Re: [PATCH] Introduce O_CLOEXEC (take >2)

[Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>]

On Thu, 31 May 2007, Davide Libenzi wrote:
> 
> What I meant, was that the vast majority of MT+exec apps wants all their 
> fds (but an handfull, maybe) to be O_CLOEXEC. So a global, 
> non-inheritable, per-process flag seemed the most straightforward 
> solution.

I'm with Uli on this one. "Stateful" stuff is bad. It's essentially 
impossible to handle with libraries - either the library would have to 
explciitly always turn the state the way _it_ needs it, or the library 
will do the wrogn thing.

For example, what about libraries that are used to set up stdin/stdout for 
the forker?

This is not unlike floating point rounding. Having stateful rounding (like 
the i387) is *stupid*. You want per-operation rounding (where *one* of the 
choices may be "use default"). Exactly because libraries etc will need to 
control their _own_ internal choices.

		Linus