I've an application like the following:

3 different pieces, that run should simultaneously. One is the actual application logic (taking input from a database, so it scans the DB every xx seconds for new entries), the 2nd is a "timeout" engine, that verifies if a specific user/session should be timed out, and the 3rd is a statistics generator, based on the usage of the application by the users.

All these 3 pieces have to run simultaneously, but they were coded as independant daemons.

In a sudden burst of creativity (or stupidity?) I decided to have each one of them be fork()ed off a main script, basically to see if I could. So right now it's working like that, one executable that starts the whole thing. It's running fine that way (no zombies, etc) but I'm still in the development stages, so I don't know what kind of implications this kind of solution will have in "real life" deployment.

Anyway, my question is: should I bother going this way (fork() each piece off a main app), or just run each piece individually, since there is no apparent loss in doing so (is there any GAIN?). I realise that if I go the fork() way, I will have to add better handling of the 3 children. I also read something about having to kill the children every so often and re-spawn it again, otherwise no memory would be freed.

I appreciate any input. I'm not posting any code because this is more of a generic question than a specific one, but if necessary I can post snippets.

cheers. alex.

In reply to To fork() or not to fork() by asiufy

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