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Re: [PATCH 2/3] posix: Use posix_spawn on popen


On Sun, Sep 16, 2018 at 1:13 AM David Newall <glibc@davidnewall.com> wrote:
> It seems to me that there are still reasonable questions about whether
> to use posix_spawn or vfork ("posix_spawn is a badly designed API").

When I said to Sergey that I would rather see the problem they
reported addressed using vfork instead of posix_spawn, I was giving
advice to a new contributor.  I really _would_ rather see it addressed
that way, and I also thought that they were more likely to succeed in
writing those patches.

Adhemerval is not a new contributor and they deeply understand the
problems in this area.  Their patches strike me as a step generally in
the right direction.  I don't have time to review them in detail, but
I don't object to them.  However, do I think some of the fine details
demonstrate why an API that allows for arbitrary computation and
system calls before exec would be preferable, such as there being "no
safe way to clear close-on-exec in the child" (because, IIUC, there's
no posix_spawn action to do that).

zw


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