Re: vfork

Linus Torvalds (torvalds@transmeta.com)
Tue, 9 Nov 1999 08:14:51 -0800 (PST)

> > POSIX DESCRIPTION
> > The vfork() function has the same effect as fork(), except that
> > the behaviour is undefined if the process created by vfork()
> > either modifies any data other than a variable of type pid_t used
> > to store the return value from vfork(), or returns from the func­
> > tion in which vfork() was called, or calls any other function
> > before successfully calling _exit() or one of the exec family of
> > functions.

Just describe it the way it works.

vfork() under Linux is actually just another case of clone(), and the old
reasons why it was considered horrible are basically all gone. The Linux
mm layer evolved to the point where it was trivial to implement, WITHOUT
any of the special hacks that the original BSD implementation had, and
that made people hate it in the BSD community.

So the ugly part about vfork() doesn't exist any more, yet the good
attributes still do.

Linus

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