Symbian3/SDK/Source/GUID-209F3620-2361-4AED-9F7A-02E72F9EE8FE.dita
author Dominic Pinkman <Dominic.Pinkman@Nokia.com>
Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:18:20 +0000
changeset 0 89d6a7a84779
permissions -rw-r--r--
Initial contribution of Documentation_content according to Feature bug 1266 bug 1268 bug 1269 bug 1270 bug 1372 bug 1374 bug 1375 bug 1379 bug 1380 bug 1381 bug 1382 bug 1383 bug 1385

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<!DOCTYPE concept
  PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Concept//EN" "concept.dtd">
<concept id="GUID-209F3620-2361-4AED-9F7A-02E72F9EE8FE" xml:lang="en"><title>Parent
and Child without IPC</title><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>
<p>In this scenario, the parent process creates the child, but there is no
subsequent communication between the two (except maybe the parent waiting
for termination of the child via use of the <xref href="GUID-8F5C89A4-7813-32C7-973E-F7F0F3690BC6.dita"><apiname>waitpid()</apiname></xref> function).</p>
<p>Rather than use the <codeph>fork()</codeph>/<codeph>exec()</codeph> combination
to achieve this the <xref href="GUID-E7C4DE71-BC5B-34AE-ACB3-C34A0DB1FC16.dita"><apiname>posix_spawn()</apiname></xref> API can be used instead.
This API will create a process by a single API call. Additionally, actions
can be performed on inherited file descriptors to change access before the
child's main is called. For more detailed information on the <xref href="GUID-E7C4DE71-BC5B-34AE-ACB3-C34A0DB1FC16.dita"><apiname>posix_spawn()</apiname></xref> function
consult the relevant Open Group standard pages available at <xref href="http://www.opengroup.org" scope="external">http:\\www.opengroup.org</xref>.</p>
<p><b>Parent process <codeph>fork()</codeph> and <codeph>exec()</codeph> functions</b></p>
<p>The following code shows how the creation of a child process can be implemented
using the <codeph>fork()</codeph> and <codeph>exec()</codeph> functions. Note
that inclusion of header files has been omitted for clarity. </p>
<codeblock xml:space="preserve">int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  pid_t Childpid = fork();
     
  if(Childpid == 0)
  {
      //Running in Child process

      //exec() to replace the child process executable
      char execFileName[] = "/root/PortDoc/Example0_c/Posix/child/ChildProg";

      execl(execFileName,NULL);
  }
  else
  {
     //Running in parent process

     //Wait for the child process to terminate
     waitpid(Childpid,NULL,0);
     
     printf("\r\n*** Child process finished ***\r\n");
     
  }
   
  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
</codeblock>
<p><b>Using the <codeph>posix_spawn()</codeph> function</b></p>
<p>The following code shows how the above can be modified to use the <codeph>posix_spawn()</codeph> operation.</p>
<codeblock xml:space="preserve">int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
   pid_t Childpid;
   char execFileName[] = "/root/PortDoc/Example0_c/Symbian/child/ChildProg";
   
   int RetVal= posix_spawn(&amp;Childpid,execFileName,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL);
   
   (void)waitpid(Childpid,NULL,0);
   
   printf("\r\n*** Child process finished ***\r\n");
    
   return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
</codeblock>
<p><b>Child process example</b></p>
<p>The child code shown is unaffected by the mechanism used to spawn it, that
is, <codeph>fork()</codeph>/<codeph>exec()</codeph> or <xref href="GUID-E7C4DE71-BC5B-34AE-ACB3-C34A0DB1FC16.dita"><apiname>posix_spawn()</apiname></xref>,
but an example is shown below for completeness.</p>
<codeblock xml:space="preserve">int main(void)
{
    printf("\r\n*** Child Running ***\r\n");
    
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
</codeblock>
</conbody></concept>