Sys V fork IS broken!

Andrew Hume andrew at alice.UUCP
Tue Jul 31 14:39:51 AEST 1990



	when talking about (hardware) network interfaces, dave presotto
points out that what you raelly want is one of 3 answers:
	yes it worked.
	no, it didn't but if would be worthwhile trying again.
	no, it didn't.
(an example of the middle category might be a packet collision on an ethernet.)

	tim bray seems to be of the school that wants one of two answers:
yes, it worked, or no, it didn't (and its serious!).

	as with so many of these questions, if you don't like the interface
that comes with the system call, put a wrapper around it. i guess i am agreeing
with those who have suggested this be done in user space; i don't
see how it can be done in kernel space without denying the facility for user
programs to react to EAGAIN in their own way (perhaps, asking for confirmation before sleeping).



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