Question

I am trying to execute another command line process in parallel with the current process. However, I realize that the command line program sometimes abnormally exits, and that kills my main program as well.

// MAIN PROGRAM
pid = fork();
char *argv[] = { stuff.. };
if (pid == 0) {
    int rc = execv("command line program...", argv);
    }

// DO OTHER STUFF HERE. 

if (pid > 0) {
    waitpid(pid, 0, 0);
}

Is there any way to keep my main program running after the command line program dies abnormally? Thanks!

[UPDATE]:Yes, the main process is writing to a file where the command line is reading from, but it is a normal file, not a pipe. I receive a segfault.

It is extremely hard for me to reproduce the bug, since the child process does not crash very often. But it does happen. Randomly crashing is a known bug in the command line program, which is why I want to keep my main program alive even if the command line dies.

Answer 1

In your real code do you have an else here:

if (pid == 0) {
    int rc = execv("command line program...", argv);
    // possibly more child stuff
}
else {
    // parent stuff
}

It’s always a good idea to post real code when asking questions here.