Re^5: Threads and signals in Windows

From Re^5: pipe fork win32 about the documentation of fork in Windows.

So you're just taking BrowserUk's word for it?

Did you read perlport#fork yourself? It says

Emulated using multiple interpreters. See perlfork. (Win32)

and the perlfork has a whole page full of caveats and stuff -- kind of like rules regarding portability that kinda say "this ain't like unix fork , don't get fancy"

Comment on Re^5: Threads and signals in Windows

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Re^6: Threads and signals in Windows by bojinlund (Monsignor) on Mar 11, 2013 at 23:04 UTC
So you're just taking BrowserUk's word for it? No, but I do not have enough knowledge in the Windows operating system and the Perl implementation on it to make such a statement! Did you read perlport#fork yourself? Yes! In this patch http://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git/commitdiff/bee96257ad6e12bd0adacaeb3b40c32c5776b068?hp=2fbb14a0b50722f55cd2863203a1ea1a3c2133f7 I succeed to add some information on “Portability issues” to perlfunc. In perlfunc there is now very short information on some security issues, a link to perlport and in perlport a link to perlfork I have later realized that this is not enough. For me it is very difficult to interpret the consequence of the information in perlfork. I would like, already in perlfunc, to have more straightforward statements like: “do not attempt to use fork & the windows signals emulation to try to port *nix idioms to windows; because you will be sadly let down” or “If you want to write cross-platform code, you shouldn't use signals, full stop.” (The statements should of course be polished. I hope somebody with English as native language could help out.)	[reply]

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Re^6: Threads and signals in Windows
by bojinlund (Monsignor) on Mar 11, 2013 at 23:04 UTC

So you're just taking BrowserUk's word for it?

No, but I do not have enough knowledge in the Windows operating system and the Perl implementation on it to make such a statement!

Did you read perlport#fork yourself?

Yes!

In this patch http://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git/commitdiff/bee96257ad6e12bd0adacaeb3b40c32c5776b068?hp=2fbb14a0b50722f55cd2863203a1ea1a3c2133f7 I succeed to add some information on “Portability issues” to perlfunc. In perlfunc there is now very short information on some security issues, a link to perlport and in perlport a link to perlfork

I have later realized that this is not enough. For me it is very difficult to interpret the consequence of the information in perlfork.

I would like, already in perlfunc, to have more straightforward statements like:

“do not attempt to use fork & the windows signals emulation to try to port *nix idioms to windows; because you will be sadly let down”

“If you want to write cross-platform code, you shouldn't use signals, full stop.”

[reply]