Re: very obscure problem, help needed

[Dirk Herrmann]

On Thu, 2 Nov 2000, David Pirotte wrote:

> Some time ago, I sent a 'help requested' message, the content of which
> is further below.
> 
> Now I have a better idea on what the problem is, not knowing how I can
> solve it. Here is the problem:

Well, I am in no way a posix forking and piping expert, but here is an
idea:  When you compute the date string, this is done by first forking a
new child process (i. e. creating a copy of the whole guile system state
including port states) and then executing the shell command in the child
process.  Can it be (wild guess!) that both the parent and the child
process start with some unflushed data in their ports, and that for some
reason the child flushes its ports (for example on termination), such that
every time you create a child, the currently not yet flushed ports of the
parent will be printed?

You could try this by adding a 'flush-all-ports' command at the beginning
of your date computing routine.  If this does solve the problem, then we
would have to fix something in guile's forking procedure.

Best regards
Dirk