Threads After Fork

bbazzarrakk · January 20, 2009, 5:14pm

Am I understanding this example right:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby -wKU

printer = Thread.new do
10.times do
sleep 1
puts “Thread running in #{Process.pid}…”
end
end

fork do
p [Process.pid, printer.status]
printer.join
end

p [Process.pid, printer.status]
printer.join

>> [457, “sleep”]

>> [458, false]

>> Thread running in 457…

END

Are all other threads stopped as part of a process fork?

James Edward G. II

bbazzarrakk · January 20, 2009, 8:44pm

On Jan 20, 2009, at 8:55 AM, James G. wrote:

>> Thread running in 457…

Are all other threads stopped as part of a process fork?

From the fork documentation …

“The thread calling fork is the only thread in the created child
process. fork doesn’t copy other threads.”

And I modified your script slightly so things are a little more
clear …

#!/usr/bin/env ruby -wKU

p “parent: #{Process.pid}”

printer = Thread.new do
10.times do
sleep 1
puts “Thread running in #{Process.pid}…”
end
end

fork do
p “child: #{Process.pid}”
p [Process.pid, printer.status]
printer.join
end

p [Process.pid, printer.status]
printer.join

>> “parent: 9409”

>> [9409, “sleep”]

>> “child: 9410”

>> [9410, false]

>> Thread running in 9409…

So when the child is forked, only the parent thread is copied over and
the “printer” thread has been killed in the child. Hence, you get the
“false” response for the status. And I’ll stop being pedantic now

Blessings,
TwP

bbazzarrakk · January 20, 2009, 8:50pm

On Jan 20, 2009, at 1:42 PM, Tim P. wrote:

end

>> [458, false]

END

Are all other threads stopped as part of a process fork?

From the fork documentation …

“The thread calling fork is the only thread in the created child
process. fork doesn’t copy other threads.”

Man, I swear I’ve read that documentation 400 times now and just keep
missing that. Thanks for the reading lesson Tim!

James Edward G. II

bbazzarrakk · January 21, 2009, 12:44pm

Hi,

Am Mittwoch, 21. Jan 2009, 04:48:14 +0900 schrieb James G.:

fork do
p [Process.pid, printer.status]
printer.join
end

Are all other threads stopped as part of a process fork?

fork doesnâ€™t copy other threads.

Man, I swear I’ve read that documentation 400 times now and just keep
missing that.

A soothing fact that even the well-experienced Ruby programmer
sometimes detects new aspects.

I think the amazing strike is that the variable containing the
Thread instance still exists whilst the Thread will surely be
dead. Joining a dead thread does just nothing. I reduced it to
these two lines:

t = Thread.new do sleep 100 end
fork do puts t.inspect end

Output:

#<Thread:0x28456bcc dead>

Bertram