[Bug driver/18006] Please replace vfork() with fork()

[d dot yu dot bolkhovityanov at inp dot nsk dot su]

------- Additional Comments From d dot yu dot bolkhovityanov at inp dot nsk dot su  2004-10-15 09:46 -------
> Use of vfork is still a win if you are going to call execve anyway because the
> address space does not need to be copied. 

Yes, it is a tiny win, since vfork() doesn't require copying of page tables, as
opposed to fork().  But address space isn't copied anyway, thanks to
copy-on-write strategy.
 
> > - At least in Linux, vfork()s can't be followed by strace/ltrace, which makes 
> > debugging obscure situations MUCH harder. 
> 
> This is wrong.  At least strace has no problem following vfork. 

>From strace(1) (Fedora Core 2):

"Currently (Linux 2.3.25), strace(1) cannot follow vfork() and  requires a
kernel patch."

That is true at least under 2.4; 2.6 shows somewhat better behaviour.  But there
is a HUGE amount of 2.4 installations, which will remain for long time.


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http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=18006