V and SIGCLD

Jim Robinson jimr at hcrvx2.UUCP
Tue Sep 23 09:50:19 AEST 1986


In article <7396 at sun.uucp> guy at sun.uucp (Guy Harris) writes:
>> 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).
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>Geez, youngsters these days have no sense of history; they probably think
>"AT&T UNIX" started with System V.  Mutter, mutter.  :-)
>
>The System III documentation has much the same warning; it came out in 1980,
>so fi they haven't dropped it by now, I suspect they're not going to
>(especially since things like "init" use it as well).

I guess I'll rephrase the question since it hasn't generated quite the
response I had hoped for.

1) I could not find any mention of SIGCLD in the System V Interface 
   Definition. Is this because I missed it, or is it because it just
   ain't there? (It certainly is not mentioned with the other signals
   in the section dealing with the 'signal' service routine)

2) Assuming the latter, does this not mean that there is no requirement
   for a SVID adhering UNIX to include SIGCLD?

3) If so, what gives? As has been pointed out, at least a couple of
   important programs are going to break?

It would be especially pleasant if someone from AT&T could take the 
time to fire in a quick response since they are in the best position
of knowing what the story is wrt the SVID and SIGCLD.

J.B. Robinson



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