in reply to Re: Getting Close and Cuddly with the sleep() function
in thread Getting Close and Cuddly with the sleep() function

what does:

if(fork())

do? does this fork the process if it can?

is fork not allowed in some systems? this script is most likely going to be running on *nix, I'm very unknowing about how to make any forked processes. There are no easy to understand tutorial on it :)

would it be better to have the web-based program actually gather the information, then pipe this info to another script that only does the mailing? this seems to be a somewhat the same idea to fork() to a child process to do the dirty work. Then would that script not fall into the timeouts of the cgi program?

>>you should also close STDIN
probably a good idea!

Seems simple to just mail whoever the owner of the list is every time a batch goes out, or when the mailing is done to keep tabs.

I'm stil a bit shaky on how to do this, does anyone else have any good advice? -justin simoni
!skazat!

  • Comment on RE: Re: Getting Close and Cuddly with the sleep() function

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RE: RE: Re: Getting Close and Cuddly with the sleep() function
by cianoz (Friar) on Nov 06, 2000 at 04:51 UTC
    if(fork()) doesn't mean "if fork worked": :)))
    it means if fork return a true value (the pid of the child process) then i'm the parent and i have to print my html else i'm the children (fork return 0) and i have to send the email. see "perldoc -f fork" for more info (and some hints on how andle errors)
    fork is a unix system call (see fork(2)) but recent versions of perl try to implement it on windows too
    for the second question: if you pipe your info to another script you have to wait for the second script to finish (unless you fork before the pipe :-)
[reply]

      I see,

      wait, no, hold on. Where do you actually call the fork() function? Or how do you actually fork something into a child process? Thanks for the info on where to look for the correct documentation :) -justin simoni
      !skazat!

[reply]
        when you call the fork function ("if(fork())" does this) the current process get duplicated and the 2 processes keep running from the point where you called fork.
        now the only way you have to know if you are the parent or the child process is to test the exit status of fork() (here cames if(fork()) )
        fork return 0 to the child and the pid of the child to the parent (!=0 then true) so you put the code for the parent in the if block and the code for the child in the else block...

        please look at "perldoc -f fork" for more info.

[reply]

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