Question

I am using Linux and .sh is in tcsh.

I have made a very basic fork and exec, but I need help in implementing safeties to it.

Basically my perl script calls a .sh script in a child process. But when I do Ctrl+c to kill the parent, the signal gets ignored by the child.

1) How do I capture the SIGINT for the child process as well?

2) The child process that runs the .sh script still STDOUT to the screen of the xterm. How can I remove this? I was thinking of doing running the script in the background

 exec("shell.sh args &");  

But haven’t tested as I need to figure out how to keep the child from going wild first.

3) The parent process(perl script) doesn’t wait on the child(.sh script). So I’ve read a lot about the child becoming a zombie??? Will it happen after the script is done? And how would I stop it?

$pid = fork();
if($pid < 0){
    print "Failed to fork process... Exiting";
    exit(-1);
    }
elsif ($pid ==0) {
    #child process
    exec("shell.sh args");
    exit(1);
    }
else { #execute rest of parent}

Answer 1

But when I do ctrl+c to kill the parent, the signal gets ignored by the child.

The signal is sent to two both the parent and the child.

$ perl -E'
   if (my $pid = fork()) {
      local $SIG{INT} = sub { say "Parent got SIGINT" };
      sleep;
      waitpid($pid, 0);
   } else {
      local $SIG{INT} = sub { say "Child got SIGINT" };
      sleep;
   }
'
^CParent got SIGINT
Child got SIGINT

If that child ignores it, it’s because it started a new session or because it explicitly ignores it.

The child procces that runs the .sh script still STDOUT to the screen of the xterm. How can I remove this?

Do the following in the child before calling exec:

open(STDOUT, '>', '/dev/null');
open(STDERR, '>', '/dev/null');

Actually, I would use open3 to get some error checking.

open(local *CHILD_STDIN,  '<', '/dev/null') or die $!;
open(local *CHILD_STDOUT, '>', '/dev/null') or die $!;
my $pid = open3(
   '<&CHILD_STDIN',
   '>&CHILD_STDOUT',
   '>&CHILD_STDOUT',
   'shell.sh', 'args',
);

The parent process(perl script) doesn’t wait on the child(.sh script). So I’ve read alot about the child becoming a zombie???

Children are automatically reaped when the parent exits, or if they exit after the parent exits.

$ perl -e'
   for (1..3) {
      exec(perl => (-e => 1)) if !fork;
   }
   sleep 1;
   system("ps");
' ; ps
  PID TTY          TIME CMD
26683 pts/13   00:00:00 bash
26775 pts/13   00:00:00 perl
26776 pts/13   00:00:00 perl <defunct>       <-- zombie
26777 pts/13   00:00:00 perl <defunct>       <-- zombie
26778 pts/13   00:00:00 perl <defunct>       <-- zombie
26779 pts/13   00:00:00 ps
  PID TTY          TIME CMD
26683 pts/13   00:00:00 bash
26780 pts/13   00:00:00 ps
                                             <-- all gone

If the parent exits before the children do, there’s no problem.

If the parent exits shortly after the children do, there’s no problem.

If the parent exits a long time after the children do, you’ll want to reap them. You could do that using wait or waitpid (possibly from a SIGCHLD handler), or you could cause them to be automatically reaped using $SIG{CHLD} = 'IGNORE';. See perlipc.