Re: 1 is not safe, unusual PID value

[Chet Ramey]

On 12/25/11 10:51 AM, Askar Safin wrote:
> In jobs.c we see:
> 
> #if defined (RECYCLES_PIDS)
>       if (last_asynchronous_pid == mypid)
>         /* Avoid pid aliasing.  1 seems like a safe, unusual pid value. */
>         last_asynchronous_pid = 1;
> #endif
> 
> 1 is not safe, unusual PID value, because:

For the purposes of that code fragment, 1 is both safe and unusual.  Look
at where it appears and what it does.  We're trying to avoid a situation
where the pid remembered as the last asynchronous pid is the same as that
of a just-forked child.  Since pid 1 is usually present and long lived,
it's unlikely that a just-forked child will have pid 1, even if init
(usually pid 1) is an instance of bash.

Chet
-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/