Re: evecv/memory leak

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John Reiser <jreiser@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> bill pursell wrote:
>
>> int
>> main(int ac, char **av)
>> {
>> process_stuff();
>> execv(av[0],av);
>> }
>>
>> The question is: is this identical to killing the process and
>> restarting?
>
> No. process_stuff() can open more file descriptors each time,
> change the current directory, etc., and mere execv() does
> not "reset" those. But execve() does reset the address space.

Another consideration is that if process_stuf() returns on error very
frequently, you don't want to be calling exec() in an infinite loop.
Adding some logic to make sure you don't exec e.g. more than five
times a minute might be a good idea. You might do this my having a
parent process that forks a child and then waits for it, respawning
when required, and this can do the necessary rate limiting. This is
similar to init and spawning getty.


Regards,
Roger

- --
Roger Leigh
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