🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sat, 7 Jul 2018 00:05:12 -0500
Charles Richmond <nume...@aquaporin4.com> wrote:

> On 7/6/2018 8:00 PM, Dan Espen wrote:
> > Charles Richmond <nume...@aquaporin4.com> writes:
> > 
> >> On 7/6/2018 2:37 PM, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> >>> On 2018-07-06, Ahem A Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> On 6 Jul 2018 15:50:16 GMT
> >>>> Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> On 2018-07-06, Gareth's Downstairs Computer
> >>>>> <headstone255.but.n...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> Do incompetent computer programmers become technical authors?
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Nah, they go straight into management.
> >>>>
> >>>> 	Yep, the sad thing is when it happens to competent
> >>>> programmers.
> >>>
> >>> Which brings to mind that old Unix joke:
> >>>
> >>> A programmer went into management and turned out to be quite good at
> >>> it. One of his old buddies, remembering how much fun he had as a
> >>> programmer, asked him whether he ever considered moving back.  "No,"
> >>> the manager said.  "As you know, there is no return for a successful
> >>> exec()."
> >>>
> >> Can an unsuccessful exec() call return???  And where would it return
> >> to???
> > 
> > The answer is in the man page:
> > 
> > RETURN VALUES
> >    If a function in the exec family returns to the calling process
> > image, an error has occurred; the return value is -1 and errno is set to
> >    indicate the error.
> >    
> 
> The calling process for exec() must be the child process.  ISTM the 
> child process must signal the parent process and abort... if exec() fails.

	There are no parent and child processes with exec(), it's all one
process. Calling exec() replaces the code in the *current* process with new
code, if it succeeds it cannot return because the return point no longer
exists. One obvious failure mode that leaves the original code intact is
being unable to read the file containing the new code in which case a
return is trivially possible and expected.

	If you want a child you have to fork().

-- 
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