Question

Looking to fork a process, in c++, that wont hang its parent process – its parent is a daemon and must remain running. If i wait() on the forked process the forked execl wont defunt – but – it will also hang the app – not waiting fixes the app hang – but the command becomes defunt.

if((pid = fork()) < 0)
    perror("Error with Fork()");
else if(pid > 0) { 
    //wait here will hang the execl in the parent
    //dont wait will defunt the execl command 
    //---- wait(&pid);
    return "";
} else {
    struct rlimit       rl;
    int                 i;

    if (rl.rlim_max == RLIM_INFINITY)
        rl.rlim_max = 1024;

    for (i = 0; (unsigned) i < rl.rlim_max; i++)
        close(i);

    if(execl("/bin/bash", "/bin/bash", "-c", "whoami", (char*) 0) < 0) perror("execl()");
    exit(0);
}

How can I fork the execl without a wait(&pid) where execl’s command wont defunct?

UPDATE
Fixed by adding the following before the fork

signal(SIGCHLD, SIG_IGN);

Still working with my limited skills at a more compatible solution based on the accepted answer. Thanks!

Answer 1

By default, wait and friends wait until a process has exited, then reap it. You can call waitpid with the WNOHANG to return immediately if no child has exited.

The defunct/”zombie” process will sit around until you wait on it. So if you run it in the background, you must arrange to reap it eventually by any of several ways:

• try waitpid with WNOHANG routinely: int pid = waitpid(-1, &status, WNOHANG)
• install a signal handler for SIGCHLD to be notified when it exits

Additionally, under POSIX.1-2001, you can use sigaction set the SA_NOCLDWAIT on SIGCHLD. Or set its action to SIG_IGN. Older systems (including Linux 2.4.x, but not 2.6.x or 3.x) don’t support this.

Check your system manpages, or alternative the wait in the Single Unix Specification. The Single Unix Spec also gives some helpful code examples. SA_NOCLDWAIT is documented in sigaction.